Our Media & Communications team has kicked off the pre-production phase of a new short film and accompanying intervention aiming to prevent unwanted pregnancies and reduce the rates of STI transmission for youth involved in the justice system in the Greater New Orleans area. Through funding from the Policy & Research Group (PRG) and guidance from Sentient Research, over the last few months we've been conducting formative research to think through the topics, characters, motivations and themes that would best fit this Entertainment Education film. Read the full blog post to learn more about the process so far, how we're centering the voices of youth and adults involved with the juvenile justice system, and what to look out for in the future!

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Last month, the Puentes Para Invitados (PPI) team returned to New Mexico and Texas to continue to meet with community organizations and leaders united in serving migrant communities in the Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Deming, and El Paso areas. During this trip, our main focus was to continue interviewing and hearing from folks on all sides of the migration process to further our work on narrative change. Read to learn more about what we heard and discovered on our last visit to New Mexico, and learn about our upcoming FREE virtual event to explore opportunities to promote healing for providers and the migrant communities they serve.

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Does the built environment of neighborhoods impact the health and well-being of residents? Is there a relationship between the quality of a neighborhood’s built environment and the frequency of community violence? These are the overarching questions that the Healthy Neighborhoods Project (HNP) aims to answer with research-backed evidence. The HNP began in 2019 with the belief that all neighborhoods in New Orleans should be vibrant and healthy places to call home, and is investigating the impact that the physical environment has on resident and community well-being. Learn more about how we’re studying the impact that the physical environment has on residents’ mental health here in New Orleans.

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Since its inception, Media and Communications have played a pivotal role at IWES: like utilizing photography to bring programs, interventions and resources to life; devising social media strategies to share resources, knowledge and opportunities to the masses; and even creating these newsletters every quarter to keep you updated on what we’re doing and how you can get involved! At times, our Media & COMMS department has the opportunity to leave the every day work of general communications and focus in on specific programs, campaigns and initiatives. This year, one of the projects that we’re excited to share with you is the Mosaic Lab, an initiative of the MORE Project designed to elevate young men’s voices on the topics of gender, masculinity, and healthy relationships. Read on to learn more about this creative and unique campaign and how you can stay engaged with the work.

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The Maternal and Child Health (MCH) team is gearing up for the 2022 Louisiana Legislative Sessions! The impacts of local, state and federal policies are often broader and longer-lasting than we sometimes realize, so we’re excited to utilize our expertise in community-based research and our passion for community wellness to educate legislators and advocate for policies that provide better outcomes for our community—especially moms! As the organizational co-lead for the Louisiana Perinatal Mental Health Task Force, IWES hosted three task force meetings and several individual meetings to create a report that we will be releasing later this month with the goal of urging legislators to prioritize the mental health needs of birthing folk in Louisiana. Continue reading to learn about the amazing work our MCH team has been doing to create better legislation for mothers & birthing people and their families in Louisiana.

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As I look back at 2021, it’s hard to see past the continually compounding impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unexpected devastation caused by Hurricane Ida. But despite all of the hardship, loss and grief that these two tragedies have forced us to endure, I also see a glimmer of hope and light as I reflect upon the resilience, passion, compassion and strength I witnessed from so many folks at IWES and beyond – so much so that we were able to find pockets of joy and stability on what felt like very turbulent skies and unstable ground. In this piece, I take a brief moment to reflect upon what we as an organization have learned this past year. Take a moment to read them, and reach out—comment or let us know what has meaning for you.

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Our local Health Resources & Service Administration (HRSA)/Black Women First Initiative - Improving Care and Treatment Coordination for Black women living with HIV (BWLWH) - has had a busy year! Find out what they’ve been up to all year here.

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Reflecting on this past year, the Research & Evaluation (R&E) team both rang in and ended 2021 navigating our ongoing Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS) virtually. Find out more about the progress of this exciting initiative and everything else we’ve worked on in 2021 here.

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The constant changes in COVID-19 restrictions over the last year have created many barriers in our return to providing HIV and STI testing throughout New Orleans. Despite these challenges, through ingenuity, lots of hard work and the help of our spectacular community partners, we were able to safely carry out numerous testing events and provide much needed resources to our community. Find out how we pivoted this year and accomplished our goals here.

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Against the odds and seemingly endless uncertainty, 2021 has been a year of resilience and expansion for IWES’ Collective for Healthy Communities (CHC). CHC houses the portfolio that provides programming to enhance mental and physical health and emotional resiliency. With a year notorious for so much hardship, loss and grief, our CHC team was even more vital than ever on local, regional and even national levels. Find out more about how CHC showed up for the emotional and behavioral needs of our communities here.

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Our Adolescent Health portfolio has seen its share of flexibility during 2021! We’ve had to establish and maintain relationships with schools, community organizations and students, all in the midst of adjusting to COVID-19 protocols and the devastating impacts of Hurricane Ida, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. To see how we made these adjustments and not only met, yet exceeded our expectations, follow this link!

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This year our Chief Impact Officer, Dr. Lisa Richardson, and our Sr. Program Manager for Maternal and Child Health (MCH), Meshawn Tarver, got the opportunity to interview many of our MCH partners about our various projects. While speaking about the best way to connect patients to other providers for vital services., one of our clinical providers said, “It’s the New Orleans way.” Simply put, it really just means picking up a phone to call or text. We chose this quote to reflect our journey this past year, because at the end of the day, this is how we had to accomplish our MCH work during 2021. Find out what “the New Orleans way” meant to us this year, and after reading our reflection, let us know what it means to you!

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Welcome to one of our newest research projects, where we’re studying out of hospital births to better understand the the needs of birthing people and out-of-hospital birthing experiences. Read more about this research and who can participate here.

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In July, IWES formed the Puentes Para Invitados (PPI) project to support the creation of a refugee and asylee ecosystem in New Mexico that builds on local assets and expands the infrastructure for Trauma-Responsive services to migrants and their families. Our new partners for this project, Colores United, hosted members of our leadership, Communications, and CHC teams during a trip to southern New Mexico in October to get a deeper understanding of the work being done to support migrants at the US-Mexico border. Click the button below to learn more about this trip to New Mexico and our new project, Puentes Para Invitados.

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Find out what’s new with our HIV/STI initiatives (testing, prevention, training, etc.) here.

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While there is a growing focus on mental health impacts among adolescents, we have little information about these impacts or how we can intervene, and there is even less data on a global scale. This quarter, through our partnership with the Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS), we conducted research with youth in New Orleans to discuss their mental health and emotional well being. The data will contribute to UNICEF’s 2021 State of the World’s Children (SOWC) report. To learn the key themes and see direct quotes from youth that participated in the conversations, follow the link below.

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We recently received funding from the Packard Foundation to deepen and build upon past and existing efforts to create an environment favorable to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and continue to expand the number of youth in Louisiana who have access to medically accurate, age and developmentally appropriate, gender-transformative, and trauma-responsive sexuality education and resources that promote reproductive justice. To achieve that, we’re creating a Louisiana Youth for Health Justice Council. Read on for qualifications and how to apply.

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