The New Warriors

Nearly two dozen young people convene in Chicago for C2EA's 2nd annual Youth Action Institute

TEAM EFFORT: It's the YAI Class of 2006

Under bright Chicago skies, nearly two dozen people ages 16-24 came together from all over the country June 28 to July 2 to take part in the Campaign to End AIDS' second annual Youth Action Institute (YAI), where aspiring activists learn key history lessons and organizing skills from seasoned veterans. But this year, there was a special twist—participants, who had been selected from dozens of applicants, now must return to their hometowns to complete a C2EA summer advocacy project of their own!

Hailing from places as diverse as New York City, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, West Virginia and North Carolina, participants had to outline their projects before they left the YAI. But before that happened, they took part in four full days of workshops, on everything from the basic concepts and history of AIDS activism to gaining key skills in lobbying lawmakers, gaining media coverage and raising funds to support their initiatives.

THE "BIG KIDS": C2EA leaders (l to r) Alice Shih, Shannon Reaze, Sean Barry, Max Ciardullo and Johnny Guaylupo

Of course, the 5-day retreat gave the participants—who workshopped, ate and roomed at the non-profit International Conference Center—the chance to swap stories about living with, and/or aiming to educate about, HIV/AIDS in hometowns where stigma, ignorance and denial around the disease often remain high. Bianca Salazar, 16, a high school junior in Pass Christian, Mississippi, talked about her frustration with her state's policy of abstinence-only sex ed...and the fact that, in her own high school, her health-ed teacher barely touched on HIV/AIDS even though the textbook had a whole chapter on it.

"They're not comfortable about it or educated about it enough to let us know," she said, adding that the teacher rebuffed her own efforts to educate about it even though she (Salazar) is trained as a peer health educator by her state's department of health. No wonder, then, that Salazar's C2EA summer project will be trying to make headway with state legislators and organizing other events around beefing up the HIV/AIDS portion of the state's sex-ed curriculum, abstinence-only or not.

NEW IDEAS: YAIers Darian Aaron of L.A. and Brandi McGee of Chicago are all ears

Twanashia "Pumpkin" Clark, 24, of Houston, one of the few young people at YAI identifying as HIV-positive, said of HIV, "A lot of my friends say that if they were infected, they wouldn't even want to know. It takes me to say that I am living with HIV for them to want to know themselves."

Clark will join forces this summer with fellow Houston YAI participant Naomi Walker, 18, in mobilizing a coalition to bring HIV/AIDS education to Houston's largest school district, which only teaches abstinence-only sex ed, according to Clark. Their efforts will culminate with offering HIV-testing, condoms and HIV/AIDS information outside the high school on the first day of school this September. (And Clark is doing all this while raising two young kids!)

On Wednesday and Thursday, a string of veteran AIDS advocates and activists—all of them a part of the Campaign to End AIDS—gave the young participants a crash course in every aspect of their jobs. Housing Works' Charles King told the gang that the best AIDS activists worked mean and lean, saying, "If you're going to be the spark of this new movement," which he likened to the young students who conducted sit-ins during the civil-rights movement, "you're have to be self initiating. We're not going to have an AIDS movement by staying in big fancy hotels. Do with what you got!"

GATHER ROUND: YAIers (l to r) LeeAngelo Henson, Naomi Walker, Daneisha McCoy and Reggie Williams put their heads together

Seasoned vets also gave the young people a Who's Who of D.C. power players who are instrumental in making key decisions around the Ryan White CARE Act and other programs relied upon by people with HIV/AIDS. Arykah Chapman of Treatment Access Expansion Project and David Munar of AIDS Foundation of Chicago gave a crash course in the CARE Act as well as Medicaid, relied upon by 55 percent of people with HIV/AIDS, and also walked young people through the ins and outs of lawmaker visits. They were helped out by Housing Works advocates Robert Cordero and Mike Kink.

Other key workshop leaders included CHAMP's Sean Barry and Julie Davids, SIECUS' Max Ciardullo, NAPWA's Catina Perkins and AIDS Action in Mississippi's Shannon Reaze.

Then, over the weekend, participants rolled up their sleeves and hit the streets of Chicago, breaking up into teams to collect money for C2EA, netting $228 in a mere 45 minutes, and to ask passersby to sign this petition demanding that Illinois' two 2006 gubernatorial candidates acknowledge and vow to champion the 30,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Chicago--and the 40,000 in Illinois--not to mention pledge to do all they can to ensure global universal treatment for people with HIV/AIDS by 2010. About 650 signatures were collected! Just call it an early strike in C2EA's big AIDSVote roll-out for 2006.

DATA DUMP: (l to r) Virginia's Alice Shih and Chicago YAIers Brittney Sherman, Kelsey Wild and Elizabeth Graber learn about global AIDS policy

Later, the young participants said they'd like next year's YAI to be even more hands-on and interactive, while conceding that they learned ample new issues and skills this time around. "I think it went pretty well," said Reggie Williams, 18, of New York City. His C2EA summer project will consist of getting at least five NYC high school principals to commit in writing to addressing stigma as part of New York City's new HIV/AIDS curriculum.

Key organizers of the YAI included Housing Works staffer Johnny Guaylupo, AIDS Foundation of Chicago staffers Munar and Jim Pickett and Charles Long of Chicago's LGBT-serving Howard Brown Health Center.

"I was a lot more comfortable in talking about my own experiences and other people than I was last year," said Williams. Compared to last year's YAI, which he attended, he found the small size of this year's YAI more conducive to substantive exchanges, Williams said. He also said he learned a lot this year about U.S. domestic and global AIDS policy. "I knew the Bush administration was pushing abstinence-only education domestically, but I didn't know that it was a part of PEPFAR," he said, referring to the administration's global-AIDS funding program, which requires that a third of prevention funding go to abstinence programs.

UH-OH! It's time for one of those cheesy "ice-breaker" games!

Two openly transgender participants also took part this year—New York City's Alisha King, 22, and openly HIV-positive Daneisha McCoy, 24. They will collaborate this summer on a project they call Transphobia Isn't Acceptable, or TIA, where they collect the personal stories of homeless transgender youth, who are at high risk for HIV, and then work with the NYC transgender collective TransJustice in crafting an advocacy action. McCoy said she took a lot from this year's YAI. "A lot of young people said they'd never met trans people before and they had the chance to ask us questions," she said. "It was a very open and accepting atmosphere."

In all, organizers and participants found the 2nd annual YAI to be a rich experience—and an inspiring springboard for a summer of early activism for nearly two dozen young people. "The young people who participated this year will undoubtedly be the planners for the future," said Long, "and will move on to train and recuit new young people to continue the battle to end this epidemic."