Youth community advisory boards (CAB) are a collection of youth advocates who are both seropositive and seronegative, in and out of school, aged between 13-24 years of age. They meet and engage with researchers, healthcare workers, and other invited guests to discuss scientific ideas, lived experiences, and ideas for improving the health of adolescents in their community. The goal of youth CAB is to include community members in conversations about research and medical practice so research/medicine can better reflect the needs of the adolescent community
Youth Cab Mission:
- To provide a safe place for youth advocates to bring unanswered health questions to bolster learning, to suggest research ideas based on community needs, to advise on youth-related research (feasibility), and to disseminate results back to their local community.
- To be an example to the local community that stigma towards youth living with HIV
or other illnesses is not helpful and that friendships can and should occur between diverse groups of young people in the youth CAB. - To provide a forum for young men and women to talk about sexuality in a non-threatening way/thus reducing gender-based violence.
CAB activities:
- Provide a space for monthly meetings for community members to discuss health practices
- Learn about scientific information from researchers/healthcare workers
- Offer feedback to researchers about their research projects
- Relay information they learn to the rest of the community so everyone can be informed through knowledge dissemination