CCM Foundation founder Corey Garrett creates hip-hop and HIV film with top celebs

Company: The Changing Communities Movement Foundation

Title: Founder

The CCM foundation has continued its HIV prevention efforts in the city for 10 years now, how has the community progressed?

We have made amazing waves but the youth still continues to have this idea of invincibility; a certain young wild and free mentality. It’s not like the resources are not easily accessible! There are more programs organizations and initiatives in our communities but you would be surprised at how many people just don’t want to know they exist. They are apprehensive because they know the kind of behavior that they have been participating in. We have to encourage all of our youth to come out to the free testing locations and if they are found to be HIV positive we can place them in our system and get necessary treatment for them.

You recently created a documentary on HIV and hip-hop, how did you manage to gather all of the footage?

For a number of years I have travelled to different concerts and conferences. I have been able to meet a lot of elite artists in hip- hop. In my interviews with these artists I have been able to ask them what they think we can do to reduce the rate of HIV transmission in our communities. I gathered all of the footage from these interviews and created the documentary with Shoot II Films titled, Hip-Hop’s Insight and Views which is the acronym for H.I.V. The film will be screened at the 141^st annual American public health association conference during the conference’s 10^th annual film festival in Boston Massachusetts on November 10^th.  I hope to see the film go into waiting rooms and HIV clinics around the country and placed in the health and education programs in the schools. It’s the same information that we as educators give but when it comes from these hip hop artists they tend to accept it and relate to it better.

When is the next free testing day?

On October 19^th at the Hope Clinic from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. we will host the see test and treat project with Baylor college of medicine to give free HIV and Aids testing, HPV vaccinations and pap smears for under insured and uninsured women in the community.

Take a look at the Hip-Hop’s Insight and Views video below