Capacity-Building Cross-Canada Project

Increasing Capacity among Providers for Immigrant and Refugee Sexual and Gender Minority Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Young Adults: Culturally Responsive HIV/STBBI Care.

For this project, we leveraged YSMENA’s existing knowledge and community and clinical partnerships to build and strengthen national partnerships in 6 provinces across Canada (BC, Alberta, ON, Que, NS, PEI) to position us to better understand STBBI/HIV risk and prevalence, as well as comprehend and improve prevention (including testing) and care uptake among gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with me (gbMSM) and trans and gender diverse (TGD) Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) youth across Canada. We will also examine areas of access to culturally relevant and responsive healthcare services.

Study Objectives

1. Strengthen and build capacity within GBM and TGD MENA communities for community-based research (CBR) and community knowledge mobilization (KM) by producing evidence-based research in the form of an environmental scan and in-depth focus groups with gbMSM and TGD community leaders, as well as knowledge translation deliverables such as research digests and infographics, towards identifying STBBI and HIV community needs and support services for this population;

2. Advance community- centred approaches to STBBI research by establishing meaningful national and community partnerships between gbMSM and TGD communities, community leaders, and researchers, as well as academic and/or other research institutions, by identifying organizational partners and interviewing their leadership;

3. Improve health equity by conducting, enabling and/or facilitating access to research that addresses structural, social, behavioural, and biomedical determinants of health for gbMSM and TGD MENA young adults, key populations affected by STBBIs. This is done via research digests, infographics, and language translation to facilitate dissemination by organizational leaders within their respective communities

Activity
I

We recruited and trained 12 Community Research Leads with representation from 6 provinces in Canada: Ontario, Québec, British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.

Community Research Leads

Activity
II

Environmental Scans in 6 provinces

We scanned organization websites across 6 provinces: Ontario, Québec, British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Included organizations ranged from HIV clinics and service organizations to public health units, community health centres, and primary care clinics. A total of 627 websites across 6 provinces were scanned. Completed in May, 2025.

Activity
III

Focus Group Discussions

We plan to run 18 focus groups (3 FGDs/province) with representation from three MENA youth groups: (i) gbMSM, (ii) TGD, (iii) youth living with HIV (respecting their intersectional identities). Work in progress.

Activity
IV

Service Provider Interviews

We plan to conduct 42 service provider interviews (7 interviews/province) with representation from community based organizations serving gbMSM, TGD and youth living with HIV, infectious disease clinicians, and community health centres. Work in progress

Activity
V

Research Summit

We plan to organize a research summit to bring YSMENA Community Research Leads, MENA youth leaders, researchers, clinicians, and other interest holders to a blended summit in Ontario. CRLs will be brought in person to Ontario for the summit, where they will participate in knowledge mobilization activities. Finding from the 6 provinces will be shared and a plan of action for a MENA youth sexual health network will be developed.