2019 Schedule

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8:15am

REGISTRATION

8:15am - 8:50am

9:00am

WELCOME & OPENING PLENARY: Joining Hands, Virtually and Personally

9:00am - 10:15am


We are excited to announce the YTH Live 2019 opening plenary program on Sunday, May 5, 2019 (9am-10:30am PT). This is a special conference year for YTH and our community, as we have a major announcement to make that will lead to the expansion of YTH’s youth-centered health design work, both in the US and globally. Join the opening plenary to learn about YTH’s merger with ETR, hear AI and digital privacy experts discuss the implications of our information in the digital age and hear spoken word from youth leaders on gun violence and its devastating effect on young people. We will continue to live our value of ensuring youth voices and leadership are at the forefront of this year’s conference, as we have each and every year. YTH Live is a true youth-centered event where young people lead, moderate, and facilitate the sessions. Our conference allows attendees to experience how innovation, technology and new media are creating health impact for and with youth and get a first glance at cutting-edge technologies and research across healthcare, ranging from prevention and management, analytics, and more.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    Youth are the present and future of this world and as they prepare to navigate an increasingly digitized world, how will AI impact and influence our collective humanity?


    Speaker


    Bio

    Erin Portillo is a Senior Program Officer with the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, where she works on youth-, family planning-, and francophone Sub-Saharan Africa- focused social and behavior change programs. She has 10+ years of international development experience on topics including family planning, sexual and reproductive health and HIV education and prevention.






  • Description

    There is a crisis of gun violence in this country and it is disproportionately affecting our youth; most American school children have been alive for at least six of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in American history. Experience the power of spoken word in honoring those impacted by this epidemic and a building youth movement that’s changing the status quo.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Regina brings decades of experience in sexuality-related skills-based instruction for youth and their parents and educators. In the last several years she has focused on supporting youth with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD). She has served as principal investigator on dozens of research and development projects funded by National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institute of Disabilities, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research. Regina is the co-founder and CEO of dfusion, an innovative public health small business that prioritizes developing interventions with vulnerable populations to advance their health and well-being.






  • Description

    ETR, a leading health education organization is joining forces with YTH, a pioneering Oakland-based organization that designs innovative solutions for youth health and wellness through technology and new media. The YTH team, programming, and mission is now a fully integrated part of the ETR family, sharing a strong commitment to advancing health equity. ETR has over 35 years of experience providing science-based products and service to promote sexual and reproductive health, address HIV/AIDS disparities, support legal and illegal drug use education, and promotion of equity and inclusion in STEM fields. YTH has over 17 years of experience and refining technology solutions designed to advance the health of youth and young adults. At this session, these two leaders will lay out their vision for bringing two high impact organizations and teams to scale the impact of health equity innovative programming. Through value and mission alignment, the two organizations have become one in a strategic move to maximize their reach and depth.


    Speakers


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10:15am

Coffee Break, sponsored by Kapor Center

10:15am - 10:45am


YTH Initiative would like to thank Kapor Center for their sponsorship of this coffee break. The Kapor Center (pronounced KAY-por) aims to make the technology ecosystem and entrepreneurship more diverse and inclusive.


10:15am

DIGITAL POSTER SESSION #1

10:15am - 10:45am

4 Subsessions


  • Description

    Data collection on mobile devices can be convenient and appealing to young adults. In addition, the process of data collection may influence thoughts and attitudes, prompting participants to think about certain topics more critically. In this example, we describe two projects with young adults in which we collected data via mobile phone on media use and health behaviors (alcohol and hookups and tanning) and conducted follow up interviews with a subset of survey participants. We found that the process of providing data can serve almost as an intervention, prompting participants to think about the media to which they were exposed and the health implications.


    Speaker


    Bio






  • Description

    In global health, limited available resources necessitate that interventions be thoughtfully tailored to maximize impact. Once we know that an intervention works in the lab, the critical next step is to find out who will simultaneously most benefit from it and be most likely to use it – with as much specificity as possible. The intervention can then be refined to align with the needs and realities of those people. In this presentation, we explore an example of a process using ArcGIS software to identify specific target populations for the innovative field of multipurpose prevention technologies (MPTs) combining contraception and HIV prevention.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Barry is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and an Attending and Teaching physician in the Pediatric Inpatient and Critical Care Division at the Vermont’s Children’s Hospital at the University of Vermont Medical Center. He is also the Director of the Global Health and Humanitarian Opportunity Program at the University of Vermont. He has over 25 years of experience as a Pediatrician in the areas of emergency, critical and acute care medicine, with an additional 30 years of experience as a basic, clinical and translational research scientist. He has participated in a numerous research, medical global health and humanitarian projects, as well as capacity building and disaster relief missions in Uganda, Ethiopia, Peru, Jamaica, Bhutan, South Africa, Ecuador, Philippines, Congo, Cameroon, Togo, Benin, Bangladesh and Burkina Faso.






  • Description

    Emergency contraception. Plan B. Turns out, it can be a lot more complicated for young people to access than you'd think. That's where Easy EC comes in. Easy EC, a free digital tool to help young people, ages 12-21, access emergency contraception. Designed by a sex ed teacher-turned-innovator.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Zoe is currently a sophomore majoring in Neurobiology with a minor in Health care Social Issues at UC San Diego. She is passionate about social justice and advocacy--particularly surrounding mental health. She got involved with #goodforMEdia because so many youth use social media, and it is important that they have strategies and ideas to make sure that it has a positive impact on their mental health.






  • Description

    Give Us The Floor is a safe and supportive online teen community that embraces authenticity, connection, and mutual respect. The primary activity is Supportive Group Chats, groups of up to ten teens that use Snapchat to engage in peer-to-peer support. These teen-only groups include a trained moderator, and are a safe space for teens from all parts of the United States to discuss their everyday challenges and triumphs. Teens discover Supportive Group Chats primarily through Instagram, and the issues they initially identify include body image, self-esteem, loneliness, anxiety, and depression. After participating in Supportive Group Chats for one month, teen participants express high levels of comfort asking the group for support, and they cite the teen-only, adult-free nature of the space as their favorite feature. The ability to connect with teens from all over the U.S. is also a favorite aspect that is enabled by the chosen technology.


    Speakers


    Bio

    Bhushan is a public health professional with ten years experience in RMNCH+A, health systems, HIV-Family Planning, Public Health Nutrition and Obstructive Airways Diseases and Health and Demographic Surveillance. He has done Bachelors in Ayurveda Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) from Maharashtra University of Health Sciences Nashik and Masters of Public Health (MPH) from James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Dhaka. He has worked on various health systems strengthening projects in the states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Punjab in India. His research publications can be found on https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7105-3730.





    Bio

    Rachana is a public health researcher and practitioner with a focus on developing innovative and scalable interventions for common mental health problems in adolescents and adults, and their integration within the public health systems in low resource settings. She has more than 10 years of work experience, including 7 years of experience in conducting and leading research activities in global mental health. She is currently pursuing a PhD from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her PhD is focused on school-based mental health services for adolescents in low-income settings in Delhi.






10:45am

MyMediaLife: Generating Sexual and Mental Health Digital Messaging in an Era of Extreme Conservatism

10:45am - 12:00pm

C


The shift in this country toward more repressive health policies, such as SRAE, the re-branded abstinence-only programming, is thwarting efforts to get young people science-based information and messaging. Some agencies, however, have little choice but to accept such funding. Reproductive injustice, inequality, gun violence, even in this era of extreme conservatism, it’s youth who’ve been at the forefront of the movements to combat dangerous social ills. So why not let youth create their own messaging, with your support and guidance? The principles of Social Marketing, marketing attitudes and behaviors, can enable the creation of materials that contradict disinformation, and inspire the youth who consume them. We’ll show you how to facilitate youth’s creation of effective digital health marketing, while meeting the criteria set out by suppressive funding. Regardless of your funding options, this session will provide participants with a strategy for creating and leveraging teen-produced content.


Speaker


Bio

Kristin is the Curriculum Director at the Center for American Indian Health. She joined the Center in 2007 and works on the Behavioral Health team developing and adapting curricula and training health educators to deliver those programs. She adapted Respecting the Circle of Life to fit the needs of Native communities. Her interests include community-based participatory research, program development, implementation and evaluation, particularly as it relates to adolescent health, and she has worked on various issues including teen pregnancy prevention, HIV/STD prevention, substance abuse, diabetes prevention, nutrition, early childhood development, and youth suicide prevention. She received her MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.





10:45am

Listening Session: Asking Questions and Getting Answers with Vulnerable Youth Communities

10:45am - 12:00pm

D


Social services, government agencies, donors, and public health professionals are often responsible for making decisions about the services and supports to youth and young adults. Often these decisions are made with limited data. In November, YTH and the Annie E. Casey Foundation began a partnership to explore how youth and young adults could engage in the data collection process. This session will present the youth-centered design process that begun with expectant and parenting youth in the foster care system, and seek to hear from other service providers in the room about their experiences with collecting data among vulnerable youth populations. If you are a service provider working with youth or if you are a young person who is often having data collected about you, we want to hear from you!


Speakers


Bio

University of Nairobi Kenya with a Masters degree in social science and with over 15 years experience in social development, gender and youth programming. An astute counselor and trainer on HIV Counseling and Testing





Bio





10:45am

Who’s in first place?! Gaming for good.

10:45am - 12:00pm

A


This session explores how gamification can address the health needs of young people in some very unique and interactive ways. Learn how games can do anything from helping teach young people about the benefits of vaccines to building resilience in youth with chronic or mental illnesses.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    Young people play games for fun. But what if games could do more? Could we play to improve our emotional health? So many teens struggle with chronic illness or disabilities. Medically, they’re treated better than ever, but no one talks about the scary side of illness and helps them heal emotionally. Shadow’s Edge is a free mobile game created to help teens with serious health challenges work through the hard stuff that comes their way. It's a self-help tool in the form of digital therapy and is part of the larger project Digging Deep. This presentation explains how young people helped us create a game and community that works for them, and how it empowered them to build their own narrative. The presentation will reveal the results of our short study and the impact on our players, who learn that their illness doesn’t define them – they do!


    Speaker


    Bio






  • Description

    My presentation will illustrate how youth can be actively involved in creating new medical treatments using mobile technologies. My story will include three specific examples how high school students and undergrads integrate music and video games and mobile apps to create digital therapies for children with cancer, epilepsy, or for people who suffer from depression, anxiety and bipolar. Digital medicine and mobile health open new opportunities for musicians, artists and software coders who are willing to collaborate to create better healthcare.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Valerie has a (maybe) unhealthy love for oat milk and absolutely loves digging deeper into the ‘why’ of anything and everything. Valerie currently utilizes her propensity for ‘whys,’ her business strategy background, and her talent with a keyboard to design joyful experiences for users as part of Grammarly's UX Research team!






