AMP it up!

The Art | Global Health Center at UCLA and cooperating partners present AMP it up!, making its way to participating high schools and youth community centers throughout South and East Los Angeles in early 2010.

The AMP in AMP it up! stands for Arts-based, Multiple-intervention, Peer education.

The project is Arts-based, because artists are expert communicators who can inspire and mobilize youth. There are Multiple-interventions, in order to have a lasting impact. And finally Peer educators are employed so that teens can learn from someone who can easily relate to the situations they are presented with on a daily basis.

This new model for community-based sexual health education affirms human sexuality while memorably informing teenagers about STI/HIV prevention with a five-stage program in each school.

1. AIDS Ambassadors: Through the use of skits and role plays, UCLA students teach high school students how to use condoms and how to negotiate condom use with a potential partner.

2. Positively Speaking: First person stories from HIV-positive individuals let students know what its like to live with HIV, reducing stigma against people living with the virus.

3. ArtMoves: A portable visual arts exhibition on a beautiful and mobile display made of bamboo deals with themes, such as international treatment inequalities, and is followed by discussion directed by AIDS Ambassadors.

4. AMP it up Performance Team: UCLA students took performance pieces created in a workshop with South African artist Pieter-Dirk Uys and the Art | Global Health Center’s 48 Hours to Action performance, and created a new piece called When the Situation Gets Slippery especially for AMP it up, that deals with teen sexuality. Performances are followed by peer-directed discussion. To see photos of the team in action, check out the web album at http://s843.photobucket.com/albums/zz360/Art_Global_Health_Center/Amp%20....

5. Participatory Art-Making: Students will take part in a hands-on workshop where they have the opportunity to express themselves and incorporate what they have learned through the AMP it up! process. At the conclusion of the workshop, student-made art works will be put on display.