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Let's Talk About Sex

We have now gotten to the action (tactical) plan phase of this project. The action plan is when you get to take all your research, planning and objective and come up with an actionable, feasible and strategic plan for all of the communication messages, materials, activities, channels and so on that you would like to use on the key audiences for your communications program. For our communications program HPVAX we are looking to build awareness and increase the number of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Harlem to get the HPV vaccines and have protected sex to diminish the spread of HPV and oral cancers.

One of the key secondary groups we want to target with our program are sexual partners. Sexual partners are such an important group to target for this program as they have such an influence on the primary group- 18–26-year-old MSM in Harlem. Research shows that MSM perceptions of condom use are primarily shaped by social norms and their interactions with sexual partners. If sexual partners are aware of the risks of HPV and the benefits of protective sex and the HPV vaccine and feel open to speaking about it with their partners this can really shape and impact the populations willingness to get vaccinated and use protection.
 
While coming up with the action plan for sexual partners I couldn’t help but think that it would be great to get another perspective on this from the population to see if the plan was feasible and on target. I ended up reaching out to a high school friend who identifies as an MSM, is 25 and lives in Washington Heights. It was very helpful getting his insights into the key messages and tactics. He told me that the MSM community hasn’t been using condoms at least from his experience. He went on to explain that most of his friends in the community feel that they are protected because they are on PREP and PEP. There is a large concern about contracting AIDs but no real concern that he is aware of about HPV. He explained that the population has to be better educated on HPV and the vaccination. Most of his friends and sexual partners get their information from social media and he feels that would be the most effective medium. He added that an easy forum for peers to talk to each other and get information of the vaccine would be helpful as well. He told me that a big fear at least for him is if there are any side effects from the vaccine. He made it clear that there should be information on the safety of the vaccine and research behind its effectiveness.
 
It was so helpful when doing this assignment to get a perspective from someone in the key target group. I really appreciate my friend spending the time discussing this with me and feel confident going into this assignment. I hope this was interesting and helped give some perspective on the process of creating an action plan.
 
Yours,
Sarah ns 

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