  • Description

    They Grow Up So Fast is a casual iPad game for parents of children 0-18 that teaches parents about the benefits of vaccines and empowers players to have better conversations with providers. Learn about the journey of this game from ideation to MVP, including team formation, business plan, product pitching, and the challenges of indie game development. If you've ever thought about entering a hackathon or are curious about incubation programs, this presentation is for you!


    Speaker


    Bio

    Ailea Stites is the Youth Engagement Lead at Ci3 at the Univeristy of Chicago. They began their career as a sexual health educator for a reproductive healthcare system in Kansas. There, they built relationships with new community partners by creating comprehensive, asset-based sexual health education curricula tailored to specific populations, including LGBTQ+ participants and participants with disabilities. At the University of Chicago, they have been involved with medical education and mentorship and youth engagement. Their earned their Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature from Princeton University, where their thesis work focused on how Black narrative fiction can inform and improve public health policy toward a more equitable future.






10:45am

Birds and the Bees using VR and Bots!

10:45am - 12:00pm

B


In this session you’ll hear about key findings from chat boxes used to deliver non judgemental sexual health advice to teens and teenage girls around the world. Attendees will learn why a virtual reality experience was created to build communication in sexual relationships and to increase condom use.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    Teenage girls the world over are faced with the same challenge: who should they turn to for private, reliable advice on sex and relationships? Girl Effect has launched Big Sis, an ‘agony aunt’ style Facebook Messenger chatbot to address this challenge, by providing instant easy to understand information and advice delivered in a non-judgemental, conversational format. During our pilot, Big Sis shared her advice with thousands of girls in countries with both conservative and more liberal stances on sex education, allowing the team to understand more about the true potential and limitations of using a global chatbot for supporting positive health outcomes for teenage girls. Join our session as we discuss what we’ve learned, from the process we followed to design and test Big Sis’ personality and content, to how we addressed safeguarding and privacy challenges, and how we went about measuring impact.


    Speaker


    Bio






  • Description

    Do you want to discover the size of your sexual network? In this presentation Aidsfonds - Soa Aids Nederland shows the VR-EXperience, an educational experience for young Dutch people who are sexually active. Aim is to improve risk perception of sexually transmitted infections and promote condom use. Users are taken into an interactive conversation between them and a virtual partner. Based on the given answers, the size of the sexual network are defined, after which all people of the network start to appear in the room. The VR-experience ends with a website referral showing the number of exes and useful information about sexual health and STI prevention. During the presentation, the developers will share the lessons they learned during the creation of this intervention, winner of two Lovie Awards in 2018 and nominee for the Dutch Interactive Award.


    Speakers


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    Bio






  • Description

    Planned Parenthood is leveraging new technologies to support and expand on in-person sex education. Come meet Roo, our new sexual health chatbot, and learn about its development, design, and experience, and learnings about teens' answer-seeking behavior and capabilities of a bot to address teens' needs.


    Speakers


    Bio

    Cosima Lenz is a Technical Officer supporting adolescent, youth, and child programs at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatrics AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) in Washington D.C. Working on the global Technical Leadership and Program Optimization team, Cosima supports projects to develop training, technical tools and guidance, and coordinates the Committee of African Youth Advisors (CAYA). Her focus technical areas are adolescents, youth, and gender based violence. EGPAF works in 17 countries and provides HIV services at over 5,000 sites across sub-Saharan Africa and India. Prior to EGPAF, Cosima supported youth activities in Guatemala and South Africa, as well as mystery client research with the WHO. She has a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a Masters in Public Health from University of California in Los Angeles.





    Bio

    Joshua is an adolescent champion in Homa Bay Kenya and highly regarded. His leadership and capacity are highlighted by his drive and accomplishments. He has written and has had an oral abstract accepted to the third annual scientific conference on ASRHR in Kenya on the implications of peer champions in advocating and disseminating SRH matters. He has experience speaking at a variety of global fora including Virology Education Adolescent Workshop and the New Horizons Technical Workshop in October 2019. He was also selected to attend the SPARK19 event, aimed to build capacity of young people in Lesotho in September 2019. Due to his drive, leadership, and skill, he was chosen by the EGPAF team to represent Kenya in EGPAF’s global youth engagement mechanism, the Committee of African Youth Advisors (CAYA).






10:45am

Thriving in a Digital World - Listening Session with Facebook for Education

10:45am - 12:00pm


Young people ages 13-17, join team members from Facebook in the Youth Lounge for a listening session and share your thoughts on what resources and support young people need to navigate and thrive in today’s complex digital world. Maximum space for 20 youth.


12:00pm

LUNCH PLENARY: Youth Solutions to Mental Health, sponsored by Facebook for Education

12:00pm - 1:15pm


Today’s adolescents are experiencing mental health challenges at rates higher than previous generations. Half of all mental health problems begin among youth before the age of 14 (HHS), and the young people YTH serve intimately know this to be true. Yet we also know that the best solutions to the problems faced by youth come from youth, so we posed the question to a 77 high school students: How might we use technology to create an innovative solution for improving the mental health of young people? Since January of this year, YTH has partnered with De Anza High School’s Technology Academy to conduct a series of workshops to facilitate a mental health innovation challenge among students. The students were trained on youth-centered health design and conducted intensive design sprints in their communities. The design sprints resulted in the teams developing and building prototypes to address the mental health needs of youth. In April, all participants presented their prototypes to a series of judges, and five teams were selected to come to YTH Live to showcase their prototypes. This plenary will showcase the work of those five teams through a rapid pitch session. Students will be judged again by a group of pre-selected judges, and the winning team will take home $1,000. If you’re passionate about youth-led innovation, youth-centered design, and working in collaboration with young people to address today’s most pressing problems, join us for lunch and watch these great young minds at work!
Since January of this year, YTH has partnered with De Anza High School’s Technology Academy to conduct a series of workshops to facilitate a mental health innovation challenge among students. The students were trained on youth-centered health design and conducted intensive design sprints in their communities. The design sprints resulted in the teams developing and building prototypes to address the mental health needs of youth. In April, all participants presented their prototypes to a series of judges, and five teams were selected to come to YTH Live to showcase their prototypes. This plenary will showcase the work of those five teams through a rapid, “Shark Tank”-esque pitch session. Students will be judged again by a group of pre-selected judges, and the winning team will take home $1,000.
If you’re passionate about youth-led innovation, youth-centered design, and working in collaboration with young people to address today’s most pressing problems, join us for lunch and watch these great young minds at work!


1:15pm

Lights, camera, action: Using the power of videos and social media for sexual health promotion, obesity prevention, and tobacco prevention

1:15pm - 2:30pm

B


This session will inspire you to use social media and video to empower young people and their allies in making well-informed decisions about their health. Learn how organizations and providers are using videos and social media to raise awareness about tobacco-related products, to promote sexual and reproductive health and to implement a virtual family weight management program.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    This session will inspire you to use social media to empower young people in making well-informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health. You will learn how to include social influencers and SRHR professionals effectively in a way that appeals to young people. This session is hosted by Sense.info; the most frequently visited SRHR site for young people aged 12-25 in the Netherlands. In 2017 this site launched 6 videos to help young girls to make informed choices about contraceptives. Until now the series has more than 300.000 views. These vlogs are the first in which Dutch social influencers cooperate with SRHR professionals. These vlogs have proven to be strong communication tools to reach teens with SRHR messages.


    Speakers


    Bio

    Donald is a CSE Digital Consultant for the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa. He designs, develops and supports online Comprehensive Sexuality Education learning experiences including courses, web portals and other educational application.





    Bio






  • Description

    Tobacco is a social justice topic and a silent killer to our nation! Big Tobacco companies target African American males more than anyone else in America. Our video walks with Jayvonne Hines, a Bronx-New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) resident and African American teen sharing interesting facts about the negative influences of tobacco in the Bronx. Jayvonne shares his expertise in what he has learned and how he will not be a replacement smoker, but a finisher!


    Speakers


    Bio

    Ryan Drab is a Research Study Coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing. Ryan is passionate about developing inclusive and accessible public health research practices that help center the needs of impacted communities, as well as identifying effective strategies for translating research and behavioral health theory into practice. Ryan received his MPH from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2017 and his BA in Political Science from Seattle University in 2011.





    Bio





    Bio






  • Description

    JOIN for ME, a whole-family program to fight childhood obesity and ignite change in the health care system to address the obesity epidemic. The program engages kids and teens who struggle with extra weight, along with their parents and other family members, in a series of group sessions to achieve healthier weight outcomes emphasizing the importance of support and a balanced approach to energy. JOIN for ME is focused on innovation working to expand the program to new audiences through virtual delivery to foster greater participation rates beyond an in-person offering. We are presenting our initial results on our virtual delivery pilot, implications of results and next steps for our program.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Alexandra is a Project Associate within the Unit of ICT in Health Education at UNESCO IITE. She has 5 years of experience in coordination of digital sexuality education activities on HIV, SRHR, and violence prevention in EECA. Over the last years Alexandra has been supervising the full-cycle development of digital awareness raising campaigns addressing HIV, access to testing, and rights of people living with HIV. She’s particularly passionate about entertainment communications and within this strand of work supervised the launch of a full-length movie ‘II’ about HIV, LGBTQI+ youth and bullying as well as interactive Kyrgyz series ‘School elections’ about stigma and discrimination of young PLHIV. Alexandra’s portfolio also includes peer-to-peer online resources – websites and social media communities – on HIV and reproductive health in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, where a youth editorial board system has been introduced to ensure adolescents’ meaningful engagement in health promotion.






1:15pm

Digital Tools for Family Planning and Emergency Contraception

1:15pm - 2:30pm

C


From fertility tracking to locating places to buy emergency contraception and digitalized net mapping in Nigeria, learn how young people are using digital tools for family planning. This session will explore how machine learning and Human-Centered Design are being used to create digital family planning tools like the Dot fertility app and TeenRx.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    Want to know your pregnancy chances? Want to know when your next period is likely to come? There are hundreds of apps that claim to give you that information. Unfortunately, very few of them actually do. Come to this session to learn how the Dot fertility tracker can meet the needs of young people globally for accurate, timely information about their fertility. Dot uses science and machine learning to provide users with accurate information based on just their period start dates. It’s also the first fertility app to undergo a full-scale contraceptive efficacy study. Bonus points if you download the Dot app in advance and come with questions.


