Cultural Advocacy and Mobilization Initiative
Overview
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In 2008, Advocates for Youth began the three to five year Cultural Advocacy and Mobilization
Initiative (CAMI), which seeks to change society’s dysfunctional approach to sexual health and to
assist state and local organizations to implement comprehensive sex education policies and practices
in their communities. Through this initiative, Advocates currently works intensively in six states,
partnering with key state advocacy organizations to create, sustain, and mobilize large scale statebased youth activist networks, providing network members with skills and opportunities to act as
strong advocates for sex education within the state and nationally. Currently, these organizations are
AIDS Alabama (AL), Forward Together (CA), Colorado Youth Matter (CO), Planned Parenthood of
South Florida and the Treasure Coast (FL), the Center for Community Solutions (OH), and the Texas
Freedom Network (TX). Each partner organization is a well-established agency willing and able to take
on an intense initiative involving youth advocacy. The states were selected based on the opportunity
to improve sex education and HIV education policies and practices within their state or local
communities. CAMI sites work toward shifting both culture and public policy around reproductive and
sexual health/rights, with young people poised as leaders in creating those changes.
Youth Advocacy Council
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A major component of the Cultural Advocacy and Mobilization Initiative (CAMI) is the creation of
youth advocacy councils in target states. Advocates for Youth assists each partner organization to
form and maintain a highly-trained youth advocacy council in its state. These youth councils work
with the state organization to improve local, state, and federal sex education programs and policies
by organizing events, speaking with the media, providing testimony, advocating to community
stakeholders, and using social networks to raise awareness and mobilize peers.
Each state organization employs a youth advocacy council coordinator. Coordinators dedicate roughly
26 hours a week to CAMI and often have fuller responsibilities and roles within the organization. The
role of the coordinator is to recruit, train, and sustain the council. Coordinators support council
members by providing training and access to resources, and by ensuring that each council member is
fully supported in his or her own individual project work plan. In addition, the coordinator works to
ensure the council’s work is integrated into the other work of the state organization.
Recruiting and Training Core Youth__________________________________________________
Council members are selected through an open application process conducted by the state
organization’s youth advocacy council coordinator. Returning council members may be involved with
this process by conducting phone interviews or helping to review applications. After council
recruitment and selection, the selected members commit to participating for one school year,
including in several weekend skills-building trainings throughout the year, and about 15 hours of work
per month. Youth are compensated for their time with a monthly stipend.
Training is key to building an effective youth advocacy council. Members typically receive two
weekend-long trainings near the beginning of the school year. Training topics include team-building,
creating individual project plans, advocacy, online organizing, messaging, media, and information on
the issue area. It is also important to train both the young people and the state organization on key
elements of effective youth-adult partnerships.
Activities and Events_______________________________________________________________
Together with their youth advocacy council coordinator, the council creates short and long-term
policy goals, along with a workplan outlining activities, which will contribute to the organization’s
overall policy goals. Each council member creates their own workplans for the year and outlines their
individual commitments and activities. For example, if a state organization is working on improving
the existing sex education law, council members might commit to attending a lobby day at the state
capital, tabling during an HIV awareness day at school, or creating a PSA about sex education with
their classmates. Other young people may focus on advocacy through new media, by using Facebook,
Twitter, blogging, and other social networking tools to reach their peers.
Every activity or event by a council member should contribute broadly to raising awareness about the
organization’s issue or contributing to the movement of a policy goal. Council members are equipped
with postcards, petitions, or sign-up sheets to collect contact information from interested people in
order to expand the larger activist network. The coordinator supports each council member in his or
her activities by checking in on a regular basis, assisting with logistics for events, and helping to
address barriers.
Throughout the duration of the project, the coordinator will work to cultivate relationships with
appropriate stakeholders and coalition partners. Coordinators should work to ensure youth voices
are present and listened to in the various integral coalitions, while integrating the council’s work into
wider community strategies.
Building a State Youth Activist Network _______________________________________________
All council members work towards building their state’s youth activist network, with the goal of
recruiting 3,000 activists per state at the end of a three year campaign. These youth activists are then
leveraged as a powerful voice in favor of comprehensive sex education and other key adolescent
reproductive and sexual health issues. The network is routinely updated with training and event
opportunities, and is called upon to take action surrounding both legislation and cultural flashpoints.
In North Carolina, for example, activists emailed a state representative to express outrage when he
referred to LGBTQ people as “fruit loops.”
In their Own Words: Youth Activism in Colorado
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This blog was featured as part of the series, Repro Health Watch, by the National Partnership for
Women and Families.
By Adrian Nava (18 years old) and Scarlett Jimenez (18 years old)
Colorado Youth CREATE Council Members
As educators, advocates, and allies of sexual health, we often ask ourselves why we are still having
conversations about the implementation and support of comprehensive sexuality education for
young people across the nation. For a lot of us, the issue of reproductive rights and justice is one that
hits very close to home. As advocates, our stories and personal experiences hold immense power in
our work. They allow us to break down barriers when interacting with others, and to create room for
meaningful human connections and a space to share why we are so passionate about the work we
do.
