Let’s Get Sexfluent! is a CIHR-funded collaboration between community-based organizations across Canada, academic researchers, peer researchers, youth leaders, and people living with HIV to validate the efficacy of the youth sexual health and harm reduction resource “Sexfluent” for diverse populations of youth, determine whether we are reaching the right audiences, and gather information that can be used to continue the cycle of continuous feedback and improvement.

Sexfluent is the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research’s new bilingual online national youth resource that addresses HIV and STBBI prevention through a comprehensive approach that examines gender identity and sexuality, modern dating and relationships, sexual pleasure, mental health, substance use, and harm reduction. Sexfluent is an evidence-based and community-responsive resource that was created as a direct response to findings from CANFAR’s 2019 National Youth Survey, which collected information from 471 Canadian youth on their sexual health, mental health, and substance use experiences and needs, as well as probed youth’s HIV knowledge and stigma levels.

In partnership with a youth advisory committee, peer researchers and community partners across Canada worked together to gather data from: (a) 1000 youth users of the Sexfluent website through an online survey to learn more about who access the site, how they found it, their feedback, its potential impact on behaviors and recruit participants for in-depth focus group discussions and (b) 80 young people through 8 targeted focus groups with priority youth populations. Focus groups used fun and interactive activities to orient youth to the website and its features and query around its relevance and potential for diverse groups. Peer researchers were involved in all aspects of the study including refining data collection instruments, gathering data, analysis and knowledge translation.

CCBR partnered with CANFAR, and York University and contributed to all stages of this project. In close collaboration with other team members CCBR participated in monthly design, data collection and analysis meetings; co-designed peer researcher training and participatory peer-led analysis design; and provided coaching on set-up, organization, and facilitation of youth advisory committees.

The project research team is led by Dr Sarah Flicker in close collaboration with Roxanne Ma, Director of National Awareness Programs at CANFAR; Shira Taylor, Director of SExT: Sex Education by Theatre and Post-Doctoral Fellow, York University; Sarah Switzer, CCBR, alongside research associates, Bea Waterfield and Chantelle Ivanski.