    Speaker


    Bio






  • Description

    Miss Morning After is a Seattle-based initiative to transform brick-and-mortar pharmacies into spaces where young people feel comfortable accessing emergency contraception without fear of shame, judgment, or rejection. In this session, we will share our design thinking methodology, show initial pilot prototypes, and seek feedback from all of you! So come engaged and ready to reimagine pharmacies.


    Speakers


    Bio

    Jason Gonzalez leads the planning of high-level events, initiatives and campaigns that promote visibility of UNICEF's innovative tech and health portfolio. Jason serves as UNICEF's co-lead for the Imagining Health Futures initiative in partnership with the Governing Health Futures 2030 Commission. For five years, Jason has held professional roles supporting and leading UNICEF partnerships that serve the needs of children. He currently focuses on bridging new markets to meet the vital needs of children and young people, including the development and promotion of open content for health and well-being. Prior to UNICEF, Jason worked for Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and other organizations serving children and families. In a volunteer capacity, Jason serves as Rotary International's Youth Representative to the United Nations. This is his sixth term amplifying the voices of Rotary youth and young professionals to create positive peace.





    Bio

    Louise Holly is a Policy and Research Consultant for the Secretariat of the Governing Health Futures 2030 Commission. Since 2018, Ms Holly has worked as an independent consultant supporting a range of international organisations with policy analysis, report writing, qualitative evaluations and advocacy strategy development on issues such as digital health, newborn and child health, HIV, health system strengthening, and children’s rights. In previous roles with RESULTS, Save the Children and UNICEF, Ms Holly acquired over 15 years’ experience of working with civil society, policymakers and intergovernmental organisations around the world to reduce inequalities in access to healthcare, and to promote children’s and women’s rights. She has a BA Hons in Philosophy from King’s College London and an MSc in History and International Relations from the London School of Economics.





    Bio






  • Description

    We all know that it is important to bring youth into the conversion about health and planning, but there is a lack of evidence that 'proves' that it works nor examples of how to be youth led, particularly in Nigeria. This is particularly important when trying to address the highly sensitive sexual and reproductive health issues in a relatively conservative society. This project will demonstrate how to use 'new' engagement tools and approaches such as net mapping and human centered design, among others, to facilitate a youth led strategic development process to reframe Life Planning for Adolescent and Youth and address their unique issues and challenges with viable solutions.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Linda Chamiec-Case is a Capacity Building Specialist on the Every Teen Counts Initiative. Linda previously worked at Compass Center and UNC-CH Student Wellness in the areas of sexual health education and interpersonal violence prevention and response. She has volunteered with the Guardian ad Litem program of Orange and Chatham Counties for the past five years and has also worked in public health economics research at RTI International. Linda has a Master's of Social Work and a Master's of Science in Public Health from UNC-Chapel Hill.






1:15pm

Technology Empowering a Self-Care Abortion Movement

1:15pm - 2:30pm

A


Given the restrictions on access to abortion and reproductive health services around the world, there is a pressing need for exploration and development of new technologies to expand access to abortion. While technologies such as smartphone applications (apps) have the potential to increase health knowledge and agency, there are a lack of technologies explicitly focused on providing abortion information and personalized care. To develop the best ways to deliver abortion information and care using the technology we have available and to support new models of self-care, user-center approaches are crucial. Come to this session to learn about several approaches that have leveraged technology to increase access to abortion information and care. Best of all, come test out some of these tech interventions and contribute your own ideas and questions!


Speakers


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1:15pm

Virtual Reality As A Stigma Busting Tool

1:15pm - 2:30pm

D


A How-to Guide for mobilizing young people on taboo health issues using VR: Does virtual reality fascinate you? Are you curious about using VR to bring about social change but not sure how to go about it? If you answered yes, then attend our workshop where we will take you through the different steps involved in conceptualizing a VR project for social change — for this, we will be using our VR film, India’s first VR film on abortion, as a case study (yes, you will also have the chance to watch the film!). Love Matters India has successfully used virtual reality as a tool to engage with young people in India on two sensitive and taboo social issues: intimate partner violence (IPV) and abortion. This has entailed using virtual reality to increase awareness and normalize conversation around these stigmatized issues, as well as taking this innovative technology to young people through strategic public distribution, thereby making VR accessible to a diverse audience.


Speaker


Bio

Toni is a public health professional passionate about improving health and health equity in her community. She graduated from University of California, Irvine with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health and Global Cultures. She has worked in disease prevention and community outreach to increase access to resources to help individuals reach optimal health and well-being. She is graduating with her Masters of Public Health in Global Health Epidemiology at the George Washington University, Milken Institute School of Public Health. Prior to attending GW, Toni worked with the Centers for Disease Control doing STD/HIV Prevention in Guam. Toni is interested in the ways social, cultural, economic, and structural factors influence health in communities and addressing the root causes of health inequities, and particularly passionate about adolescent sexual health and women’s holistic wellness.





2:30pm

Coffee Break, sponsored by dfusion

2:30pm - 2:45pm


YTH Initiative would like to thank dfusion for their sponsorship of this coffee break. dfusion builds upon science-based behavior change models and learning theories to facilitate behavior change for health, prevention, and adherence.


2:45pm

Virtual & Reality: Family Planning

2:45pm - 4:00pm

A


In this session you’ll hear about a variety of tools created to promote family planning, contraception for people that produce sperm, and comprehensive sex education. These technological tools include media development, virtual reality, and live streaming events. Come find out about judgement free emergency contraception, improving gender equity, and reducing gender violence.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    Engaging men in family planning improves gender equality, reduces gender violence and reduces unmet need for contraception. How can we better reach men with messaging about contraception and sexual and reproductive health using just the phones in our hands? Come learn from six years of clever media development with World Vasectomy Day (WVD). WVD – the largest male-oriented family planning movement in the world – creates edgy media and hosts a live-stream event connecting with some of the 50+ countries that celebrate the day each year. As part of the event, WVD uses virtual reality, live-stream technology and media equipment. We’ll show two of the most prolific videos made over the last six years, and break down how each help invite men to engage as responsible partners through humor. We’ll also feature virtual reality demonstrations, and discuss ways to use live-streaming and social media to reach your target audiences.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Varuni has a post-graduate in Advertising and Marketing Communications, along with a Master’s in Psychology. She comes with experience in the advertising industry and has been working as a digital and communications marketer in the development sector for over three years. She is also a Women Deliver Young Leader, Class of 2020 and a YOUNGA Youth Delegate 2021. At C3, she looks after digital communication and social media management.






  • Description

    Young Parents United!: Engaging young parents ages 16-21 to develop a holistic, technology program to support and empower each other. This session on YPU! will share how we used design thinking to engage young parents throughout California to imagine the app of their dreams, and then create the content for it. We will share best practices for developing a youth-led app, and provide a sneak preview of the content created by our Young Parent Leadership Team.


    Speakers


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  • Description

    It’s time to move beyond evidence-based interventions! In 2018 the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies developed a gender-transformative sexual health curriculum for youth in New Orleans that is 1) comprehensive, 2) trauma-informed, 3) rooted in a human rights framework, and 4) inclusive of various learning styles. Paired with a film that our organization wrote, directed and edited in consultation with local youth, our Creating a Future Together (CrAFT) curriculum is an innovative example of how to tailor a curriculum to the true needs of local youth while still being evidence-informed. Come to our session to see firsthand how we’ve integrated our film into the curriculum, learn about our trauma-informed approach, and find out how we combined best practices in the field of sexuality education with our knowledge and experience of teaching New Orleans youth for over eight years.


    Speakers


    Bio





    Bio






2:45pm

Once upon a time…Lightning Stories

2:45pm - 4:00pm

B


Storytelling at its best, join this session to be led through stories about young people from all over the world addressing health through digital technologies. Hear the voices of men seeking HIV-testing in Kenya, learn what it is like to empower young girls to engage in mental health among their peers, experience the impact of treating young people as partners in digital health, and hear what it is like to be a young adolescent living with HIV seeking connection and support online. Join storytellers from Girl Effect, FHI360, Connected Health Solutions, and YLabs, in this storytelling experience and engaging discussion.


4 Subsessions


  • Description

    Pecha Kucha style storytelling presentation highlight the voices, fears, hopes, and dreams of young men in Kenya. Findings from the HIV Self-testing design challenge.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Mercy Manoranjini is Lead – Knowledge Management in Centre for Catalyzing Change. Graduated from Christian Medical College Vellore, with a Master's degree in Bio-Statistics. I have more than 20 years of experience working in the field of girls' and women's Health and Nutrition. Started my career as a Bio-statistician in Christian Medical College, Vellore. The presenter has 20 years of experience narrating data-driven stories in the field of Health and Nutrition for Women and Girls. Well-versed with research methodologies and worked for various projects funded by USAID, world bank, BMGF, and DFID. She has published peer-reviewed 15 papers and presented various national and global forums. She has experience developing large-scale interactive knowledge management dashboards. Some of the sample questions are What are the innovations in the project, how did you coordinate with Government and Funding agency, how are you planning to scale up and sustain the project.






  • Description

    Join the team from Girl Effect to hear about a recent collaboration where TEGAs are working to obtain authentic youth voice and perspective, to deepen our understanding of the lives of youth in Adams County, Colorado, and identify the potential barriers to success in education, cradle to career. TEGA (Technology Enabled Girl Ambassadors) is a mobile-based, peer-to-peer research app developed by Girl Effect. It empowers adolescent girls to conduct qualitative research within their communities. TEGAs in Adams County have interviewed more than 500 girls, boys, parents, and community members, all from diverse backgrounds, about life in Adams County. As with all TEGA research, the process is iterative and agile; we’ve adapted the research questions based on TEGA input, and our research findings, exploring emerging themes and answering new questions posed by unexpected findings – mental health, social supports, bullying, and school safety are our most salient themes to date.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Ifunanya is a results-focused public health professional with over 8 years of experience in maternal, adolescent and child health, nutritional awareness and training programs, and public health policy development. Proactive leader with strengths in communication and collaboration. Adept at managing concurrent objectives to promote efficiency and influence positive outcomes. Founder of Educare, a non-profit in Nigeria that focuses on improving educational outcomes in children from the low-socioeconomic background.






