What does it mean to be an AHF mobilizer? On the first episode of season two AHFter Hours, we dive into what it means to be a mobilizer and what they’re doing on a daily basis to move AHF’s mission forward in amazing ways.
Meet the Mobilizers
Turning big plans into real action
GUEST BIO:
Jeremy Myers is a Baltimore-raised mobilizer who has been with AHF since 2021.
Taylor Watson is a mobilizer who has been with AHF for three and a half years.
Raymond Thomas is the AHF mobilizer for Washington D.C. He’s been with AHF for approximately eight years.
CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:
[2:43] - “The Five Senses of AHF”
What it means to be a mobilizer
Raymond Thomas eloquently explains the role of mobilizers as the “five senses of AHF.” In local communities, they’re on the ground taking a pulse of what’s going on — touching people, recruiting advocates, and keeping people engaged, interested, and aware of what AHF is fighting for every day.
Meanwhile, Taylor says mobilizers are like the bus — they bring the fuel, the people, and the direction to drive change. Finally, Jeremy describes mobilizers as the people who “fill in the blanks” between plans in meeting rooms and action in the pharmacies, events, and streets.
[5:03] - Two Communities, One Message
The dual audiences of AHF mobilizers
AHF mobilizers speak from two platforms, and toward two audiences — those within the community of people directly affected by AHF, and then those in the wider community to raise awareness. It’s about letting people affected know that AHF is fighting for them and giving them the resources they need, while also informing the larger general public about how they can get involved – and why they should.
[7:30] - Other Names for Mobilizers
If you want to understand mobilizers, hear what they call themselves
“Rally girls.”
“Community organizers.”
“Community disruptors.”
“Community liaisons.”
“Activists.”
“We’re not classy. Our job is to disrupt the order.”
These quotes from this week’s guests show how being a mobilizer can mean many things, and encompass many things. But it all adds up to a nontraditional role that’s not meant to be stuffy, quiet, or “classy.” It’s about being loud and being a voice for the communities AHF is trying to serve.
[10:04] - Uncomfortable But Never In Danger
Keeping mobilizers safe in difficult situations
Considering they’re on the front lines of AHF’s movement, mobilizers are often put into situations they describe as “high-risk” or “uncomfortable,” though none of our guests say they’ve ever felt as though their lives were in danger. They feel it’s their job to go places where others aren’t comfortable going, while also ensuring they and everyone they’re involved with are always safe and secure.
[13:33] - What’s Next
The future goals of AHF mobilizers
In speaking to all three of our guest mobilizers this week about their future goals, one unifying message became clear — the goals are constantly changing with each event, mission, and even from day to day. When asked, “What are your goals?” the response is always: “What event are we working on?” That constantly evolving role can be challenging, of course, but it’s also exciting and invigorating for our mobilizer teams.
“It really isn’t about the numbers sometimes,” Taylor shares.
RESOURCES:
[0:00] AHF Careers
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ABOUT AFTER HOURS:
AIDS Healthcare Foundation is the world’s largest HIV/AIDS service organization, operating in 45 countries globally. The mission? Providing cutting-edge medicine and advocacy for everyone, regardless of ability to pay.
The After Hours podcast is an official podcast of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, in which host Lauren Hogan is joined by experts in a range of fields to educate, inform, and inspire listeners on topics that go far beyond medical information to cover leadership, creativity, and success.
Learn more at: https://www.aidshealth.org
ABOUT THE HOST:
Lauren Hogan is the Associate Director of Communications for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and has been working in a series of roles with the Foundation since 2016. She’s passionate about increasing the public visibility of AIDS, the Foundation's critical work, and how everyday people can help join the fight to make cutting-edge medicine, treatment, and support available for anyone who needs it.
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Lauren Hogan:
Check out what's new and happening from leaders in the community. Learn the ins and outs of advocacy events and activations. Get involved, make an impact, and do something that adds value in your life. AHF is the world's largest HIV/AIDS service organization operating in 45 countries globally, 16 states domestically, including DC and Puerto Rico. Our mission is to provide cutting edge medicine and advocacy regardless of ability to pay.
Hello and welcome to the AHFter Hours Podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Hogan, serving as your liaison to take you on a journey to learn more about AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Our topic for today is learn, lead, act. Before we start the show, please make sure to remember to check out the show notes so you can follow along. Now, let's get started.
Hello everyone and welcome to season two of the AHFter Hours Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Lauren Hogan, and today is a bit of a special day because I have the pleasure of introducing my new co-host for this show. We are so excited to have him here with us, Sean Little. Sean, do you want to say hello to the people?
Sean Little:
Yeah. Hi everyone. I'm really excited to lend my voice and my pizzazz to the AHFter Hours, my favorite time of day.
Lauren Hogan:
So as we dive in today, we're going to be discussing some amazing folks that are really key components of AHF as an organization. We're talking about our amazing mobilizers, who are those that are on the ground, they're at the forefront and they're always advocating for a myriad of topics, but at the end of the day, we couldn't do what we do without them. So really quick, I just want to go around the square and have everybody introduce themselves. So, Jeremy, I'll start with you.
