Discussion kit

How to lead a community activity?:  the Mobilise! discussion kit

In order to facilitate community discussions on prevention and sexual health, we have developed a toolkit that includes playful and informative educational material. The kit will be of interest to prevention workers and other health care providers, but also to anyone interested in the health and well being of community members (no need to be a specialist!).

Over 20 community discussions were held during the first phase of Mobilise! (2015 – 2016). Drawing on this experience, the kit has been updated and is now available to anyone interested in organizing their own discussion activity. Physicians and other health professionals specializing in HIV and sexual health along with public and community-based prevention workers have validated the contents.

The discussion kit includes the following items that can assist you in preparing and conducting your own activity:

• Discussion guide: The guide includes a list of topics to cover, tips for leading the activity, and a Facilitation Guide (pages 11-13) with a sample agenda for the discussion. You can follow every step or just use it as inspiration to facilitate the meeting in your own way.
• Prevention strategy cards : We identified 25 strategies (existing or in development) that can help to reduce the risk of HIV transmission and maintain sexual health. We then created an educational “game card” to visualize and explain each of the strategies. One side of the card features a cartoon-style image that represents the strategy; the other side gives a short definition.
  • Complete set of cards in hand-out format
  • Complete set in recto-verso format (to print your own cards)
• Timeline : Used with the cards, the timeline (also called the “What’s my combination?” game) helps to illustrate the contexts and times in which a given a strategy can be used.
• Prevention strategy info sheets : This reference document includes a fact sheet for each of the 25 strategies. Based on a review of scientific literature, the fact sheets explain how each strategy works and provide basic information about its effectiveness, acceptability and accessibility in Canada.
• Tool to support individual counselling : Based on the set of game cards, this hand-out briefly explains the different risk reduction strategies in a 1-page document.