The Conversation @ COLOURS Overview

In COLOURS’ continued efforts to “understand what matters most in the community” and to “assure culturally relevant communication,” we develop a new project The Conversations @ COLOURS, a social media, platform-based initiative, in a talk show format, that creates a safe place for all persons to speak their truth and highlight taboo and systematic stigmas within the community. 

The goal is to implement comprehensive sexual wellness educational projects that address our priority population (young men of color who have sex with men and young transgender persons of color.  One project that is being used to implement this goal is the “Conversation @ COLOURS” it’s a premier social media initiative, aimed at not only “telling our stories,” But also bridging the gap with the Cis communities.  It is a platform for discussing issues that affect communities of color including systemic racism in education, community healthcare and violence.  It’s a safe place for all people to speak the truth and highlight taboo and systematic stigmas within the community.  The Conversation allows people of the community to be informed through background and personal experiences from our guest speakers and panelists.  Although this initiative is intended to be a supportive and information haven for Philadelphia’s youth, this media program will address concern for all age groups in the broader community. 

The Conversation relates to how we impact, improve, and empower the lives of people of color by sharing information through social media that focuses on wellness and safety for those often underserved. This program is also an opportunity for COLOURS to promote, reach and solicit participants from our priority population who are not connected through certain outreach processes and/or procedures. 

COLOURS launched the Conversation in July 2021 on multiple social media platforms. This project is still in its early stages, but we have retained an outside source to assist in developing good metrics to focus on how to measure social media outcomes.  This will allow us to evaluate and assess not only our audience (views) size but also to determine impressions and the number of unique viewers engaged.  The number of times a piece of content is shared, liked, retweeted, clicked on, or commented on, will be evaluated, and assessed in the continued development of our content regarding engaging the priority population and community at large. COLOURS has also developed a Community Advisory Board to assist with the development and evaluation of this and our other programs/projects.

All programs at COLOURS are synchronized to our mission and objectives, the Conversation goal is to reach 300+ views per episode; to create a diverse cast to engage multiple communities; to promote other likeminded agencies, brands, and companies; create a safe space to share interpersonal experiences; and community education and resources from local partners in the Philadelphia area. Conversation’s mission is to provide a seamless connection between the community we serve and their own interpersonal experiences to allow all individuals a platform to share, inspire and motivate.  

COLOURS joined “REC Philly – A Place for Creators,” located in the Fashion District at 901 Market Street.  The REC is a 10,000 square foot creative space, designed to give access to all the tools needed for creative services.  Our membership into this creative agency untapped opportunities into a network of hundreds of local based creators.  The REC has given us the space needed to film the Conversation with several venue (rooms) to record and edit our episodes. 

COLOURS plan to begin discussions with different groups and organizations to share information.

The Conversation @ COLOURS will allow many of our partners and collaborated groups an opportunity to speak/engage not only ours but their priority population through this mechanism.