  • Description

    Ten years ago, when I first starting working with teens to capitalize on the power and reach of digital media, I learned the hard way that there is a balance between supplying teens with enough support and guidance to give them the skills and information they need, and giving them enough space to take ownership of the process and the digital tools it generates. Without instruction they don't know how to do it well, and tend to repeat the same kinds of patronizing messaging that's been aimed at them their entire lives. But adults aren't great at instructing without taking over. There is a way to strike exactly the right balance, however, and I'll share what I have learned so that others can reproduce this partnership approach in order to realize their agency's goals, and influence teen-producers' behaviors in the process.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Janifer Younus is a Registered Nurse (RN) graduated from JPMC Karachi. She completed Post-RN bachelor’s in science of Nursing from LUMHS, Jamshoro Sindh and pursued a degree in MSc in Public Health from JSMU Karachi. She has rich experience of development sector over 10 years. She started her career in Telehealth venture in 2010. She is experienced in developing and implementing innovative awareness campaign on health-related issues using digital platforms, quality assurance of services according to standard guidelines. In 2014, she joined Jhpiego, worked as part of USAID’s program on maternal and child health lead under MCHIP. She was responsible for strengthening and quality improvement of MNCH centers in 16 districts of Sindh. In 2018, she joined Pathfinder International working as a part of BMGF project Naya Qadam on Post-pregnancy FP in six districts of Sindh and Punjab. She is leading the clinical services component of the project.






  • Description

    How can we empower youth living with HIV to live their best lives? In a world of constant connectivity, where is there a safe space for ALHIV to learn, grow, and become agents for change? What tools do we have at our disposal to improve health outcomes among ALHIV? Youth. Health. Facebook. YouthPower Action's SMART Connections study aims to change the face of support groups to better fit the needs of young people around the world. Learn about "Social media to improve ART retention and treatment outcomes among youth living with HIV in Nigeria," the study that's challenging the status quo of research.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Abdulhammed Babatunde is studying medicine and surgery at the prestigious University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is passionate about development of health and well being (SDG 03) of Africans through innovation, research and volunteerism. He led his team to win the ITEST Designathon 2020 where his team designed a solution to increase HIV Self testing and linkage to health facility  among Nigerian youths. He co-founded an award winnning social enterprise with other students from Harvard and Stanford University to create a digital health to reduced maternal and childhood mortality in Nigeria. He is the founder and director of Healthy Africans Platform, a youth-led organization that seeks to educate Africans about healthy lifestyle and also an alumnus of Clinton Global Initiative University. He has co-authored about eight global health researches in international peer-reviewed journals. Abdulhammed hopes to improve healthcare in Africa through digital technology in a bid to achieve SDG03.






2:45pm

Trauma and Tech

2:45pm - 4:00pm

C


While digital technology, such as social media and mobile apps, are keeping us more connected than ever before, rates of depression and anxiety among youth continue to skyrocket. This session dives into youth-centered and youth-led solutions for mental illness, social inclusion, gun violence, and paths to recovery using storytelling and innovation. Attendees will learn how gun violence is affecting youth in Los Angeles; how one 18 year old Californian's story of bullying has led to a nationally recognized program addressing bullying in schools and social inclusion; and how a 15 year old from Colorado has created a congressionally-endorsed mental health app that provides abuse victims with a personalized path towards recovery.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    Natalie will talk about the severe bullying experience she faced in middle school that inspired her to take action in the form of the mobile app and anti-bullying non-profit, Sit With Us. She will also discuss why it is important to spread kindness at the ground level in schools, and how all it really takes is one person to effect major change in a community.


    Speaker


    Bio

    He completed his undergraduate education at Istanbul Bilgi University in 2021. Having a major in Sociology and a double major in Advertising, Yiğit took the first step into his professional life with tabukamu. Throughout his education life, he worked voluntarily in various institutions in the field of human rights and took part in the animal rights movement. He is a sexual and reproductive health peer educator in Y-PEER Turkey. As a youth activist, he become a YTH Initiative Design Challenge Winner in UNESCO Switched On Symposium 2020






  • Description

    While most of us have never directly experienced abuse or mental illness, the Pew Research Center estimates that as many as 1 in 14 children are at risk of domestic violence. In most cases, the problem isn't that victims don't have the resources to speak up, but instead, that their voice gets drowned out by social and cultural pressures. To challenge this stigma, and to empower victims to overcome their feelings of self-doubt, isolation, and impotence, a group of high school developers decided to launch a microblogging app called Fulcra, which provides a safespace for victims to connect with private pen-pals and recover from their insecurities. 8 months later, after partnering with members of Congress, working with several local advocacy groups, and connecting with venture capitalists, the project's founder will be sharing his experiences with launching the mobile application and becoming a part of the global mental health movement.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Louise Holly is a Policy and Research Consultant for the Secretariat of the Governing Health Futures 2030 Commission. Since 2018, Ms Holly has worked as an independent consultant supporting a range of international organisations with policy analysis, report writing, qualitative evaluations and advocacy strategy development on issues such as digital health, newborn and child health, HIV, health system strengthening, and children’s rights. In previous roles with RESULTS, Save the Children and UNICEF, Ms Holly acquired over 15 years’ experience of working with civil society, policymakers and intergovernmental organisations around the world to reduce inequalities in access to healthcare, and to promote children’s and women’s rights. She has a BA Hons in Philosophy from King’s College London and an MSc in History and International Relations from the London School of Economics.






  • Description

    Gun violence is a public health problem being felt across the nation. In Los Angeles County, gun violence is a leading cause of death for youth. In this project, the Los Angeles USD was able to develop a relationship with the Art Center College of Design to come up with a relevant campaign developed for gun violence and turn it into a toolkit with lessons that use media and interactive activities that develop the critical thinking skills of youth to figure out what they would for themselves and in their community to avoid guns and gun violence. Empowered with new knowledge and calls to action, students found creative ways to address this important public health issue.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Susan Howard, PhD, MPH, is a co-founder of Howard-Delafield International (HDI) and a behavioral scientist, educator, and innovator who teaches, mentors, and creates at the nexus of academia, industry, and entrepreneurship. She combines theories from the behavioral and social sciences with best practices from game-based learning technologies, human-centered design, social marketing, and business innovations to design solutions that address pressing health and environmental issues, both globally and locally. She has pioneered a gamified research tool, The Loop Trail Quest, as part of her academic research at George Mason University where she serves as an assistant professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Currently, Susan is producing and managing several game design and development projects to effect behavior change in global health and the environment and is the Project Director of Game of Choice, Not Chance, a USAID-funded, direct-to-consumer program developing impact games for adolescents in India.






2:45pm

It's About Time! Exploring Youth Opinions Around Expanding the Male Contraceptive Method Mix

2:45pm - 4:00pm

D


When considering a future with more options for male contraception, today's youth are critical for ensuring the successful introduction and uptake of these methods. For this reason, it is important to include the voice of youth throughout the research and development process and to cultivate champions among young men and women who will be the first to benefit from a truly comprehensive contraceptive method mix.


Speakers


Bio

Alex Bedder (He/Him) is the Content Lead on PPFA’s Digital Product Lab, focusing on the content strategy for both the sex ed chat bot, Roo, and the period tracking app, Spot On. Before joining PPFA, he worked across tech and media at companies like Betaworks and Gizmodo Media Group, crafting different voices and narratives. Across his career he has gotten pretty comfortable with a character limit: he used write weather forecasts in 280 characters or less, and now he does the same with sexual and reproductive health. When he’s not working on Roo you can find Alex in the kitchen cooking, catching up on TV (there’s too much of it!) or performing. He is based in Brooklyn, NY.





Bio

Cheyanda Onuoha (she/her) serves as the Associate Director, Learning Engagement & Special Projects on the Education team at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Cheyanda’s work focuses on the provision of subject matter expertise to sex education-related national communications and digital products, development and monitoring of federation-wide digital educational content, and creation of PPFA’s first Youth Advisory Board. She also oversees PPFA’s HIV Prevention Initiative Project aimed at developing intentional health campaigns and improving HIV prevention services for cis and trans women of color. Cheyanda is a proud Black-Nigerian Texas-born womxn who approaches her work through the lens of reproductive justice — always. She has used that passion to strengthen academia's focus on racism as a public health issue; provide guidance on funding patterns for young women and gender expressive youth of color; and consult on television programming geared towards empowering youth in their sexual lives.





Bio





4:00pm

Break

4:00pm - 4:15pm

4:15pm

Love Shouldn't Hurt: Preventing teen dating violence and sextortion around the world

4:15pm - 5:30pm

B


Learn how organizations around the globe (USA, India, Honduras) are using technology and social media to address teen dating violence and sextortion. This session will highlight how technology can empower young people to seek positive healthy relationships and how to distinguish loving behaviors from abusive ones. Additionally, hear from a partnership between Thorn and Facebook about how something as simple as a video about a cat can change young people's knowledge and raise awareness about online sextortion.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    Online campaigns are increasingly being used to mobilize young people on social issues. But how do we know online campaigns actually work? How do we measure the impact of digital interventions? Although we don’t claim to have all the answers, we do have some! In January 2018, RNW Media/Love Matters India launched an innovative three-month online campaign to increase awareness on intimate partner violence (IPV) among young people in India. With the hashtag #IsThisLove and using creative memes, videos, and storytelling, the campaign empowered young people to seek positive, healthy relationships, and to distinguish loving behaviors from abusive ones. To understand the impact of this campaign on young people’s perceptions, we applied a mixed-method research methodology consisting of digital analytics, interactive quizzes and sentiment analysis. In our presentation, we discuss our epic wins and our brilliant failures, and we are excited to share these learnings with you!


    Speakers


    Bio





    Bio






  • Description

    In a 2018 survey of teens and young adults, approximately half of those sextorted were threatened by someone they knew, frequently a current or prior romantic partner. Sextortion is one way in which digital media is intersecting with dating violence. Facebook and Thorn have teamed up to combat sextoriton on social media platforms. We did this by creating a video and web resources that makes young teens aware of the common tactics used in grooming and sextortion, de-stigmatizing the issue by increasing awareness, and promoting open conversations with trusted adults so that they have a stronger safety net to help prevent sextortion and a trusted ally if something feels bad or goes wrong. This session will provide a brief overview of the research into how young people are experiencing sextortion and how a cat video is helping to stop sextortion before it starts.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Lindsay is an international development professional with experience living and working in Asia and Africa. As a Peace Corps volunteer, she taught English at a university in Nanchong, Sichuan Province, in China. She then worked with NGOs in Uganda for four years. She has expertise in program monitoring and evaluation, and is passionate about women’s empowerment and gender equity. She earned her MA in sustainable international development at Brandeis University and a BA in philosophy and human rights at Trinity College. In her free time, Lindsay enjoys yoga, cooking good food, hiking, and cuddling with Kavuyo, her rescue cat from Uganda.






