Vegas MPowerment Project enriches and strengthens young gay/bisexual men's pride about who they are and encourages them to explore and celebrate their sexuality by not just focusing on condom use but by including a wide variety of safer sex behaviors.

The Vegas MPowerment Project creates settings where young men can express their identities with each other, find support, and band together to take action on issues of importance to them.

Young men are concerned with social and self-esteem issues. HIV prevention is not in itself particularly motivating or captivating for young gay/bisexual men. AIDS is only one threat among many that these men confront in a homophobic society where gay-bashing, discrimination, and battles over gay rights are commonplace. Young gay/bisexual men may be dealing simultaneously with issues of self-esteem, alienation, isolation, cultural/social identity, racism (in the gay community and in society in general), family problems, and financial, education, and employment pressures.

A successful HIV prevention intervention for young gay/bisexual men therefore needs to tie HIV risk-reduction to the satisfaction of other needs, such as developing friendships, having fun, and enhancing self-esteem.

Through focus groups, it became clear that social concerns - such as how to meet and have fun with other young gay/bisexual men - were highly motivating. Thus, a social focus became the central theme of the Project.

Ideally the Project has its own physical space, which serves as the headquarters for the Project and as a community center for young gay and bisexual men. The Project space is where the Project holds most of its outreach events and staff meetings. During certain hours it also serves as a drop-in center where young men can meet and socialize. The center provides participants with information about other community organizations and services, and makes referrals to these agencies as appropriate. Safer sex material are also freely available there.

The MPowerment Project includes four main components:

• Formal Outreach
• Small Group Sessions
• Informal Outreach
• An ongoing Publicity Campaign

Each component is essential and together they work synergistically to create an effective program.

These ground rules are reviewed each time the Core Group meets, and at M-Group meetings. The are also displayed in the Project space.

• Confidentiality
• Use "I" Statements
• Mutual Respect
• Have Fun!

"Confidentiality" means that private and sensitive information revealed during meetings is not repeated outside the meeting without the persons permission.

"Use 'I' Statements" means that you discuss what you feel on a topic, rather than speaking in general terms about what most people think.

"Mutual Respect" means that you listen to others in a respectful manner, whether you agree with them or not. It is natural to disagree sometimes. By respecting others, you make it safer for everyone to express differing viewpoints and opinions. Enabling people to express diverse opinions and views on topics is very important in creating a sense that this is a safe space for all.

"Have Fun!" means that the Project's activities should be fun and enjoyable. The work we are doing is important, but be careful not to become overly serious while doing it.

The Core Group is the main decision making body of the Project and generally consists of from 12 to 20 members. The Coordinator(s) participate in Core Group meetings on an equal basis with all other members. However, Coordinator(s) do play a special role in keeping the Project's mission and goals uppermost in the Core Group deliberations.

Motivations of the Core Group include:

• Agreement with the Project goals of community building and HIV prevention. Having an opportunity to help prevent HIV infection among peers is highly motivating.
• Provide an opportunity to meet and socialize with other young men. Since the social aspect of the Project is such a prime motivator, it is important from the outset to include time for socializing and team building.
• Core Group members have a great deal of decision-making power. This contributes to the strong sense of ownership felt for the program, which translates into a willingness to contribute time to Project activities.

Empowerment is one of the guiding principals of the program.

Formal Outreach includes two components: outreach teams and outreach events.

Outreach teams of young men go to settings frequented by young gay/bisexual men to promote safer sex. This often includes "zaps" at local bars are a performance at the local community's gay pride festival. Zaps are brief activities that attract attention and promote safer sex in a fun and entertaining manner.

The Project sponsors a wide range of outreach events designed to appeal to each segment of the young gay/bisexual men's community. Depending on the ideas generated by the Core Group, these activities can include such things as weekly video parties, house parties, discussion groups, picnics, community forums, hikes large dance parties, etc. MPowerment Project outreach events are designed to be fun, and they are planned so that safer sex promotion can be incorporated into the event in some way.

The outreach team uses playful, entertaining approaches to educate young men about safer sex and to encourage them to adopt and maintain safer behaviors over time. The Project also develops materials for distribution at its performances. These may include safer sex information and motivational messages, condoms, lubricants, and invitations to MPowerment activities.

National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is one important event for Vegas MPowerment for just this sort of outreach.

The second major component of the Project is the M-Group. M-Groups are peer-led, one time meetings of 8 to 10 young gay or bisexual men. The groups last from 2 to 3 hours and are usually held at the Project space, but they can also be held in participants' homes or at other locations convenient for young men.

The M-Group focuses on factors identified in research as contributing to unsafe sex among young gay/bisexual men.

M-Groups help participants:

• Clear up misconceptions about safer sex.
• Increase the enjoyment of safer sex.
• Build communication skills for negotiating safer sex.
• Address interpersonal issues that may interfere with safer sex.
• Learn how to support their friends to have safer sex.

Since not all men who engage in high-risk sexual behaviors are likely to attend these sessions, the M-Groups also train participants how to talk informally with their friends outside the group to encourage them to practice safer sex. In this way, the men who do attend an M-Group can carry the safer sex message to their friends and acquaintances who do not attend a group.

The third major component is Informal Outreach. Informal Outreach consists of young gay/bisexual men communicating with their friends in casual conversations about the need to engage in safer sex. The goal is to develop a process of communication that promotes safer sex across the entire community. This Outreach also serves as a reminder to young men about the community norm for safer sex that the Project is seeking to establish.

The fourth component of the MPowerment Project is an ongoing Publicity Campaign that the Project conducts within the gay community to communicate its goals and activities. The Publicity Campaign employs a variety of approaches to reach young gay/bisexual men.

Publicity Campaigns use:

• Articles, columns, community listings, and advertisements in the alternative press, including gay newspapers.
• Posters and flyers in setting frequented by young gay/bisexual men.
• Internet web pages, chat rooms, and e-mail distribution lists.
• "Word of mouth" publicity by Core Group members and volunteers within their informal social networks.
• University or local gay-themed radio shows.

The Publicity Campaigns goals:

• To establish an awareness of the program and its legitimacy.
• To invite young men to become involved with the program and its activities.
• To provide a continual reminder of the norm for safer sex within the young gay/bisexual men's community.

The Vegas MPowerment Project does not advertise via the main stream media to avoid the program's becoming known within the broader community as a program primarily for young gay/bisexual men. Young men who are not comfortable being associated with a publicly gay-identified organization are often reluctant to become involved in such groups. Keeping a low profile also minimizes the chances that homophobic individuals may become convinced that the Project is somehow "promoting homosexuality" and so attempt to obstruct its work or even shut it down.