Youth-Led Participatory Evaluation of a Community Engagement Project Designed to Lower Rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Young Women and Transgender Women of Color

Background:  Young women of color, inclusive of transgender women, are disproportionately burdened by sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Chicago. Preventing and treating STIs are critical to long term health. Project Elevate is a community engagement project designed to decrease rates of STIs in young women of color.

Methods:  A youth-specific advisory board designed and conducted a community needs assessment as well as hosted several gallery walks (n=6). Gallery walks are a form of gathering qualitative data via a discussion in which community members respond to questions and images. Thematic coding of the results from the gallery walks was completed by staff. The youth advisory board learned research methods from experts in the field, and applied these methods in designing an evaluation for community events.

Results:  The needs assessment identified several barriers to STI testing for young women of color: 1) stigma; 2) awareness; and 3) lack of transgender-friendly testing locations. The gallery walks were used to gather additional information about these themes as well as generate strategies to address them. A social marketing campaign with an STI-testing hotline was developed to combat stigma, increase awareness and add transgender visibility. Two events, held strategically in high STI-prevalence communities, were held to launch and disseminate the social marketing campaign materials. In addition, the project established partnerships with clinics to expand transgender-specific sexual health options.

Conclusions:  Project Elevate used participatory methods to increase STI testing and awareness in Chicago. In the first six months of recording STI testing data from partner clinics, there has been an increase of 5% in transgender clients receiving STI tests as well as level rates of testing in young women of color (80% of all tests). The social marketing campaign has yielded three calls to the hotline number in the 3 months post-launch. Long-term impact of the program has yet to be demonstrated.