  • Description

    ZonaSegura is a trauma-informed youth-centered innovative mobile solution to address teen dating violence (TDV) in Honduras. Led by YTH in partnership with GOJoven Honduras and GOJoven International, the project aims to prevent TDV through provision of prevention information, healthy relationship education, and geo-location linkage to services and resources. ZonaSegura leverages high rates of mobile phone usage among adolescent girls and boys ages 14-19 in Honduras to assist them in overcoming individual and structural barriers to accessing rights-based and gender-sensitive TDV prevention information and services. The presentation will feature findings from a feasibility and acceptability pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of ZonaSegura in TDV prevention among study participants in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We will share study results and highlight lessons learned and implications for similar interventions that use technology as a platform to educate and empower users for primary prevention of TDV and other forms of gender-based violence.


    Speakers


    Bio





    Bio





    Bio






4:15pm

Village to Virtual: The development and launch of the Nari Paila (Women’s Journey) mobile games

4:15pm - 5:30pm

D


Take part in an interactive session that shares current examples of a start-up intervention with global implications. During the session, participants will learn about the origins of this suite of mobile games, take part in UX testing, and discuss feedback.


Speakers


Bio

Salmata Davies is an adolescent champion and advocate for adolescent sexual and reproductive health issues living in Aberdeen Community, one of the urban informal settlement in Freetown. Salmata has been working closely with Save the Children to support the development and roll out of the ASRH App. She led the establishment of the Aberdeen Youth Club that brings together adolescent and youth to discuss issues affecting them and jointly find solutions. Since it establishment, the club has reached over 300 young girls with information on contraception to address the high rates of teenage pregnancy in Aberdeen. She is the focal lead for all the champions who have been part of the development and roll out process of the ASRH Game App. Her vision is to see girls reach their full potential and become leaders in society for a better Sierra Leone.





Bio

Bridget is a community development worker and media practitioner. Over the years she have developed a thorough knowledge of generally accepted media and developing knowledge in community development practices, good facilitation skills and problem solving. She is currently the Communications Manager for Save the Children's Sierra Leone Country Office and the Project Lead for Mek wi tok bot Mammy en Daddy Bizness, the project within which the ASRHR game app is being implemented





Bio





4:15pm

Does this filter make me look good? Exploring social media success in public health

4:15pm - 5:30pm

C


Everyone’s doing it…but are they doing it well? This breakout will explore how organizations are using social media to empower young people with health promotion information. This session is perfect for you if your organization is looking to ramp up your social media presence.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    In 2018, more than one in three people worldwide are active users of social media. For global health, this means endless possibilities for innovation. In any programmatic setting but especially those with minimal or limited resources, social media gives public health professionals the ability to reach people over virtually any geographic region. This reach translates into opportunity, specifically for knowledge management or behavior change. Now more than ever, the power of social media can and should be harnessed to improve health outcomes worldwide, from programs’ start-up to scale-up to everything in between. What will you achieve for the global good knowing that the power is at your fingertips?


    Speaker


    Bio






  • Description

    Do you ever scroll through your social media feed, wishing and wondering when you’ll attract thousands of followers? The truth is, you don’t need a 6-figure budget or a large staff to make a big impact online. Our team consists of one New York-based and one Oakland-based staff, with an outreach of 20K. Take your organization’s marketing strategy to new heights by learning how to make your process more efficient, rather than increasing capacity (Staff of one? No problem!), work smarter instead of harder, as well as how to work in collaboration when your team is separated by distance. This presentation will feature learnings on how to design a workflow for small teams, best practices for organizational work, attract and deliver fast content for your followers, best practices for remote employees, and engage in the power of growth hacking.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Dr. Patricia (Patty) Mechael is a writer and public health specialist, who combines her passions for youth, technology, science, and the world to inspire children to be the change they wish to see in the world. Her writing draws on her more than 20 years of work in technology and health in more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Patty is the co-editor of mHealth in Practice: Mobile technology for health promotion in the developing world published by Bloomsbury. Patty has penned more than 100 publications on various aspects of public health and technology in scientific and health journals. She holds a PhD in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Master’s in Health Science in International Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.






  • Description

    Heard of youth-centered design but not sure how to take it from concept to concrete deliverables and project planning tools? Are you developing a social media campaign but don’t know what types of content and design teens will like and share? Our presentation will present the latest research on social media health campaigns and present recommendations on how to translate youth insights to actionable next steps by developing and defining audience mindsets, top-level messages, and communication strategies.


    Speakers


    Bio





    Bio






5:30pm

ETR - YTH Initiative RECEPTION

5:30pm - 7:00pm


You are cordially invited to the ETR-YTH Initiative Reception for networking, drinks, food, and great company! Join the reception for the announcement of raffle prizes and see if you are the YTH Live Social Media Contest winner!


8:15am

REGISTRATION & BREAKFAST

8:15am - 8:50am

9:00am

PLENARY

9:00am - 10:15am

2 Subsessions


  • Description

    For decades, the term gender equality has focused on the equal treatment of men and women. Now in the year 2019, all genders are starting to come into focus. Although the trans community is slowly being viewed in a new light in pop culture thanks to small screen breakthroughs, in the tech world trans people are not nearly as visible. There are many powerful stories and models in the transgender community of successful leadership in the tech/social/innovation space. This panel aims to amplify these stories. The moderated panel will apply a transgender-spectrum community lens to technology to have true trans-centered digital solutions and include community voices throughout the tech field. With a focus on personal stories and how to navigate historically exclusionary spaces, the panelists will talk about their experiences and lend insight to working towards an inclusive tech world where our transgender community members are providing leadership and direction to digital solutions that honor the lived experiences of the community.


    Speakers


    Bio





    Bio





    Bio

    Carmen Contreras is the Director of the Mental Health Program for the non-profit organization Socios En Salud (SES) in Peru. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and also studied public health. For over 17 years, Carmen has been dedicated to providing care for vulnerable populations by coordinating diverse research projects and serving on various advisory groups to improve community health and mental health, including the quality of care for tuberculosis (TB) patients. In 2013-2016, she served in the SES Community Advisory Board to develop community-based recommendations to improve TB care. From 2014-2017, Carmen served on the Community Research Advisors Group of the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to increase the value and impact of TB research and interventions in affected communities worldwide. In 2020, she was awarded a LEAD Fellowship via Harvard’s Global Health Institute, recognizing women leaders in global health.





    Bio






  • Description

    This panel will feature youth from around the world who are using technology to drive change in their communities. In this conversation, you’ll meet youth leaders using technology to organize, advocate, and change health behaviors. From gun violence to youth-friendly sexual health care, this panel offers a truly global perspective of issues facing young people around the world and unique ways technology is being used to address them.


    Speakers


    Bio





    Bio

    Ms. Lucky is the Policy and Advocacy Associate at Pathways Policy Institute. Responsible for ensuring PPI work contributes effectively and efficiently towards meaningfully engaging communities while meeting the short, medium, and long-term policies of communities within organizational objectives of providing safe space for advocates and communities to meaningfully influence public health and environmental policies through advocacy, research, training, and capacity strengthening. Lucky’s expertise lies in implementing development projects in various fields such as youth empowerment, budget advocacy, life skills training, MHM training, and mentorship. Her academic background is in social work-Bachelors Degree in Justice and Peace from The Catholic University of Eastern Africa and a Diploma in Conflict and Peace resolution Studies from African Nazarene University. Her goal is to empower, and capacity build young people through advocacy. She constantly aims to championing the rights of the youth, women, and PWDs to ensure equitable access to opportunities and resources.





    Bio





    Bio





    Bio






10:15am

Coffee Break, sponsored by Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs 

10:15am - 10:45am


YTH Initiative would like to thank the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs for their sponsorship of this coffee break. The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs believes in the power of communication to save lives, by empowering people to adopt healthy behaviors for themselves, their families and their communities.


10:15am

DIGITAL POSTER SESSION #2

10:15am - 10:45am

3 Subsessions


  • Description

    Instagram! HIV testing! Youth! Oh my! Do these things interest you? #keepingitLite is an online, limited-interaction study about the sexual health of a contemporary 13-34 year old gender and sexually diverse cohort in the U.S. Midwest. Our study uses a multimedia campaign to survey and promote HIV testing (at-home or in person) among adolescents and young adults who may still be developing their gender and sexual orientation identities. Our study explores alternative methods to identify undiagnosed and new HIV infections among gender and sexually diverse youth.


    Speakers


    Bio





    Bio





    Bio






  • Description

    Mr. Query, a fictional, comic character asks naïve, yet vital questions related to adolescent reproductive health. He is relatable, in part because he was co-designed by Bangladeshi youth. Using radio, community outreach, and social media, Mr. Query’s questions provides a mechanism for young people and adolescents to access answers to their ARH questions.


    Speaker


    Bio






  • Description

    Initially strategized as a teen pregnancy prevention program for Baltimore City, U Choose has evolved into a youth-driven program that recognizes teen pregnancy is about much more than birth control. The program successfully developed a youth advisory board and, by adopting an equity lens, made sure they were not just tokens, but actually drove the content development and gave them the tools to maintain it and to teach it to their peers. And this worked--U Choose has been responsible for a nearly 50% decrease in teen births in Baltimore City. This digital poster shows how the program achieved this model and the many lessons learned along the way.


    Speaker


    Bio

    In 2017, Antwan Matthews was awarded the Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship, where he spoke in front of President Bill Clinton during the World AIDS Day event at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco. He is also a SHARP Scholar, Youth Champion Fellow, and presented his research conducted with colleagues for AIDS 2020/COVID 19 Conference. Matthews currently works as a LINCS Navigator at San Francisco Department of Public Health. He has also worked as an HIV Navigator and Phlebotomist at GLIDE’s Harm Reduction navigation services. Antwan Matthews has done extensive research related to public health, science, immunology, microbiology, bioinformatics, population health, STI testing, and qualitative/quantitative research skills approaches. Antwan has also developed a curriculum that can address sexual and reproductive health that is granted by San Francisco Department of Public Health to develop Code Tenderloin's Empowering Black Youth Program.






