The ‘Armistead’ project: an exploration of gay men, sexual practices, community health promotion and issues of empowerment

Recently emerging evidence indicates that some gay men / men who have sex with men (MWHSWM) are continuing to engage in unsafe sexual practices despite over a decade of health education/promotion. Accordingly, there have been recent attempts to ‘revamp’ health education/ promotion programmes as a means of encouraging participation. One way of doing this has been through government facilitation of ‘community’ based health promotion programmes. These programmes attempt to regenerate social networks and supportive environments and to thereby empower gay men / MWHSWM. This paper explores some of the issues involved in this process in relation to an independent evaluation of a government funded community based health promotion project set up in the north‐west of England. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with clients and agencies involved with the project, it explores some of the connections and conflicts between empowerment, safer sex and government funded health promotion interventions.