Youth face diverse barriers to accessing comprehensive sexual health information. In 2021, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) launched Sexfluent, an online HIV prevention resource providing information about sexual and mental health and substance use. This study evaluates its differential impact across priority groups, including 2SLGBTQIA+, Indigenous, newcomer, and street-involved or substance-using youth.

Using a mixed-methods approach, quantitative survey data from 442 site users were paired with qualitative insights from 10 focus groups (n=75) facilitated by peer researchers to assess usability, relevance, and inclusivity.

Survey participants reported a high level of satisfaction: 89% rated the website positively, 85% were likely to return to the site; 85% would recommend the site to others, and 84% said they learned something new about safer sex practices from the site.
Findings revealed significant variability in how different groups accessed and engaged with Sexfluent. 2SLGBTQIA+ participants highlighted the platform’s inclusivity and representation, while Indigenous participants appreciated its culturally relevant designs and less sterile approach than government websites. Similarly, street-involved and substance-using youth valued the platform’s less biomedical tone and its harm-reduction approach.

Challenges included the need for greater culturally appropriate alignment with newcomer youth, who sought resources addressing cultural taboos and intergenerational dynamics. Street-involved youth emphasized the importance of relevant outreach methods to ensure awareness of the platform. 2SLGBTQIA+ recommended more trans-specific and pleasure-focused material and resources. These findings underscore the limitations of a singular brand meeting the needs of diverse youth and reaffirm the need for tailored resources that reflect the intersecting identities and lived realities of priority groups.

This study highlights the need for iterative, community-driven approaches to online sexual health education. By integrating nuanced, ongoing feedback, platforms like Sexfluent can evolve to better meet the complex, varied needs of youth and foster partnerships with others to promote sexual health education.

Background: The Kotawêw Indigenous HIV/STBBI Doula Study examined how kinship serves as a foundation for the role of Indigenous doulas in providing culturally grounded care, support, and system navigation for Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people living with or at risk of HIV in Manitoba. Our core team is made up of Indigenous women and Two-Spirit researchers with lived experience, allies, and deep community connections. This work is personal and guided by a collective understanding that HIV/STBBIs affect not just individuals but entire kinship networks.

Method: Data were drawn from community-based participatory research that used Indigenous storywork. Participants (n=40) were recruited using word of mouth, peer networks, and a community agency serving Indigenous people. Data were analyzed using Indigenous storywork and thematic analyses.

Results: Kinship was foundational to participants’ experiences of HIV/STBBI care and connection. Community, relatives, and friends are central to participants’ sense of belonging and well-being in Treaty 1 territory. Connections to community agencies, described as lifelines of support, offer spaces for cultural connection and care. Hearing stories from people with lived experience of HIV/STBBI was consistently identified as transformational and healing, reinforcing the importance of storytelling within kinship networks. Community connections also fostered a sense of solidarity, helping to reduce the stigma and isolation often associated with an HIV/STBBI diagnosis. Kinship connections shaped participants’ experiences of prevention, sexual health management, reproductive health, pregnancy, childbirth, and service navigation. The presence of doulas, who offered culturally safe, non-judgmental support, further strengthened these connections.

Conclusion: The findings emphasize that meaningful, authentic, and consistent relationships with community, culture, and land are essential in the care of Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people living with or at risk of HIV/STBBI. By embedding cultural practices and relational care into their work, doulas play a critical role in fostering resilience and reinforcing spiritual and cultural connections.

Background: Public health authorities’ HIV response has been characterized as involving “sermons” (information, education), “carrots” (incentives) and “sticks” (coercion, enforcement). Despite significant scientific advancements, HIV remains a reportable communicable disease leading to public health investigation, including coercion (e.g., issuance of public health orders requiring certain behaviour). Our objective was to examine public health surveillance and investigative practices that classify people as “risks” to the public that require containment.

Methods: This community-based research project is led by people living with HIV, legal experts, and researchers, and uses Institutional Ethnography. We performed a scan of public health policies and grey literature and conducted 18 qualitative interviews with public health professionals, including laboratory technicians, nurses, management and policy actors, along those who undertake public health investigation and enact legal orders. Interviews were thematically coded, and documentary analysis was used to map aspects of the public health system.

Results: Public health professionals described a patchwork of diverse and sometimes divergent practice. They noted that the use of public health orders has become increasingly rare, as they undermine trust and do not reflect evidence-based best practice. However, it is clear that the science of undetectability has profoundly altered the focus from certain behavioural interventions (e.g., disclosure, condom use) to viral load suppression. Simultaneously, public health authorities’ increased access to electronic medical records (including viral load and other diagnostics) - without patient consent – has led to a shift towards less coercive public health practices in HIV programs in some jurisdictions.

Conclusions: Outcomes of this project illustrate that potential human rights benefits of decreased uses of coercive measures comes with other deep concerns such as the use of data without individuals’ knowledge or consent.