10:45am

Offline to Offline: Impact Measurement

10:45am - 12:00pm

D


Whether your organization is one month or 100 years old, the common denominator all nonprofits share is a high return on the investment of democratizing data. But a data democracy doesn’t mean “data all the things.” There are a daunting number of frameworks and data sources to define how your organization impacts the world. Impact matters to the volunteers, donors, and foundations that invest time and money into your cause, and to the staff that pours their energy into making the organization’s (digital) presence run. This workshop presentation will share the journey other nonprofits like PowerPoetry.org, CrisisTextLine.org, have taken to reach outsized impact for their size by using data. Workshop participants will learn strategies to measure their organization’s impact, and be invited to share their wins with democratizing data internally as well as posing challenges in their organization.


Speaker


Bio

Sarah Diamond (pronouns: she/her/hers) is Lead Prevention & Community Engagement Specialist at Center for Community Solutions, a dual agency that provides intervention and prevention services to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in San Diego. Sarah holds a Master of Education in Human Sexuality from Widener University and a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in LGBIT Studies from the University of California Riverside. She has been teaching since 2014, working with LGBTQIA+ communities and adolescents, ranging from high school to college-age youth, as well as youth who are or were formerly incarcerated. Her work focuses on the intersections of comprehensive sex education and sexual violence prevention, utilizing an anti-oppression, trauma-informed, and public health framework.





10:45am

Race and health: Collaboration and Community Engagement

10:45am - 12:00pm

C


Presenters in this session have successfully used community engagement and collaboration practices in underrepresented communities, specifically for Black men and transwomen. Check out this session to learn how organizations all over the country are tackling these challenging societal issues.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    This presentation will involve an analysis of controlled safe sex and what this means for mobile app development for African American fathers and sons. A semi structure interview was used for data collection and the Generative Fathering Theory guided the project. The premise of this theory was that fathers are responsible for meeting their children’s needs through a variety of father-work, which are cultivated amidst challenges. Data were analyzed using an iterative process for analysis. Findings provided father-son controlled safe sex attributes and antecedents relevant to mobile app development. With a mobile app, fathers can begin to empower their sons to make controlled safe sex decisions.


    Speaker


    Bio






  • Description

    Why aren’t young black men who have sex with women (MSW) included in positive sexual health messaging that is appropriate and sensitive to their perspectives, environments, and culture? The Check It project addresses this deficiency by employing young people of color to develop messaging strategies and content and also by collaborating with the population of focus for its educational website. We will demonstrate the ways we analyze the intersections of sexual health and behaviors, race, technology, social media /pop culture imagery, and product marketing to young black MSW to direct our positive sexual health educational messages.


    Speaker


    Bio






  • Description

    Due to societal oppression in the forms of homophobia, transphobia, and racism, young ethnic minority sexual minority men and transgender women experience disproportionate rates of homelessness, joblessness, and victimization. The purpose of this study is to join with sexual minority and transgender members of the Ball and Drag Communities in a mid-size city in the Southern United States to identify strengths and needs of their communities. This study used photovoice methodology to collect images from participants (n = 8) via Facebook related to one theme per week, "Daily Life," "Strengths," and "Needs," for three weeks. Each week, participants presented their pictures and discussed with each other and the research team the ideas represented. Participants discussed health concerns such as substance use and HIV. Several themes emerged in qualitative analysis including Basic Needs, Resilience, and Community. This community-research partnership has resulted in the creation of a trans-identified people of color community group.


    Speaker


    Bio






10:45am

Reply YES to engage with your patients

10:45am - 12:00pm

B


This session explores the feasibility of messaging to connect young people to their health educators, case managers, and even health career mentors. Attendees will learn how providers are using messaging (SMS and Facebook Messenger, etc.) for appointment and medication reminders, and to map sexual health concerns of their patients.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    Interested in SMS-based health career mentorship? Join us. Our team partnered to design an interactive text messaging platform for American Indian and Alaska Native youth interested in becoming a health professional. Our session will explore: 1) the process used to create a text message sequence designed to inspire and engage AI/AN youth across a broad range of grade levels (middle, high school, college, medical/graduate school) and career paths; 2) strategies used to recruit participants; 3) technologies used to support multi-agency collaboration; and 4) tools used to deliver text messages to 200+ AI/AN students enrolled in the service. Few AI/AN youth have the opportunity to have an AI/AN clinician growing up. This text-mentoring program provides an opportunity to bridge this gap, in ways that align to the unique values and needs of AI/AN youth.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Chris Wilson is a South Los Angeles native who has spent more than 15 years working in sexual and public health. He currently serves as the Director, Digital Learning on the Peer Health Exchange Programs and Strategic Learning team and leads the content development for Peer Health Exchange’s digital programming which aims to reach young people outside of the classroom. He has spent more than a decade serving, educating, and advocating for Queer, BIPOC, and HIV positive youth around the country through varies roles. Chris graduated from Wiley College with a B.A in Sociology, and transferred from Southern New Hampshire University, to earn his Master of Public Health from UCLA






  • Description

    E-volution, a new mobile health programming intervention, helps youth with HIV engage in their care and treatment, connect with their case manager and thrive. The intervention includes medication and appointment reminders, mood checks, housing/utility needs assessments. Challenges trigger alerts to case managers who then engage in live text messaging with participants. Research results demonstrate an increase in appointments kept, improved viral load suppression and reports from youth of greater connectedness to the case manager. This program offers structure for all participants — clients, case managers and providers — to create an easy-to-manage network of efficient, effective personal support via human contact and connection.


    Speakers


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    Bio






  • Description

    Planned Parenthood’s Chat/Text program connects health educators to young people ages 15-24 across the United States to answer their sexual health questions via text or instant message. With eight years and over a million conversations, it has exciting data on digital users concerns over time and by state. Do young people want to know more about abortion or STIs? Do young people in states with more regulations around sexual health have more questions about it? Do young people’s sexual health questions change over time? Did sexual health concerns change pre and post a certain 2016 election? Learn all this and more!


    Speaker


    Bio

    Jamie Johnston, PhD is the Research and Evaluation lead for SCHE and a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford School of Medicine. Her work focuses on the use of technology to improve educational access, instructional quality, and health outcomes in under-resourced areas. Jamie completed her PhD in Economics of Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where she was an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) doctoral fellow. She is an affiliate with the Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis and Innovations for Poverty Action and holds an MPP from the University of Chicago and an MA in Economics from Stanford University.






10:45am

The Power of Mentorship in Whole Person Health: A 360º View

10:45am - 12:00pm

A


21% of new HIV diagnoses in the US are among people ages 13-24, the majority being young, Black and/or Hispanic/Latino, gay and bisexual men. YLWHA face compounded challenges including homophobia, racism, poverty, isolation and HIV stigma. These barriers can impact their health literacy and self-esteem resulting in high rates of homelessness, poor mental health and an increased use of drugs and alcohol. Mentorship is proven to dismantle these challenges, build community among YLWHA and their allies, help young people find their own voices an needs when championing their health and ultimately help YLWHA live long-term healthy lives. In this session, attendees will hear real-world stories from YLWHA and their allies about specific challenges for YLWHA, what helps young people become champions of their own health and finally, the power of mentorship.


Speakers


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12:00pm

LUNCH ON YOUR OWN

12:00pm - 1:15pm

1:15pm

Tele – Tell – That

1:15pm - 2:30pm

A


Telehealth, teletherapy, and teleconnections are all being used to access youth that are often difficult to reach. This session addresses how providers are using technology to reduce barriers to access mental health care, substance use treatment, and HIV care for their patients


2 Subsessions


  • Description

    Integrated HIV and Behavioral Health Counseling for Young Adults Living with HIV Young adults living with HIV face unique challenges in engaging in HIV care and managing mental health and substance use challenges. There are few evidence-based counseling interventions that address these challenges in a youth-friendly manner. The UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies has developed and is piloting a new 12-session telehealth and text messaging-based counseling series to address these issues and provide support to 18-29 year-olds living with HIV in the East, North, and South Bay Areas. The goal of the counseling series is to improve HIV clinical outcomes, as well as mental health and substance use outcomes through the use of accessible technology-based counseling platforms. This session provides information on the specific HIV care, mental health, and substance-use related needs of youth living with HIV, as well as a description of the counseling intervention and study design.


    Speakers


    Bio





    Bio






  • Description

    Most of the research about digital health has focused on adults, and most of the national dialogue around young people and technology has been about health risks rather than health promotion. We will present the results of a survey commissioned by Hopelab and the Wellbeing Trust to address the extent of social media use among teens, how use patterns vary by mental well-being (depression, anxiety, stress), and focus on the interdependent relationship between social media use and loneliness. The survey includes both quantitative and qualitative data from a representative sample of 1337 teens and young adults age 14 to 22. The presentation will share key findings related to social media, and share implications for how the research, health care, policy-makers, and social media communities can best support the health of today’s teens.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Sheridan Riolo is responsible for engaging youth, teens, and adults in One Love’s work throughout the Bay Area and greater California regions. She works with schools and community-based organizations to cultivate leaders and maximize One Love’s educational reach through our train-the-trainer model. Before coming to One Love, Sheridan worked as a preventionist at a San Luis Obispo-based domestic violence services agency and implemented primary prevention programming throughout SLO County. She is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University and holds a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies, as well as a California teaching credential. To learn more about how to bring One Love to your community, please email Sheridan at [email protected].






1:15pm

Getting Mental Health Therapy to Those Who Need it Most

1:15pm - 2:30pm

A


An estimated 55 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural areas with limited access to mental health care. Many people including teenagers and young adults are often unable to travel to regular appointments. Continuity of care also becomes a major issue for students who live part-time on campus and part-time at home. LARKR is the only mental health app with therapy sessions available for youth under 18. The video-based platform connects users across the country to licensed therapists in real-time. Due to lack of accessibility, many individuals experience long wait times just to get an initial consultation. But issues such as anxiety or substance abuse don’t wait for the next available appointment. This session will address the variety of roadblocks that get in the way of effective mental health treatment, and will take a look at the options for addressing and overcoming these issues.


Speaker


Bio

Anurati is a learning experience and game designer, creative technologist, and new media artist. She has over 5 years of experience working in the education sector with UN agencies, non-profits, and government bodies reimagining the future of learning using technology and human-centered design. Currently, she works in the Games for Learning team at UNESCO MGIEP, creating innovative online curricula, and visual narratives around digital games that promote social-emotional learning. Formerly, she was the Product Manager at Katha, where she led the product development of the storytelling and games mobile app KathaKhazana. She is passionate about using the power of play, creative storytelling, and emerging technologies to enable a generation of curious and empathetic learners.





