Out at Home Family Resources

In 2019, in my role as the in-house communications manager for SARAVYC at UBC, I was tasked with the creating knowledge mobilization materials to help East Asian families in British Columbia support teen sexual health. Enter Out at Home.

Based on feedback from a parents’ advisory group, I collaborated with the research team to create a take-home brochure, a website landing page, infographics, and social media assets. We also created three informational animated Out at Home videos. All materials were then translated into Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

One of the collaborating researchers shared with me that this was the first time they’d seen supportive, research-based resources for LGBTQ+ youth written in their first language.

Key Features for Out at Home Family Resources

Informed by Advisory Groups

The researchers at SARAVYC recruited and worked with advisory groups (composed of youth, family members, health professionals, teachers, counselors, and other community members) to help inform the study’s analysis and resulting knowledge mobilization materials and activities. These advisory groups provided input on knowledge mobilization products and their design and messaging.

Animated Out at Home Video Producing

Animated explainer videos are an excellent way to mobilize knowledge. In my role as communications manager at SARAVYC, I developed a video script and hired animator, Linnea Ritland, who then created the video. We also hired voice actors who read the script in five different languages.

Multi-Language Translations

It was important to the advisory groups and our team that the resources developed for Out at Home be available in languages spoken at home. The most common East Asian languages spoken at home in British Columbia at the time were Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean. We hired community members and research assistants to provide content translations that were then incorporated into the designs.