Project Vogue is a comprehensive ballroom-based HIV prevention and treatment intervention for Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) ages 18-45. The Project Vogue model of care capitalizes on the power of engaging Peer Navigation Ambassadors to successfully engage, link, and retain BMSM in HIV prevention, care, and treatment in a meaningful way that addresses behavioral health and support service needs.
GMHC is interested in collaborating with organizations across the states in the geographic south of the U.S, who work with BMSM to provide guidance on the design, adaptation, and implementation of Project Vogue. More specifically, GMHC aims to provide capacity building and technical assistance to community-based organizations who are currently or are seeking to expand their services to include BMSM engaged in the house and ball/ballroom community.
If your organization is interested in participating in Project Vogue, please complete the interest survey (link below) by Friday, September 12, 2025
After the initial organizations are selected (up to 15), we anticipate launching virtual learning communities during October 2025, during which representatives from selected organizations will participate in bi-weekly to monthly meetings.
Throughout the entire process, we will support organizations in replicating/adapting Project Vogue in a way that aligns with the original approach that project vogue was adapted from (i.e., services are grounded on the asset-based youth development which also taps into the “Triple E’s” – Education, Entertainment and Empowerment approach) for BMSM. We will ensure that all organizations selected for replication design their programming in a way that engages the priority community to embrace Project Vogue’s peer-based, low-threshold model of care management which worked with clients with varying levels of readiness to engage in care, or “met clients where they were at,” and used evidence-based techniques—e.g., peer support, motivational interviewing, and counseling—to reduce fear and improve client self-efficacy.
GMHC will also ensure that agencies selected will be highly motivated to address the unmet needs of young BMSM in their local communities and willing to create new forms of engagement that go beyond traditional means of outreach, recruitment, and engagement. We will also work to support organizations to more deeply understand the way that BMSM in their locality socialize and interact, so that they can create low-level, low-barrier entry points without changing their social patterns, while also engaging the local House & Ball communities in a way that is contextualized and meaningful for them. It is important to nurture and create more open, safe spaces for youth to engage and have opportunities for creative, artistic expression in pursuit of their authentic selves.
Selected organizations will receive financial resources, capacity building, technical assistance, and in-kind support to jump start local ballroom projects:
-
In-kind sponsorship for a local ballroom event
-
Assistance from GMHC development department to find funding
-
Highlighting the unique ways in which ballroom priorities and diffuses health innovations and how ViiV can help support
-
Capacity building and technical assistance
-
Potential assistance with client support (e.g. travel vouchers)
For more information, feel free to contact us at:
Martezs@gmhc.org