1:15pm

Having “the talk”: Engaging parents in conversations about sexual health

1:15pm - 2:30pm

B


Parents are important gatekeepers, facilitators, and influencers of their children’s health and attitudes. This breakout will discuss global and domestic programs that engage and equip parents with the tools to talk to their children about sex, healthy relationships, fatherhood, and sexually transmitted infections.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    Learn about how justice-involved youth informed and shaped Healthy U, a self-guided, evidence-informed, 4-hour Teen Pregnancy Prevention APP for male youth ages 14-19. The program is being implemented across the state of Oregon with justice-involved youth and studied in clinical trial.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Chris Zivalich






  • Description

    Learn the special issues teens with high functioning autism or cognitive impairment face related to learning about relationships, sex and protection – and why this is a significant disparity issue. With parents as their primary sex educators, learn what specific skills parents need in order to meet the special needs and developmental needs of their teens. Experience the unique streaming video approach to teaching and modeling Microskills for parent pre/teen communication skills. Learn the results of the original pilot research that supports the promise of this technology.


    Speakers


    Bio

    Dr. Laura Medialdea is researcher in the Nutrition & Health area of the Department of Technical Engineering of Action Against Hunger Foundation (ACH) and a collaborator of the EPINUT Research Group of the Complutense University of Madrid. Since 2015, she has directed as Principal Investigator the Research Project "Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) Photo Diagnosis App", whose objective is to develop a mobile application that allows to identify acute malnutrition in girls and boys between 6 and 59 months of age from an image of their left arm. She graduated in Biology at the Autonomous University of Madrid, completed an Official Master's Degree in Biomedicine at the University of Alicante and obtained her PhD at the Autonomous University of Madrid getting specialized in the application of Geometric Morphometric techniques in the field of Human Biology.





    Bio





    Bio






  • Description

    To better engage and prepare parents for discussing SRH related subjects with their adolescents; we are building on our Dokter GenZ online youth platform to include digital and offline content specifically for parents. The content parallels what is going on the DokterGenZ site, but with a focus on how parents can discuss these topics with their children. Adolescents in Indonesia aren’t exposed to comprehensive and accurate sexual and reproductive health information (SRH) in school; peers aren’t a trusted source of SRH information, and their parents often avoid discussing SRH. Adolescents turn to the Internet because of its accessibility and discreteness. The online platform Dokter GenZ provides unmarried youth with correct information, and linkages to SRH services through engaging multimedia content. The parents content is part of another well established online platform, SKATA. So adolescents still have their own site.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Tshegofatso Senne is a Black, queer feminist who does the most. Much of her work is rooted in pleasure, community, healing and dreaming. In consolidated form, she is a writer, facilitator, digital content creator and creative strategist. She writes and speaks on issues concerning feminism, sexual and reproductive health and pleasure, consent, rape culture, race, intersectional social justice and pop culture. She runs her own business, Thembekile Stationery, and her community platform, Hedone brings people together to explore and understand the power of pleasure in every part of our lives. She works with young people across the country, hosting workshops focusing on pleasure, consent and rape culture as well as kink and BDSM. Her TEDx talk ‘Reimagining BDSM’ takes a look at the tenderness and love that reveals itself in a lifestyle often only seen through an extreme lens.






1:15pm

Nothing for us without us: Inclusive digital sexual health information created by young people for young people

1:15pm - 2:30pm

C


Content for youth should be created by youth. In this session, learn how San Ysidro Health, Sacramento Peers on Prevention, and Bits and Bods are addressing youth health needs by including young people and peers in the creation of digital content and social media marketing from the very beginning.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    STI rates are at an all-time high for the fourth consecutive year, and half of the 20 million new STIs annually are associated to 15-24 year olds. With the “Change Starts With Us” campaign, Sacramento Peers on Prevention (SacPOP) Peer Educators amplify their influence by identifying youth barriers to SRH knowledge, services, and resources for Sacramento’s African American, Latinx, LGBTQ+, and other vulnerable youth. The integration of young people’s highly valued voices, health behavior theories, and evidence-based practices fuel widespread awareness and galvanize action to prevent HIV transmission, improve HIV testing rates, and advocate for sexual education policy change.


    Speakers


    Bio

    Violeta is a game designer, researcher, community organizer and Sexuality Educator. Violeta has a passion for working with underserved populations including foster youth, incarcerated populations, adolescent parents and Latinx communities. She is excited to share her expertise to teach the next generation through the Peer Health Education Program, where she began her work with Planned Parenthood. Violeta is a board member of the Northern California Association for Take Back the Night, an organization whose mission is to resist and end sexual, gender-based, and all forms of violence through community-led action. She holds a Master’s in Sexuality Studies and her MA thesis centered youth voices to create a porn literacy curriculum which aims to help youth critically analyze the messages in sexually explicit internet material. Violeta is leading the design of ¡Con Confianza! (With Trust and Confidence) the first-ever gamified mobile sex ed platform developed with and for Spanish-speaking students.





    Bio

    Mariah is a Health Educator and Digital Learning Creator with PPMM. She values creating safe and engaging learning environments for all folks to thrive, contribute and feel empowered. She accomplishes this by teaching through a trauma-informed lens and being intentional about the content she creates and shares with others. Mariah is joined by her colleagues on the Digital Learning team to center community and youth needs, invest in accessible design and inclusivity. Outside of work she shares sexual health info with young adults on her sex ed Instagram account, takes long walks and cares for her many house plants.






  • Description

    Bits and Bods (BB) is a web series that talks with teens about sex, bodies and all the awkward bits in between. Sex ed at school is pretty useless, so a bunch of young women in Australia are creating the content that we wished we had to empower teen girls and gender diverse teens aged 13-19 to make more informed, fun and safe decisions about sex and bodies. Using original content from the web series, this presentation will support attendees to reflect on our process of developing and implementing this online sex ed content and how it intersects with mental health. It will also provide practical suggestions on how orgs can better support diverse young people in the development and implementation of youth-focused digital storytelling projects. So cum along: it’ll be like listening to your cool older cousin talk about sex, mental health and tech, but less awkward.


    Speaker


    Bio

    Vanessa Mejia is a widely respected leader in public health. She is an experienced educator and behavioral health scientist specializing in youth, maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health, evidence-based programming, and organizational management/ development. With over a decade of experience working in sexual health, Vanessa has worked in a range of settings including universities, public schools, non-profit/community-based organizations, and city agencies. She provides training, education, and evaluation assistance in maternal and child health, and sexual health including teen pregnancy and HIV prevention. Vanessa is a columnist for the Sexual Health Magazine and associate at Long Island University where she teaches graduate courses in Social and Behavioral Sciences/ Public Health Theories, Epidemiology, Human Sexuality, Health and communication strategies, and program planning for public health professionals. Ms. Mejia holds MPhil and MPH degrees from Long Island University, is a certified lactation consultant, and is working towards her doctoral degree.






  • Description

    San Ysidro Health (SYH) Teen Clinic provides free and confidential reproductive health services to youth ages 12-24. Located near the border between Mexico and California, SYH Teen Clinic patients are mostly a high needs, low income population. The goal of SYH Teen Clinic is to provide holistic services whenever possible.. All staff are trained in mental health first aid and trauma informed care. Teen Clinic utilizes several innovative programs to increase access and awareness to our services, such as the Peer Health Advocate program, establishing partnerships with local schools and stakeholders, and providing health education in the classrooms. Teen Clinic staff have established a strong social media presence in the community and haves become a strong resource for teens seeking advice and services for their reproductive health needs.


    Speakers


    Bio

    Norhan is a physician by training graduated from Cairo University with extensive experience in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) for more than ten years. She is currently working as a Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (PMEL) Specialist at Love Matters Arabic. As a researcher, she is interested in studying such topics as Female Genital Cutting (FGC), Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), puberty and sexuality, and unmet need for family planning. Norhan has been selected as a Young Leader in Women Deliver Young Leaders program in 2015 and in 2017 as a winner of 120 under 40 organized by The Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for her efforts in the reproductive health field.





    Bio

    Walaa Ismail is a medical doctor, public health practitioner, and Epidemiologist. She has been working in the field of SRHR and HIV/AIDS for more than 7 years. She was responsible for managing one of the main harm reduction centers in Egypt for 3 years where she supervised the delivery of SRHR and harm reduction services for more than 4000 from the Key populations. She received an Erasmus plus scholarship to obtain her dual master’s degree in public health and Epidemiology. She has been working during COVID-19 on the reprogramming of SRH delivery for PLHIV especially those for women and introducing innovation for service delivery in collaboration with UNAIDS Egypt and the National AIDS Program. Walaa has been working in the field of SRHR through digital technology for 7 years till now, she joined LMA team where she is working as a discussion board moderator, counsellor, and a writer.






1:15pm

Building a Better Internet for Young Women: How Cryptography Can Encourage Female Expression and Honest Discussions of Sexuality Online

1:15pm - 2:30pm

D


When we encourage sexual expression, we begin to paint a more complete picture of sex and love. Come to this session to learn The possibility of a healthy, safe Internet for women* Blockchain Solutions for Health & Social Impact The process of building a blockchain app for sex education and mental health Basics of blockchain coding & app design Self expression exercise (collage art)


Speaker


Bio





2:30pm

Break

2:30pm - 2:45pm

2:45pm

Say goodbye to banana and condom demonstrations! Examining health education beyond the classroom.

2:45pm - 4:00pm

B


Technology has opened up a whole new world of innovative ways to provide sexual education to young people. Join this session to learn how Engenderhealth is using photovoice to reach young parents, James Madison University is using self paced online interactive sexual education platforms, and UCSF is using mobile to engage youth living with HIV.


3 Subsessions


  • Description

    Engenderhealth's team of peer educators and program coordinators will take session participants through a visual and conversational journey of the impact of community resource access and how these combined factors influence the overall health of a young person and young parents by showcasing the Re:MIX team's photovoice project. Photovoice is a participatory action research project that combines writing and photography to capture the elements of a person's experience with the goal of better understanding their environment, and factors that influence their access to necessary health resources. This interactive session will break down the results of Engenderhealth's photovoice project, through the lens of young parents.


    Speakers


    Bio

    Kory Barras is a Master's student in Development Studies at the University Institute. She specializes in Environment and Global Health and is currently working as a Project Assistant at the Governing Health Futures 2030 Commission. She is also part of different organizations that aim to strengthen the role of youth in current discussions on gender, environment, global health. She is the Event Coordinator for LANI (Latin American Network Initiative), was the organizer of an official event at the Geneva Peace Week 2020 and her main topics of interest are development and planetary health.