We share our stories with the hope that we will create awareness and support for comprehensive sex
education. Having personal stories that reflect a lack of inclusion of all sexual orientations, or lack of
information about healthy relationships and self–esteem, we – Scarlett and Adrian – understand and
are optimal examples of why sexual health education is essential for all youth. During our years in
advocacy, we have both been exposed to a world of possibilities, and have actively participated in
various levels of advocacy.
From local to national participation, both of us have had the opportunity to express ourselves as
young people. During the 2013 legislative session at Colorado’s State Capitol, we were actively
involved in advocating for the passage of House Bill 1081, what has become known as Colorado’s
“updated sex ed law.” We wanted to make sure that young people’s voices and concerns were
included throughout the process. As part of CREATE, a youth advocacy council sponsored by Colorado
Youth Matter and Advocates for Youth, we testified in favor of the bill during committee hearings and
organized a youth advocacy day, which brought more than 230 youth to the capitol to speak to their
legislators about the importance of passing laws that increase access to comprehensive sex
education.
Adrian’s Story
I consider myself an advocate not only for programs and policies that promote
youth sexual health, but for change founded on social justice principles. As an advocate, a person of
color, and someone who identifies as gay, I remember sitting in a crowded 7th grade health class
during my glorious awkward pre-pubescent years, asking myself what the ladies at the front of the
room were talking about. It turns out that these women were teaching the girls how to say “NO” to
males who would only want to have sex with females. I then realized that this uncomfortable
discussion was actually part of a “sexual health” class. Yikes! This situation was uncomfortable not
only because I did not know what sexual health education looked like, but because I was being
targeted as a male. I was expected to insist on having sexual intercourse with women. I was
ultimately astonished and speechless at the sexist, and judgmental tone that was being set within a
classroom environment.
As a student, I was genuinely eager to learn about what was going on inside of my body and mind.
But after much talk about “male and female relationships,” I asked the teachers if it was possible for
two boys to be together, and the teachers ignored my question and moved on to talk about the
importance of abstaining from having sex.
I began to feel like it was wrong to ask that question – which meant that something about me was
wrong, since I was attracted to people of the same gender as me. The following day, my peers and I
participated in an activity in which one person was assigned to be a person with “AIDS.” To my
surprise, that person was me. I learned later that gay men are stereotyped as having HIV, which only
deteriorated my self-esteem and self-love because I was not exposed to positive messages about
LGBT people.
My negative experience of feeling ignored and stigmatized in the classroom is the reason I became
actively involved in advocacy work for increased access to comprehensive sex education. I was made
to feel ashamed of being gay, which harmed my emotional health for a long period of time. I wish I
could have received comprehensive, inclusive, medically accurate, age-appropriate information about
my body and mind – but I didn’t.
However, just because my school did not provide me with that education, it does not mean that
future generations should not have access. I am completely in love with my advocacy work and
impacting my generation, for the better. I find empowerment through making my voice heard and
mobilizing young people to speak about and advocate for their sexual health.
Scarlett’s Story
I am an advocate for comprehensive sex education and reproductive rights and
justice for young people, because I believe that the issues at hand should be considered as part of our
basic human rights. I believe that young people should have the right to have access to accurate
information about their bodies. Furthermore, youth deserve the opportunity to develop the life skills
that are included in comprehensive sexuality education. I believe that my high school experience
would have been a much happier and more successful time had that been included as part of my
education.
On a daily basis, young women are bombarded with highly sexualized messages from the media that
dictate the social norms. I think that it is absolutely essential for young women to learn that these
messages are disempowering and are not actual expectations of women. All youth, regardless of their
gender, deserve to hear that they are much more valuable than the media depicts them. High school
is such a hectic and overwhelming stage for teens. Oftentimes, teens do not receive much needed
positive and empowering messages about themselves or young people in general. I know that for
myself, low sense of self-worth and a lack of basic sexual health information and the ability to
communicate with my partner led me into an unsafe relationship and a very hard time in my life.
I am an advocate for comprehensive sexuality education, and all that it entails, because now I have a
vision for future generations. Creating access to comprehensive sex education can inform and
support youth to be empowered, inclusive, educated, compassionate, communicative, strong, and
driven by their identified passions and goals.
See the authors testify in support of Colorado’s sex education law here.
The authors of this blog are members of Colorado Youth Matter’s Youth Advocacy Council, Colorado
Youth CREATE. CREATE Council members work to Change, Respond to, Engage, Advocate for,
Transform and Empower their peers on issues related to sexual health, access to comprehensive sex
education and promoting social justice in communities across Colorado. Colorado Youth Matter
provides a platform and encourages Council members to share their perspectives and personal
experiences as young people working to improve youth sexual health. To learn more about CREATE
and how you can support their efforts today, please visit Colorado Youth Matter’s CREATE homepage.