I can already tell that being on the Governing Council of the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association is going to allow me to write on great events and campaigns that impact the health sector. I am making it a personal mission of mine to help bring health education and communication campaigns into the Web 2.0 landscape, making use of the many tools out there.

Recently I was made aware of an awesome project in the works - the MWPHA /DC Fights Back Public Health Video Challenge! In essence, the purpose of this project is to foster creative user generated video submissions that will highlight the importance of addressing the social determinants of disease and how that can positively impact the HIV epidemic in the District of Columbia.

Here are more details:

Eligibility: This contest is open to all interested parties

Contest: The contest will be to produce a two-minute video that shows how
working on one of the following social determinants can positively impact
the District’s HIV epidemic.

1. Jobs- an example might be to capture how programs to provide job
skills training can help empower a person to be less vulnerable to HIV
infection.

2. Housing- an example might be to demonstrate on video how a program
to create stable housing can increase an individual’s ability to make
healthy lifestyle choices or help someone living with HIV to adhere to
treatment

3. Substance Use- an example might be to create a video demonstrating
how harm reduction approaches are effective at reducing negative outcomes
for injection drug users and their communities.

Prize: All winners will be given an award and the chance to screen their
video at the Spring 2009 MWPHA conference. The awards are as follows:

• First place- $100 prize as well as an awards certificate
• Second place- $50 prize as well as an awards certificate
• Third place- $25 prize as well as an awards certificate

Deadlines: all videos must be submitted to our YouTube Channel by October
1st 2008 at http://www.youtube.com/group/mwphadcfb

Judging: Members of the MWPHA Disparities Committee as well as the DCFB
steering committee will do the judging. Judging criteria will be
available on the contest website (soon).

For more information, please contact Alex Lawson at alex.lawson@gmail.com

**Coming Up** –> I will be interviewing Alex Lawson about the campaign and how the idea was brought about as well as some other details on the project. I strongly believe that online video will be an integral part of the Health Communications 2.0 movement!

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For background on the participating organizations [taken from their respective websites]:

Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association (MWPHA) is dedicated to protecting personal, public, and environmental health in the Metropolitan Washington area. The Association is committed to:

• protect and promote personal, public and environmental health,
• study and attempt to resolve health problems,
• meet and share knowledge and experience in order to achieve the organization’s goal,
• provide leadership in public health by initiating and supporting voluntary and governmental action to meet health needs or to remedy health problems, and
• promote continuing educational opportunities for public health and allied workers to help them acquire new or broader knowledge and develop skills to provide more effective health services.

DC Fights Back is an all-volunteer network of people living with HIV/AIDS and their allies working to engage ourselves and our communities in every aspect of HIV advocacy for District residents and to end stigma to ensure the best possible treatment and care for those living with HIV/AIDS and implement the best possible science-based HIV prevention for everybody.