    Bio

    Louise Holly is a Policy and Research Consultant for the Secretariat of the Governing Health Futures 2030 Commission. Since 2018, Ms Holly has worked as an independent consultant supporting a range of international organisations with policy analysis, report writing, qualitative evaluations and advocacy strategy development on issues such as digital health, newborn and child health, HIV, health system strengthening, and children’s rights. In previous roles with RESULTS, Save the Children and UNICEF, Ms Holly acquired over 15 years’ experience of working with civil society, policymakers and intergovernmental organisations around the world to reduce inequalities in access to healthcare, and to promote children’s and women’s rights. She has a BA Hons in Philosophy from King’s College London and an MSc in History and International Relations from the London School of Economics.






  • Description

    Do you see youths’ identities represented in sexual and reproductive health classes? What is the value in learning from and seeing a character that looks like you or shares some of your identities or your students? In this workshop participants will look at the avatars created for the program “Vision of You”. We will go through the steps we took for creating bios, narratives, and individual goals for each avatar and how they were incorporated into curriculum games and videos. We will also discuss realistic barriers to the avatars’ goals that youth might experience. Participants will conceptualize their own avatars with multiple identities that they feel represent youth in their own community. They will write bios, goals and possible scenarios (barriers) for the avatars they have imagined.


    Speakers


    Bio

    Jahnavi Sharma is a young and dynamic Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights professional in India. Leading a project on Comprehensive Sexuality Education at Love Matters India/ Development Consortium and works as a Project Manager with the organization. Has seven years of experience in the development sector and development communication field. A recent Rise Up Youth Champions Initiative (YCI) fellow and one of the youngest leader selected for the Aritra Leadership Accelerator Programme by Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Phicus Social Solutions and Dr. Reddy’s Foundation. She is working towards normalizing conversations regarding sex for adolescents and young people. She engages with young peer educators in building their capacities to help them grow as youth champions on-ground in Bihar, India. She is passionate about advancing reproductive justice discourse on gender and sexuality issues pertaining to young people, including the right of all people to have access to safe abortion.





    Bio

    Vithika Yadav is an anti-slavery, sexual rights, and gender rights activist; and a social entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience. In 2016 she received the honor of being one of the Top 120 under 40 New Generation of Family Planning leaders in the world, an initiative by Bill & Melinda Gates Institution for Population and Reproductive Health. She has also been featured in the award-winning documentary #FemalePleasure. She is also the Chair of 'The Global Advisory Board on Sexual Health and Well-being'. Vithika is the Co-founder of Love Matters India, which is the first-ever and most popular Digital initiative in India to give complete, honest, and non-judgmental information on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights to young people in India in both Hindi and English language. She is also the Founder of TeenBook - India's first comprehensive life skills resource hub for adolescents, teenagers, parents, and educators.






  • Description

    WYZ is a mobile health application developed to improve engagement in HIV care and antiretroviral medication adherence. WYZ has three main features: My Health helps users track and remember to take their medications, refill their medications, and keep track of their laboratory results; My Team simplifies communication between medical care team members and users and provides users with a list of local resources; and My Community enables users to chat with other YLWH building a community. Data from a pilot randomized control trial will be used to refine and update WYZ for a subsequent randomized trial that will assess efficacy among a larger cohort.


    Speakers


    Bio





    Bio






2:45pm

Mindful Media: Engaging journalists, producers and social media partners in safe, responsible media portrayals and the consequences of misrepresentation

2:45pm - 4:00pm

D


In this session, youth affiliated with the Media and Mental Initiative from Stanford Psychiatry’s Center for Youth Mental Health & Wellbeing will describe the impact of various forms of media on youth mental health, including news reporting, entertainment media and social media. They will discuss adverse impacts such as suicide contagion and self objectification; and will highlight several projects they’ve undertaken to minimize its harmful effects and enhance its potential for stigma reduction and fostering connection and help-seeking.


Speakers


Bio





Bio





Bio





2:45pm

Swipe left? Dating apps and sexual health

2:45pm - 4:00pm

C


Everyone’s on a dating app, so why not use them to improve sexual behaviors and practices? This session will cover the complexities involved in using a dating app including experiences of rejection, discrimination of sexual partners. Attendees will also learn ways to use dating apps for sexual health promotion.


2 Subsessions


  • Description

    How are dating apps able to help improve the sexual health outcomes of their users? Learn about how partnering with these apps is enabling new opportunities to improve access to information and services for app users. Ever felt rejected on app? We will share a project that gives users a chance to share their stories and gain ideas for how to handle rejection, rude comments, and discrimination on the apps.


    Speakers


    Bio

    Johanna Kougbeadjo holds a Masters degree in Political Theory and is passionate about social justice and feminism. Over a year ago, she joined Hesperian Health Guides where she, among other things, leads the outreach activities around the Family Planning and Safe Apportion apps in Francophone countries.





    Bio






  • Description

    Dating apps are an important environment for sexual health promotion. Especially for young men who have sex with men (MSM). Almost all young MSM have ever used dating apps. To kill time, or to meet sex partners. Our quantitative online survey into online dating, sexual behavior and health of young MSM in the Netherlands affirms the importance of online dating and shows the sexual health disparities that young MSM nowadays face. The research highlights the need to address sexual violence, negative experiences, transactional sex and psychosocial needs among young MSM who date online. In this presentation, problems will not merely be raised. The findings also provide evidence for contemporary solutions that are tailored to the sexual lives and health needs of young MSM.


    Speaker


    Bio

    John Van Arnam has a 22-year advocacy protecting children from exposure to online pornography. His team teaches parents and children how to have the pornography prevention conversation as a family, with care tact and humor. He has assisted the largest search engines in the world to manage their adult indexes. John has worked for The State of North Carolina as a School Safety Program Trainer under the Department of Public Instruction. He is a member of the Prevention Task Force of Buncombe county. He is a Stakeholder on the NC State Human Trafficking Commission. He has spoken at seminars for The North Carolina Center for Safer Schools (NCCSS). John is the Co-Chair of The Male Engagement Committee for the NCPTA and a member of their Board of Directors. John is the Founder of The Third Talk™ Inc. a 501(c)3. John has a degree in Psychology from Syracuse University.






4:00pm

Coffee Break, sponsored by the National Coalition of STD Directors

4:00pm - 4:15pm


YTH Initiative would like to thank the National Coalition of STD Directors for their sponsorship of this coffee break. NCSD is a national public health membership organization representing health department STD directors, their support staff, and community-based partners across 50 states, seven large cities, and eight US territories.


4:15pm

CLOSING PLENARY: Local-Global Youth-centered Innovative Philanthropy

4:15pm - 5:30pm


Your mother may have told you not to ask about money, but we know that funds are the fuel behind our innovation. In this panel, you’ll hear from some of the leading funders in youth-centered innovation, design, and programming. This panel gives funders the chance to showcase their strategies for trailblazing programming from foundations, development agencies, and corporate philanthropy. We’ll ask them about their strategies, what they’re excited about, and give you the chance to ask some of your most burning philanthropy questions. This plenary will feature three separate conversations: one with foundations and development organizations, one with corporate funding teams, and one with all funders together. This dynamic conversation with some of philanthropy’s heaviest hitters will close out YTH Live 2019 and set the state for youth-centered programming in 2020 and beyond.


Speakers


Bio





Bio





Bio

Hi! I am Sharan. Currently, I am a PhD student at Massey University in New Zealand. I am originally from Fiji and my area of interest is Sexual and Reproductive health education among young people.





Bio

Dr. Masoud is an Associate Professor with the College of Medicine Nursing and Health Science at the Fiji National University





Bio





Bio

Vince Tiu is a 2nd year medical student from the University of the Philippines-Manila College of Medicine. He is the incumbent Socio-Civic and Public Health Committee Regional Deputy Coordinator for National Capital Region-South Luzon in the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges - Student Network. He recently co-headed the inaugural M.D.igital 2021 which was an International Telehealth Convention to discuss the Role of Medical Students in the Global Digital Health Strategy 2020-2025 presented by the APMC-SN and co-presented by the Asia eHealth Information Network.He also co-headed Tanikala 2020: A Telehealth Conference with the theme: Social Medical Doctors to Revolutionize the Healthcare Landscape. Outside of APMC-SN, Vince has been active in his fraternity by organizing service projects geared towards mental health and combating the COVID-19 pandemic such as the Frontliners Cup: A Mobile Legend Bang Bang Tournament, Usapang Isipan Mental Health Webinar,& Kabataang Usapang Isipan Research Competition





Bio

Keziah Agripo is a 3rd year medical student from the University of the Philippines-Manila College of Medicine. She is the incumbent Socio-Civic and Public Health Committee Regional Coordinator for National Capital Region-South Luzon in the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges - Student Network. A former Vice-Chairperson for Externals in the UPCM Regionalization Students Organization. She recently co-headed the inaugural M.D.igital 2021 which was an International Telehealth Convention to discuss the Role of Medical Students in the Global Digital Health Strategy 2020-2025 presented by the Association of Philippines Medical Colleges – Student Network and co-presented by the Asia eHealth Information Network. She also co-headed Tanikala 2020: A Telehealth Conference with theme: Social Medical Doctors to Revolutionize the Healthcare Landscape. Her interests include community organizing projects such as the "For The Nation Through The Regions": Covid-19 Donation Drive 2020:, Kasangga 2020: A Community Empowerment Project, and Philippine Conference for Community Health.





Bio

Marcelo Nonato Nacionales is a 2nd medical student from the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center College of Medicine. He is the incumbent National Socio-civic and Public Health Chairperson in the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges - Student Network. He recently co-headed the inaugural M.D.igital 2021 which was an International Telehealth Convention to discuss the Role of Medical Students in the Global Digital Health Strategy 2020-2025 presented by the Association of Philippines Medical Colleges – Student Network and co-presented by the Asia eHealth Information Network. Other projects he headed are The Semicolon Project: A Suicide First-Aid Training. He is an advocate of mental health, and reducing inequalities through inclusive healthcare.





Bio

I am a medical doctor who believes that improving the health of children, adolescents and young people has enormous effects in the wellbeing and development of communities. I am the co-founder and CEO of Escalando Salud y Bienestar, a technology-based startup aiming to transform every school into a health-promoting school, with the potential to positively impact the health of millions of adolescents and youth, worldwide.





Bio





ZonaSegura ZonaSegura is a trauma-informed youth-centered innovative mobile solution to address teen dating violence in Honduras. Learn more about ZonaSegura on our program page.