July 13th marked the first meeting of the new operating year for IWES’ community Institutional Review Board (IRB), an ethics committee that protects the privacy, rights, and wellbeing of people participating in research studies. Read on to learn more about our unique, community-based IRB and how it contribute to the shaping and framing of IWES’ work.
Read MoreIn partnership with Priority Health Care (PHC), IWES was selected as one of 12 sites across the country to participate in a national study funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Through our local initiative, Black Women First - Care and Treatment Services (CATS) NOLA, we seek to understand how using several strategies at the same time to change clinic culture and increase patient support and access to services will impact the health and wellbeing of cis- and transgender Black women living with HIV. Read on to learn more about our work to support Black women living with HIV.
Read MoreThis year our Maternal and Child Health (MCH) team has been diligently working to bring research, collaboration and policy together to improve Louisiana’s maternal and infant health outcomes. As a result of our efforts and those of our partners, ten out of the thirteen bills and resolutions the group either recommended or supported passed during the legislative session! This quarter also included Black Maternal Mental Health Week (July 19-25), where we took the opportunity to shed more light on maternal mental health and our advocacy efforts. Learn more about our legislative wins and our reflections on Black Maternal Mental Health Week here.
Read MoreIn today’s climate, so much is done for young people without involving young people. When talking about the needs of youth, rarely do we as adults truly listen to their experiences and opinions directly from them. This issue led to the initial inspiration for “Lift Every Voice,” a roundtable discussion for teens, hosted by teens, and supported by IWES health educators. Through funding from Teen Health Mississippi, four members of IWES’ Youth Leadership Council used this platform to speak openly and honestly about the pressing problems facing young people in 2020. Excerpts from this profound conversation are being released in a new limited series, This Meeting Is A Protest! Check out the article to learn more.
Read MoreIn our last quarter’s blogs, you learned a bit about our Catapult Study, IWES’ local implementation of the Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS) conducted in partnership with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Another major component of this endeavor is a National Youth Advisory Board (NYAB), which we’re excited to introduce you to today! Take a moment to get to know some of our interns in their own words below!
Read MoreAs a sub-study of IWES’ greater Catapult Study, our local implementation of the Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS) conducted in partnership with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and collaborating research teams around the world, the IWES Research and Evaluation division engaged adolescents ages 11-16 in a special series of conversations about their experiences amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Four focus group discussions were held with middle and high school students to better understand the specific challenges brought on by the pandemic as well as the implications for their emotional well-being and academic success. To find out what they learned in this process, check out the blog here.
Read MoreIn this special Mardi Gras feature, four members of our staff share what they love the most, what they miss the most, and what they plan to do this (distanced) Mardi Gras season.
Read MoreEach year on August 29 we remember and reflect upon Hurricane Katrina as we are reminded of the ongoing struggle to heal as individuals and a community. In this blog post we explore what we’ve learned and where we need to grow 15 years following the historic and tragic event. Join us in honoring the legacy of those that were lost, but will never be forgotten.
Read MoreAllow us to introduce you to The MORE Project, an initiative designed to: prevent HIV transmission, increase trauma-informed HIV screening and improve access to services for people living with HIV; reduce violence against women and support women to reduce harm from intimate partner violence (IPV); and promote social norms that protect against IPV by engaging men in workshops and curricula examining traditional gender norms. Find out why we went with “MORE” and how you can get involved here.
Read MoreWe’re happy to announce that on Tuesday, June 30th, IWES was named as one of 49 organizations across 26 states that received a grant award under the Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs’ Optimally Changing the Map for Teen Pregnancy Prevention (Tier 1) initiative. Building upon 10 years of providing adolescent health education and as a three-time awardee of grant funding under the federal teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) initiative, IWES is setting out to implement a scaled-up, re-imagined version of its trauma-informed Believe in Youth - Louisiana (BY-LA) program—BY-LA 2.0. Learn more here.
Read MoreThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused IWES programs to discover new strategies to deliver our services and programming for an indefinite time. Therefore we have made changes in all of our departments in order to heed local, state, and national guidelines and still deliver quality programming. Read on to get an update on each program and how we are doing the work. This page will be updated periodically as the situation develops.
