YAMI-U is on in D.C.

Cable Positive's first Youth AIDS Media Institute University (YAMIU) is underway in Washington D.C. -- which also has the highest AIDS case rate in the country.

Just in case you haven't heard, YAMIU is teaching 17 youth to use the media they are on everyday to engage their peers about HIV/AIDS.

And, thanks to another generous gift from Motorola, all 17 of these young people are using the brand new Krave ZN4 mobile phone, to help them fine tune their awareness message -- not to mention, text, tweet, video, and take pictures of how they're getting the job done.

We can't tell you exactly what the theme of the campaign these young activists are producing, except that it is brilliant!

Check out what they've done so far on YAMIU's Facebook fan page, Twitter, and right here on this blog.

The power of media to educate, it is in YAMI U’s hands…

YAMI University is a week and a half away. With seven business days to go, we at Cable Positive are feverishly crossing our t’s and dotting our i's as we prepare for what we hope will be an amazing educational and personal experience. With 17 youth participating, varying in ages from 16-23, from all different parts of the Northeast, and all different walks of life, this will going to be an interesting 8 days, to say the least!

The youth coming to YAMI U (generously funded through a Motorola Foundation grant) have varying degrees of experience with media; Metro TeenAIDS youth come with some text messaging knowledge, APICHA (Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS) youth come with strong HIV/AIDS presentation skills, while TeenAIDS Peer Corp and T.I.P.P (Teen Impact Prevention Program) both have youth with experience in script writing and PSA/webcast development and implementation. This talented group of youth, through their participation in YAMI U, will expand their knowledge and skills in order to develop an HIV/AIDS prevention multi-media campaign that is truly for youth, by youth. This week’s YAMI U participating organization highlight will focus on T.I.P.P, located in Jamaica, New York.

Funded by Cable Positive’s Tony Cox Community Fund grant in 2006, T.I.P.P. produced the Public education campaign, “Why?” By focusing on youth exclaiming, Why? before stating an HIV/AIDS youth fact, T.I.P.P. allowed the youth to take ownership of statistics and funnel that focus to educate an urban demographic of youth. Their PSA won the “What’s Your Angle? Teens Take on HIV/AIDS” competition (co-sponsored by Cable Positive and NetAID), which allowed them to reshoot Why? with Kismet Films, in a studio setting, allowing the focus to become broadly based to encompass youth at large.

The original Why? public education campaign was aired on Time Warner in addition to being viewed on YouTube and MySpace. T.I.P.P received an interesting mix of feedback due to the airing of their PSA; T.I.P.P. received an influx of new volunteers (who eventually became peer educators), many community based organizations asked for copies of Why? to use as a discussion point for their youth groups, and were awarded a grant to participate in a city council pilot peer education program. I know, what a great community reaction to a public education campaign, right???

T.I.P.P. utilized different media outlets to gain different audiences in order to spread a vital call to action. Don’t you want to see what these young people will accomplish while they are participants in YAMI U, I know that I cannot wait to see!! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, stay tuned to this blog, and comment on photos and video as you become a virtual participant of YAMI U; we are excited to have you join us a virtual YAMI U participant!!

Blogging, and webcasting, and twittering, OH MY!!!

I know I speak for all of Cable Positive when I say, YAMI UNIVERSITY is upon us!!! Now, you may ask what YAMI University is?? Youth AIDS Media Institute (YAMI) University is an opportunity through which we will educate and empower 17 youth to become HIV/AIDS media advocates and have them blog, vlog, and tweet in their everyday language. With youth from Massachusetts, New York, and Washington DC, we are excited to provide an intensive eight day training where the final project will be a multi-platform HIV/AIDS social advocacy campaign consisting of a three minute video which will serve as the foundation for print, web, mobile, and video elements of the campaign. For this inaugural YAMI U, we have invited youth from 4 ASO’s that Cable Positive has worked with in the past. The first of these organizations to be highlighted is TeenAIDS PeerCorp, located in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

We are thrilled to have their youth be a part of our training; as they have written and directed two public service campaigns, “Pool Party” and “Dance Party”, funded through our Tony Cox Community Fund grant. “Pool Party” which was aired nationally on Comcast, CableONE, Cox, and Suddenlink, was carried on YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook and aired from Kinshasa, Congo, as part of their 2008 World AIDS Day webcast. “Dance Party” was also translated into Spanish and made available to Spanish cable outlets (Galavision picked it up) and websites. Additionally, “Dance Party” was made available to schools for education and discussion. Seriously, these youth have been super busy!!

By disseminating their public education campaign using traditional and new media sources, TeenAIDS PeerCorp utilized different media outlets to gain different audiences in order to spread a vital call to action. Have you heard the call?

There is no better time than now to experience just how these new forms of media work to keep you informed with up to the minute details on YAMI University. Follow us on Twitter, stay tuned to this blog, and comment on photos and video as you become a virtual participant of YAMI U. Whether you are an ASO, CBO, or cable firm, YAMI University’s finished product will provide you tools in how to use new media to reach your communities and engage them to become active partners in education and empowerment. Please join us on our journey….