MobPrESH

MobPreSH (Mobilising for PrEP and sexual health) was a pilot project lead by PrEPster in partnership with Brigstowe (Bristol) and Yorkshire MESMAC (Yorkshire). The pilot ran in 2019 and was funded through Public Health England's Innovation Fund and through PrEPster's core grant from Elton John Aids Foundation.

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MobPrESH commenced in January 2019 and recruited, trained and supported volunteer PrEP support peer community mobilisers in Bristol, London and Yorkshire. Each group of mobilisers were provided with resources to develop PrEP and sexual health interventions in their own communities.

Those interventions included videos, web pages and blogs; articles, fanzines, presentations, and workshops; outreach, group-work, art projects and designing educational material.

MobPrESH has a specific remit to target women. PrEPster believes that everyone who needs PrEP should be able to access it. But currently - despite international evidence showing that PrEP works for women - few women in Europe are accessing PrEP, and many women do not know about it.

As such, as a peer mobiliser project - MobPrESH was open to all self-identifying women, including trans women and non-binary people (assigned female at birth).

The pilot especially welcomed involvement from women in communities affected by HIV, trans women, Black and other women of colour, speakers of languages other than English, and migrants.

A process evaluation of MobPrESH was undertaken. The full report is available HERE. In addition PrEPster's independent learning and recommendations from the pilot can be viewed below.

The findings of the report, and the learning from the pilot, are being used to develop future work around PrEP and sexual health for women.

 

Case Studies

Developing a PrEP fanzine

London mobilisers joined artists from Blackflyzine to design a fanzine specifically about PrEP and sexual health. Whilst the final output was important as a source of information about PrEP and sexual health, the process of developing the zine that was as important.

Mobilisers got to reflect on their own sexual health, sexuality and sex education and to write, draw and collage for the zine. Interactive workshops provided a structured space for mobilisers to discuss and build content. The workshops, whilst essentially designed to develop content, provided an opportunity to discuss and learn more about PrEP and sexual health.

A thousand of the zines were printed and distributed by post on request, at events and sent to clinics and organisations. A downloadable version was made available from the MoBPrESH web page.

DOWNLOAD OUR ZINE HERE!

Banner making

Mobilisers joined a youth project for queer and people of trans identity during a banner making session. Mobilisers joined for an evening of pizza, sewing, and discussion.

This event demonstrated how informal events, with PrEP discussion woven (pun intended) into a pre-planned activity, can ensure that a range of participants get to discuss PrEP.

Organising a specific event about PrEP and sexual health will appeal to some individuals, whilst others will opt out. But adding PrEP into a mix of discussion around a make-and-do activity reaches individuals who might not show up for a presentation or workshop on PrEP.

In addition, this format allows for the discussion to be guided by participants, with individuals being able to talk about their own experiences and needs.

A PrEP video for deaf & hearing impaired people

There’s a dearth of sexual health information available for deaf and hearing impaired people – and nothing that we’re aware of about PrEP. Until now.

One mobiliser from Yorkshire MESMAC’s MobPrESHers decided to take her learning from the training and develop her own You Tube video about PrEP. The video has been viewed and shared hundreds of times, and other HIV related videos have been developed.

Whilst this video wasn’t a planned intervention as part of the project, it demonstrates how mobilisers were able to take their learning from MobPrESH and run with ideas that inspired them.

Pop up discussions in the park

Mobilisers in Bristol undertook a range of summer activities including stalls in parks and outreach at carnival. Information stalls offer a great opportunity to reach people as they pass by when they attend outdoors events.

Outreach volunteers can engage with people as they walk by the stall, and this allows for opportunistic conversations about PrEP, including with people who might not have considered it as an option.

The drawback of stalls-based outreach is that some people won’t want to approach a stall that is visibly about HIV prevention and sexual health. One mobiliser overcame this hurdle  by joining small groups of people in the park – in effect taking the information from the stalls over to people and starting pop-up conversations.

This approach needs a level of confidence and cheekiness: you have to be ready to be rejected or asked to move away. But it can ensure that conversations reach people who won’t come to the stall.

There’s a further benefit of this approach: it allows for conversations across a group, and those conversations (when well facilitated) to offer each other support in exchanging information. They can also sign-post people over to the stall where individual conversations can continue.

Felting the flaps at Fringe

Fringe film festival is an annual LGBT film and arts festival held in east London. During the 2019 festival PrEPster co-hosted 12 health related event at the festival’s community space. The dozen events – titled The Love Hub – consisted of panel discussions, interactive workshops, and film events.

MobPrESH mobilisers facilitated an arts-based workshop focusing on sexual health. Using fabric and materials, participants were invited to construct genitals and to discuss the importance of sexual health.

HIV and STI testing was available, in a confidential space, during the events, and event participants were provided with written information about PrEP. Mobilisers were available to discuss PrEP and sexual health during and after the events, as well as in the Hub’s social cafe space.