Read MoreOur Collective for Healthy Communities (CHC) program is excited to continue providing direct services to members of the New Orleans community. Over the past few years, CHC has partnered with various groups in New Orleans to facilitate group and individual mental health services. One of our current partners is Hotel Hope, “a nonprofit, interfaith organization that provides housing to women and their children while guiding them to self-sufficiency and self-empowerment through intensive case management in a safe and loving atmosphere.” Find out more about the partnership in this article.
Read MoreFor the newest iteration of our powerful In That Number campaign, we are focusing on the education, criminal justice, and healthcare/hospital sector and how they can be trauma-informed. For our call-to-action, we believe a crucial first step is to have trauma-informed training for mental health professionals. Read on to learn more about our current campaign and what you can do.
Read MoreIn the summer of 2019, IWES staff created a short film entitled i’m still me for Visual AIDS’ 2019 Day With(out) Art series, Still Beginning. i’m still me profiles the experiences and activism of Sian Green, an African American woman living with HIV that is a member of IWES’ HIV Testing & Prevention program’s Community Advisory Board as well as a Peer Advocate. Read on to learn more about i’m still me.
Read MoreOn August 9th, 2018 it was resolved that New Orleans would seek to become a more compassionate and trauma-informed city. The New Orleans Children and Youth Planning Board (CYPB) was tasked with creating a year-long Task Force that would examine the issues surrounding Childhood Trauma and provide the City with recommendations to address them. On October 17th, 2019, CYPB Executive Director Karen Evans, Dr. Sanders and Dr. Shervington made a brief presentation to the City Council before handing over the 200+ page report. Find out more in this blog.
Read MoreOur latest narrative short film And What Happened After That? premiered at this year's 30th Annual New Orleans Film Festival in the Louisiana Shorts: Right Place, Wrong Time block. A question that we received multiple times was, “Well, what happened after that, and when can we watch it again?” Don’t worry, we’re always devising ways to bring you more high quality, realistic, and culturally resonant films, with health-focused information sprinkled in between the entertaining parts!
Read MoreNew Orleans, as well as many cities in the United States, has been in the spotlight for the current upward trend of maternal mortality and morbidity rates. To address this alarming trend, Merck has invested in cities so that a woman doesn't have to die while giving life through a $500 million global initiative entitled Merck for Mothers. New Orleans is one of the nine cities selected to carry out Merck’s investment in Safer Childbirth Cities over a three-year period. IWES, along with our partner organizations the Birthmark Doula Collective and the National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC), will be working together to successfully implement this new initiative and expand our current work. To learn more about the partnership and how we will achieve our goals, check out our blog.
Read MoreWe are excited to announce that IWES was selected to administer two new HIV focused grants. The first grant is from the Office of Women’s Health, which recognizes the intersections between intimate partner violence (IPV) and increased risk for HIV infection. They also recognize the need for comprehensive, patient-centric, and trauma-informed care for affected women to prevent negative health outcomes associated with IPV, particularly HIV infection.
Read MoreOn July 11, 2019 Dr. Denese Shervington, President and CEO of IWES, gave testimony to the United States Congress Committee on Oversight and Reform. Dr. Shervington was invited to give expert testimony by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) in the first Congressional committee meeting ever held to address trauma as a public health crisis. The theme, Identifying, Preventing, and Treating Childhood Trauma, brought together trauma survivors, notable scholars, medical experts, and community leaders to identify meaningful steps that elected officials can take to address the growing impact of trauma in United States. This historic conversation was an acknowledgment of a national crisis that demands governmental intervention and response. Read more about how our work has helped to inform this historic conversation.
Read MoreSchool is in session, along with our Believe In Youth - Louisiana (BY-LA) program! As the doors to schools all across the state begin to open, our health educators will also return to schools and community centers bringing critical health information to Louisiana teens. Over the summer our team was busy preparing for the upcoming year by onboarding new health educators, expanding our network of sites and getting ready to make sure we can provide another stellar year of BY-LA. Read about our summer and why we are excited about this upcoming school year.
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