Jeremy Myers:
Yes, my name's Jeremy Myers. I'm originally from Baltimore, Maryland. I'm a mobilizer. I've been with AHF since March of 2021, so just now past the two year anniversary.
Lauren Hogan:
Taylor?
Taylor Watson:
Hey, I'm Taylor. I'm a mobilizer from Iowa. I have been with AHF for three and a half years.
Lauren Hogan:
And Ray?
Raymond Thomas:
Hello, my name is Raymond Thomas. I am the AHF mobilizer in Washington DC. I feel like I've been here forever, but if I had to put a time to it, it's been about eight years.
Lauren Hogan:
The most seasoned person in the square, yes. So I just want to dive right in. So first question that I kind of want to ask you guys is, from your individual perspectives, what is a mobilizer, what do you guys do and just what does that mean to you? Ray, you've been here the longest, so I'm going to start with you.
Raymond Thomas:
So I think for me being a mobilizer, it's like being the five senses of AHF, I put it like that. So in our local communities, we're on the ground taking the pulse of what's... We're seeing what's going on, we're touching people, we're recruiting advocates. We have our hands in a whole lot of stuff, keeping people engaged and interested and aware of what's going on and the things that we are fighting for.
Lauren Hogan:
Taylor?
Taylor Watson:
Yeah, Ray, I like your description and I really like the idea of the senses. I kind of think of it a little bit in a different way. We're almost like the whole bus. We have the fuel, we bring the people, we load them up and we head out to drive change. We are truly the people within... I mean, we have a lot of people within AHF who work really hard to make change for better for people living with HIV, but you can definitely see it within the mobilization team because we just bring that passion, we bring that drive and we're always bringing more people into our work.
Jeremy Myers:
Yeah, I like that. I like that analogy too, Raymond, the five senses. And just to piggyback off what they said, we are the go to people who fill in the blanks. We have really amazing people who work in the clinics, the pharmacies that do really amazing work. Sometimes that work can bog you down, so we need someone to continue that work in the field. So that's kind of what we do, we carry on that message of what's going on in the pharmacies and the clinics and we carry that message out to the community. We try to set partnerships with other community leaders and organizers to join AHF in our efforts. We also talk to legislators. So yeah, we wear a lot of different hats. You have to be nimble, nimble as a mobilizer. One of our leaders calls us community liaisons. So I think it's a really good way to put a nice hat on top of all the many things that we do.
Lauren Hogan:
I mean, and just saying that you guys are the five sentences of AHF, I think is a very deep statement. So just to expound on that a little more is, why do you guys feel that what you do is so important, aside from the five senses, saying that you guys are like the bread and butter of this organization, which we know, but can you just give our listeners just a little bit greater understanding of what that means and what that looks like and why what you do is just so important?
Raymond Thomas:
So I kind of look at it from two standpoints. So we are fighting for rights for people who are living with hiv, and so I think it's important for people who have, especially lived experiences, to realize that there are other people who are out there fighting for them as well. But then also looking at it from a standpoint of just general community awareness, so we're out there. So not only are we fighting for people who are living with HIV, but we're also, when we do our activations, we are out there, we are making a statement, we are bold. We have all types of props and bullhorns and all that types of things When we're doing activations and stuff. And the way we do it really draws attention, and so in addition to letting people know they're not by themselves, we're also spreading awareness in the community.
Taylor Watson:
Yeah, and I just want to build off that too. We're known for being really loud and those drivers of change, and we'll show up on your doorstep and lay it out to you exactly how we feel, but there's a lot of quiet work that goes on behind the scenes that, I think that we have to acknowledge too. I mean, we have a whole legislative side where we've got people always thinking about how we can influence the policy. Who are the people in legislation that we can go and talk to in order to drive those changes? And we've got a great team where they know that if they need to be called upon, they're ready to go and have those conversations with people too.
Jeremy Myers:
Yeah, I like what you said, Taylor, the quiet work that goes on behind the scenes because that is really important. I feel like, since I've been a mobilizer, a lot of my friends tell me, "Oh, your job looks so fun. You're traveling, you go to activations in different cities." I'm like, "Yeah, that's what you see, obviously, but there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes." Like I said, I can't highlight enough the work that they do in the clinics, our linkage to care specialists who actually work hands on with the patients. So that work I feel like can kind of get lost because it's happening behind the scenes. But I feel like as a mobilizer, we are standing for the change to make the public aware of what it is that AHF actually does. Even though we are one of the largest HIV/AIDS providers in the world, we also do a lot of other things. So I think it's important as a mobilizer to shine that light on all the other aspects that we cover.
Sean Little:
Okay, so I guess my question would be, for people who are listening and who are new to the company and just new to everything, so as a mobilizer, what does that really look like in the easy, fast, this is what I do for a living kind of a thing? I hear the word mobilizer and I think, "Oh, do you guys rally? Are you guys the rally girls, or do you guys have demonstrations?" I mean, I don't know. I kind of want to know what the pitch is.
