COMMS 2022 Reflection
It’s been a busy year for the COMMS team! Our team division supports all of the other divisions/programs at IWES and our partners. We are excited to share some highlights with you, including our amazing film and media work, a social marketing campaign to promote healthy behavior change, and what has been happening on our social media!
Film & Media for Change
This year we got the opportunity to jump back into filming narrative pieces for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Throughout most of the year, we were in pre-production for two education entertainment short films revolving around the stressors, relationships, and struggles of young Black men in New Orleans. Filming took place this September, and we were grateful to have a fantastic cast and crew to bring these stories to life.
We are extremely excited to have finally premiered our newest narrative feature Evergreen this year! Following up where Woke left off, Evergreen revolves around Brandon, a New Orleans college student struggling with his mental health, trying to piece his life together and find the support he needs to get back on top. As with most of our films, we got to premiere Evergreen at our favorite film festival, the New Orleans Film Festival, and we are even more honored to announce that the film won the Audience Award Winner for the Louisiana Narrative Features category!
Throughout the year, we have been sharing updates on our Puentes Para Invitados work to support the creation of an asylee ecosystem in New Mexico and our trips to New Mexico, West Texas, and Mexico. A key component of that work is a focus on narrative change so that the conversation about migrants and asylees reflects a deeper understanding of how the trauma of migration impacts individuals and systems. To achieve this goal, we’ve begun weaving together a tapestry of film, audio, and photography documenting folks’ lived experiences, dreams, and healing on all aspects of the conversation around migration. In 2023, we’re looking forward to continuing this work and sharing it with the world!
PrEP is for Me, Too Social Marketing Campaign
Another aspect of our Communications work is getting to work on campaigns either internally or with partners. This year we’ve continued our work with LSU Health Sciences Center and Duke University for the Start the Conversation PrEP initiative, which aims to integrate PrEP care into gynecological settings where women receive routine medical care but are not typically offered PrEP. Our role for the initiative is to lead the social media portion of the projectand increase Black women’s awareness that PrEP is an option for them. We leveraged existing formative research and conducted four rounds of focus groups with Black women ages 18 and older to create community-approved messages, logos, and graphics that will form the creative suite of the social marketing campaign, PrEP is for Me, Too.
PrEP is for Me, Too addresses the gender disparities and access to PrEP since its inception. For a decade, marketing and advertising materials focused more on the awareness of PrEP amongst men and overlooked the fact that the fastest rising new cases of HIV in America are among Black women. This social marketing campaign aims to change the perception of PrEP as a healthcare option just for men so that folks know that PrEP is a healthcare option for everyone! PrEP is for Me, Too is anticipated to launch in the spring of 2024.
Our Social Media Highlights
There were a few changes to our social media this past year! As we shared in our October Newsletter, we shuttered our PAUSE channels – although, not our content around HIV/STI prevention and care, which can still be found on IWES Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We also consolidated our channels so we can focus on more on the content we create for each. Our engage was strong throughout the year, thanks to our incredible IWES followers. See some our the impressive stats from this past year —