
Issues
HIV Prevention, Treatment, and Destigmatizing
Advocates works with young people to raise HIV awareness by ensuring every young person has access to HIV education, HIV prevention strategies and tools, and HIV treatment and care options. We are working to end HIV stigma and stop the criminalization of HIV, and to ensure young people living with HIV have access to housing and physical and mental health care. Advocates also works to improve young people’s access to PrEP and condoms.

CommuniTea
CommuniTea is a project with ViiVHealthcare to engage Black women and girls, of cis and trans experience, in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This collective of youth activists lead HIV advocacy on campus and in their communities, centering the experiences and raising awareness about the impact HIV/AIDS has on young Black women and girls.


“I tested positive for HIV just two years ago. A year after my diagnosis, I started working in HIV health services and advocacy. Working in HIV care as a newly diagnosed person has allowed me to see the world from a completely different perspective and to confront barriers to health care and HIV education, and the impact of stigma.”
Mars
Engaging Communities around HIV Organizing (ECHO)
Advocates recruits, trains and supports a cohort of young people living with HIV to serve as leaders in the fight to end HIV stigma and criminalization. ECHO leaders recognize HIV’s disparate impact on young people of color, including Black and Latino young men who have sex with men and transgender youth of color. Members use social media campaigns, peer education, storytelling, and media outreach to raise awareness of the interconnection between HIV disparity, racism, homophobia, and transphobia and advocate for the inclusion of youth most impacted by HIV at decision-making tables.


Policy Priorities
We must end laws that stigmatize and criminalize people living with HIV, and ensure that every young person living with HIV is cared for and valued. Advocates is also working to ensure HIV funding is protected and expanded, and for youth inclusion in the National HIV & AIDS Strategic Plan.
For Adult Allies
Get Your Life
Get Your Life is a seven-session group-based HIV prevention facilitation guide designed for Black and Latino young men who have sex with men ages 14-19 years old. Following a pilot program that included three large school districts and over 200 Black and Latino youth, Get Your Life is an engaging, inclusive, and culturally- responsive HIV/STI prevention program made by and for Black and Latino Young men.
Featured Resources
Help raise HIV awareness and join youth activists and youth allies working to create a world that is just, safe, and healthy for all.
Medical Mentorship Toolkit
Advocates for Youth has partnered with young people living with HIV, pediatric and adult care providers, and AIDS service organizations to design Medical Mentorship, a guide focused on supporting young people living with HIV to smoothly transition to and navigate adult care.
Rights, Respect, Responsibility, a K-12th Grade Comprehensive Sexuality Education Curriculum.
This K-12 comprehensive sex education curriculum is fully mapped to the National Sexuality Education Standards, covers all 16 topics deemed essential by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is LGBTQ-inclusive, trauma informed and culturally responsive. Over 13,000 educators have downloaded 3Rs. 3Rs has been adapted for use in 13 states and more than 500 school districts across the country, reaching millions of young people with sex education that meets the National Sexuality Education Standards.
Virtual PD
Virtual PD is a simulated environment (classroom, health care exam room and office) where professionals can practice with youth avatars using short scenarios and support from an instructional coach, so they can quickly learn and master the skills they need to be effective.
AMAZE
Advocates for Youth is the lead partner on AMAZE, a YouTube channel and educational website filled with short, animated videos and other resources designed to provide adolescents around the globe with medically accurate, age-appropriate, affirming, and honest sex education they can access directly online—regardless of where they live or what school they attend. AMAZE has 300+ videos on topics such as contraception, menstruation, deciding when/if to have sex, building healthy relationships, mental health and anxiety, and more common topics around puberty.
