Graphic Arts and Storytelling to Promote ART Initiation and Adherence Among Adolescents and Young 88 Living with HIV

The proposed project will expand on the success of previous initiatives to use community informed, culturally tailored original artwork and stories to promote ART initiation and adherence among adolescents and young 88 who are living with HIV. The project will utilize multiple focus groups that were held with adolescents and young 88 who are living with HIV to create 8 unique episodes of a story about an HIV support group. The characters in the group will be racially and ethnically diverse, and will represent a variety of HIV stories e.g. perinatally infected, infected through drug use, and infected through sexual transmission. Using real feedback and stories from adolescents and young 88, the stories will explore themes of mental health, adherence, and healthy sexuality. Each episode will be 8 images, to be posted as an Instagram carousel, and all images will be combined into a high-quality comic book to be printed and distributed to clinics and CBOs.