- Partner: Brook
- Sector: Equity & Equality
- Brand & Content
- Marketing, PR & Social Media
- Research & Strategy
Our four-year partnership with the Love Sex Life project tackled the inequalities Black communities often experience when trying to access sexual health support, as well as the lack of trust they have for local services.
Working with the local councils of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, we held events, campaigned online and offline, and empowered people to be more proactive about their sexual health despite their past experiences with local services.
The challenge
Communities across Lambeth, Southwark, and Lewisham face significant sexual health challenges including high rates of HIV, STIs, emergency contraception use, and terminations.
As well as this, residents of diverse ethnic heritage, including Black African and Black Caribbean residents, reported barriers and inequalities that prevented good sexual health and accessing sexual health services and provision. This is often due to structural barriers, causing feelings of mistrust.
The solution
During the campaign’s first year, we crafted a key report using interviews and survey data from Lambeth, Southwark, and Lewisham residents to uncover sexual health inequalities among Black and diverse heritage communities.
This guided our four-year strategy and empowered us to advocate effectively for the concerns of the community. We initiated campaigns and events through Love Sex Life to shape conversations on sexual health, focusing on areas such as Black men’s sexual health and combating HIV within Black communities.
Our research showed that accessibility was important to our audience – as the project launched during the pandemic, we hosted events via Zoom and maintained a dual approach of online and offline events to ensure inclusivity
Recognising the significance of community spaces, we made sure our materials were available in local businesses and hosted events in community centres, based on insights from our research.
Our research report showed us how much representation mattered to Black communities, so we made sure that we created a brand that put accurate representation at its core.
“When creating key messages to help effect behaviour change, manner, tone, approach, sensitivity, and the involvement of the target audience all need careful consideration. Over the past two years, Love Sex Life has undertaken a strategy of education and health promotion work that demonstrates the value of community engagement, upskilling, mobilisation, and activation – making a real difference in the lives of people who face barriers to accessing sexual health services.”
-
Haseeb Qureshi -
Leila Hashemi -
Anushka Dalal -
Molly Charker -
Naomi Gennery
