Meet the 2014-2015 YBGLI Organizing Committee Members

The Young Black Gay Men’s Leadership Initiative continues to grow in a number of different ways. This week, we are excited to announce the addition of four new members of the Organizing Committee or OC: Barry Sapp, Noël Gordon, Leo Moore, MD and Patrick Ingram. Existing OC Members are: Anthony Roberts, Jr, Matthew Rose, and Christopher Shannon. The 2014-2015 Executive Committee officers are: Blake Rowley – Chair, Dashawn Usher – Vice Chair and Marvell L. Terry, II – Secretary. Daniel Driffin is Chair Emeritus. Read YBGLI Chair, Blake Rowley’s “Welcome” blog post to learn more about his vision and plans for the Initiative in the coming year.

     

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Mission

The Young Black Gay Men’s Leadership Initiative or YBGLI is a national movement of young Black men addressing issues disproportionately affecting their peers. The Initiative has a particular focus on HIV prevention, care and treatment. YBGLI is a collection of committed young Black gay, bi, same gender loving and other men who have sex with men (MSM) from around the country. YBGLI is an initiative of the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition or NBGMAC.

History

In August 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released Estimated HIV Incidence in the United State, 2006-2009highlighting an alarming 48% increase in new HIV cases among young Black men who have sex with men (MSM) ages 13-29. In response to this data, The National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition (NBGMAC) brought together five dynamic young black gay leaders to strategize and address the need for increased peer-based community mobilization and activism in the HIV epidemic.

In October 2011, NBGMAC in collaboration with HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), supported an educational webinar addressing the HIV epidemic among young black gay, bisexual (bi), Same Gender Loving (SGL) and other men who have sex with men (MSM) under the age of 30.

Six months later in spring of 2012, the young leaders committed to maintain momentum by raising the bar and participating in exploration of future opportunities by engaging in two strategy sessions facilitated by an external consultant.  As an outgrowth of these substantive planning sessions, a proactive short-term plan prioritizing three key drivers—leadership, mobilization and policy efforts was designed and adopted under the collective effort appropriately named The Young Black Gay Men’s Leadership Initiative (YBGLI).  YBGLI is a national movement of young black men addressing issues disproportionately affecting their peers, with a particular focus on HIV prevention, care and treatment. The Initiative is a collection of committed young black gay, bi, SGL and other men who have sex with men (MSM) from around the country. These individuals represent a wide cross section of people engaging with pertinent issues and policies surrounding the targeted population.

YBGLI is led by a diverse organizing committee (OC) comprised of YBMSM leaders, all under the age of 30 with professional backgrounds in research, community mobilization, policy and advocacy. With expertise in a number of defined areas, the organizing committee endeavors to expend abilities and talents of young black gay, bi, SGL and MSM to bear against the face of the HIV epidemic.

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