Objectives: In 2022 and 2023, The Feast Centre for Indigenous STBBI Research held Smy’May’ and Inuit Illiquhii, our first two land-based learning retreats. The two retreats aimed to teach researchers about Sylix and Inuit ways of knowing holistically and experientially. This presentation focuses on findings about the importance of land-based pedagogy and learning in Indigenous STBBI research and best practices regarding creating land-based learning retreats.

Methods: Relationships with Elders and Knowledge Holders from each territory guided the creation of two distinct land-based learning retreats from the point of conception to evaluation. Researchers engaged in First Nations and Inuit STBBI research were invited to attend the retreats. Guided by Feast Centre Elders and team members, the retreats highlighted Sylix and Inuit knowledge systems through a holistic framework grounded in the territory from which the knowledges originate.

Findings: Connections with the land are critical to Indigenous ways of knowing and thus central to research with Indigenous communities. Land-based learning must be community-led with meaningful guidance from Elders from the territory. Best practices include highlighting experiential learning, storytelling, providing time and space to develop relationships with Elders and knowledge holders, engaging in ceremony, and visiting sites that hold cultural and spiritual significance.

Implications: Land-based pedagogy is critical to shaping STBBI research that involves Indigenous peoples. Involving local Knowledge Holders in the planning and implementation of a land-based gathering is essential and requires adequate engagement of local communities. Land-based teaching is both a methodology of inquiry and a way to frame Indigenous community-led research. It pushes back at the way in which we learn about research in academic institutions by grounding teaching in Indigenous pedagogy. In this way there is a recognition of the process and an embrace of the possibility that the impact of being on the land is both personal and communal.

Infant feeding for women living with HIV (WLWH) is a challenging issue. It is even more difficult for Indigenous women living with HIV (IWLWH), who must rely on a colonial system of healthcare that fails to recognize First Nations, Inuit, and Métis cultural practices connected to childbirth and infant feeding. The Canadian guidelines recommend formula feeding to reduce the risk of vertical transmission through breast milk. However, for many cultural communities, the loss of choice regarding how to feed one’s infant can be laden with sociocultural taboos and fear of involuntary HIV disclosure, as well as concerns about the potential long-term impacts on infant bonding. There is a lack of literature on the perspectives of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis WLWH. Literature in this area does not explore the perspectives of IWLWH, many of whom have learned cultural traditions and teachings about breastfeeding despite the attempted erasure of their cultural practices through colonial genocidal policies and practices. IWLWH have experienced a myriad of reproductive injustices, and their voices must be front and centre in the evolving guidelines around pregnancy and infant feeding. The primary purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences and challenges faced by IWLWH and infant feeding. This study explored the knowledge, experience, and values of Indigenous mothers living with HIV through an online Sharing Circle, where participants shared their personal stories and offered guidance on issues connected to infant feeding. This presentation draws on four overarching themes that emerged from this Sharing Circle from the meaningful stories of the participants—providing us with profound insights from IWLWH to address current gaps in healthcare practices and to inform the development of culturally relevant knowledge translation tools for First Nations, Inuit and Métis women.

Introduction: The Village Lab, established in 2021 at the University of Manitoba, is an interdisciplinary community-led research hub addressing health and social disparities among key and priority populations in HIV. Using Indigenous, decolonizing, and participatory approaches, the Lab’s projects are guided by community guiding circles and individuals with lived experience. This evaluation assesses its impact on community-based research, implementation science, capacity-building, and policy influence to improve health and social equity for key populations.
Methods: The evaluation employs a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data to comprehensively assess the Lab’s outcomes. Data sources include survey findings to capture quantitative metrics on community engagement and intervention reach, stakeholder interviews to provide qualitative insights into the Lab’s impact and effectiveness, and analyses of capacity-building programs.
Findings: The Lab’s research initiatives have catalyzed culturally responsive HIV interventions co-designed with individuals with lived experience. Notably, the Gigii-Bapiimin project, the Kotawêw study, and the Ubuntu-Pamoja project have fostered cross-community collaboration and improved HIV service navigation for Indigenous and Black communities. Capacity-building programs have empowered 2SLGBTQIA+ trainees and community members by enhancing skills, fostering leadership, and promoting meaningful participation in research and advocacy. The Lab’s knowledge translation and exchange activities have effectively bridged the gap between research and practice, resulting in actionable policy recommendations. Additionally, the Lab has cultivated a robust stakeholder network, reinforcing its transformative role in community-led HIV interventions.
Conclusions: The Village Lab demonstrates the transformative potential of community-led HIV research, interventions, and capacity building. By prioritizing social justice, decolonization, and community engagement, the Lab serves as a model for integrating research into actionable solutions. Through sustained relationship building with communities and innovative approaches, the Village Lab is a catalyst for advancing health and social equity for key and priority populations in HIV in Canada.