Our Goals
Our goals are to center the voices of youth and the communities that love and care for youth in research. Our research focuses on ways to improve the health and wellness of individuals between the ages of 11 and 26 years of age. Topic areas include:
- General health and wellness
- Improving empowerment and confidence in having sexual health conversations
- HIV prevention (including HIV pre-exposure and post exposure prophylaxis)
- Reproductive health
- STI prevention
To conduct this work, we work with youth, family, healthcare systems, and community organizations. We use a variety of research methodologies including quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, and community-engaged strategies.
Meet Our Current Team Trainees
Kudos to Our Past Team Past Team Members
Current Projects:
PhotoVoice
What’s the Photovoice Project All About?
We are conducting an innovative study to better understand how to create effective HIV prevention messages for adolescents and young adults (AYA) in the pediatric emergency department setting. Using a community-based approach called Photovoice, participants capture photos or videos that reflect the messages that speak to them most.
These powerful images, paired with group discussions, help us design meaningful, youth-centered HIV prevention materials. In later phases, we’ll gather feedback from caregivers, healthcare stakeholders, and the broader community to refine and share these messages in ways that truly resonate.
By centering the voices and lived experiences of young people, we aim to create prevention strategies that are culturally relevant, inclusive, and impactful.
Adolescents SPEAKS
What’s the Adolescents SPEAKS Project All About?
The Adolescent Speaks study aims to identify the most important features for a mobile health (mHealth) app that supports HIV prevention and open communication between adolescents and young adults (AYA) and their adult support persons.
Participants complete an online survey using a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) format, which presents different feature options and asks participants to choose the ones they prefer. This approach helps identify the most valued app content, functionality, and strategies for integrating the app into daily life. Feedback from the study will guide the creation of an app that is easy to use, culturally relevant, and effective in promoting health communication and HIV prevention.
Pathways to PrEP
What’s the Pathways to PrEP Project All About?
The purpose of this project is to initiate development of a provincial primary care (PHC) referral network and peer navigation program for HIV PrEP and other related aspects of health care.
Throughout the region, many people do not know to whom and where to go to for services like PrEP and STBBI testing. Service providers do not have a provincial list of providers from which to make referrals for sexual health related care. Linkage to care is a major challenge for people who are new to the region, and/or lacking community connections. Overall, there is lack of education and information on both the use of PrEP for HIV prevention, and how to access it.