As a partnership between Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre and Gendering Adolescent AIDS Prevention (New College, University of Toronto), Empower was a youth-led HIV prevention, sexual health, and harm reduction program that used the arts to train diverse youth (aged 16-29) to develop and deliver community-specific educational workshops in their own communities.

Empower worked with a variety of intersecting youth communities including street-involved youth, 2SLGTBQ youth, youth of colour, youth who use drugs, Indigenous youth, and youth labeled with intellectual disabilities. By working with youth from different communities, Empower sought to create a space where youth could learn and share from each others’ realities, while simultaneously strengthening youth participation within the HIV sector.

Empower was in operation from 2010-2016.

For more about the program, download this bulletin here.

Let’s talk about it…

HIV – the transmission equation

erotic poetry as outreach

let’s talk about sex

let’s doodle

harm reduction

Play together, dance together, get tested together

sexy cupcake workshop