Raymond Thomas:
Ever since I've been with AHF I've always thought that the term mobilizer was a little untraditional. So usually when I talk to people about what I do, I will sometimes use the term community organizer because I feel like people may be more familiar with that term. But it's funny that you said the rally girls, so here in [inaudible 00:08:24] I have a friend who refers to me and my advocates as, "Oh, those are the activist girls." That's what we're refereed to as. But I think it's all of those things. AHF will definitely pull up to be, if I want to be trendy, AHF will pull up and hit the ground running and do whatever we need to do to fight for the communities that we serve.
Jeremy Myers:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I would say, if you want just one tagline, I always say a community disruptor, that's something that we definitely do. But we are definitely tapped into the community, we are community liaisons, but we are that one group of individual who works in the community that's not afraid to disrupt order. You know what I mean? At one of our protests recently, one of the feedback from some of the people who were witnessing the protest was, "It wasn't classy." I'm like, "Well, I mean we're not classy. That's not our job to be classy, our job is to disrupt the order and draw attention to what it is that's going on."
Lauren Hogan:
Yeah. Taylor, anything you want to add?
Taylor Watson:
I almost have nothing to say after Jeremy's explanation there. Because yeah, I think that we are not people that fit into a single box, and I like the description of disruptor to be honest, because that's what we do is we have to do the bold things that make the changes. So whether that be on the ground, whether that's talking to certain legislators, whatever it is, we are those people who are disrupting the way that it is to make it the way that it should be.
Lauren Hogan:
I love that. I think the important part about this is why we always want to have a multitude of people to discuss one topic because the different perspectives is really important because all of you guys' experiences being in this role are different. So I guess my follow up to that is too, Sean said the rally girls and things like that, but what people don't realize is you guys' job is actually kind of dangerous too. You guys are actually put in some, I don't want to say compromising situations, but just situations where your safety can be compromised at the end of the day. So can you guys talk a little bit about that and what your experiences have been and how you guys have had to strategize or overcome them?
Jeremy Myers:
Yeah, I can kick off this one. Honestly, I would say being in advocacy, there is always potential for there to be danger. But what I've learned since working with AHF is the activations are very strategic, they are well planned, and they're always done with intention. We always come in with goals and specific outcomes. So everything we do has the potential to be dangerous, but luckily from my experience, I have not been in any real dangerous situations myself personally, I can't say, I don't know Taylor or Raymond.
Taylor Watson:
Yeah, just to build off that, I think we're really fortunate because I personally have never felt like I'm in a dangerous situation, and I credit a lot of that to the fact that we are... Our team, if you come into a room with every mobilizer sitting there together, it is a family, we have each other's backs. And I really don't like that term in workplaces to describe people as a family, but truly, this is the one place where I have felt like everyone in the room, I know that they have my back and we have each other's best interests.
And so we are always thinking about each other first. And so we really haven't gotten ourselves into any dangerous situations, at least I haven't. But it is something that we have to think about going into activations and things, because we can say some things that, and mind my language, I don't know if I can use this word, but we're going to piss people off sometimes and we have to be just on the ready for those reactions. But to be honest, we're fun people, we're exciting. When you're around us, I think that our energy, when I think about some of our activations we have, it's inspiring stuff. So if you're in that moment with us, it's hard to feel like you are in a dangerous situation because of the way that we all interact with each other.
Raymond Thomas:
Yeah, I'd agree with Jeremy and Taylor. So in all the years that I've done this, I don't ever feel like I've been in any situation where I felt like my life was in danger. And I credit a lot of that to AHF knowing what they're doing. So I've definitely been in instances where police have shown up and immediately whoever's in charge talks to the police and lets them know that, "Hey, we come in peace. We got our permits together, we have a right to be here." So I think that's also important to know that AHF is also looking out for our safety.
Jeremy Myers:
I've definitely been in some uncomfortable situations but never felt in danger.
Taylor Watson:
Yeah, and we're definitely the type of people, if the police want to talk to us, we're ready to bring them in and love on them and just let them know, and I have some stories I can follow this up with, we're ready to make friends with them. And so they know that we're just here to advocate for what we believe in and we leave it at that.
Sean Little:
So I have another thought, a question. As a marketing assistant, my goals are pretty simple and my wins are really simple. It's like, "Oh, I created a luncheon, check mark. Yeah, well job well done." As a mobilizer and stuff, what are your guys' wins? What are your guys' goals? What is a win as a mobilizer? What is an accomplished goal? And I guess, what will be the next goal?
Jeremy Myers:
The goals depends on, for me, as a mobilizer, it depends on what I'm doing at the time. If it's an activation, I think the goal will be to get a response from whoever we're protesting against. Depending on the level of response, that will be a good gauge on how successful it is. If I'm doing a community event, it depends on who my target is. Just last week we did a health summit at Morgan State University, and I would say the way that the event was set up was a lot of industry organizations were there. We were interacting with a lot of the industry organizers, but not so much for the students. So I had to go outside of the conference and go and just interact with more students. So for me, I took that as a success because we had a lot more students come to our table and sign up and get more interactions with them.
So I think it depends on what it is you're doing at the time as a mobilizer, whether it's in the community or if it's an activation. Like I said, we always come into whatever we're doing with a goal in mind and specific outcomes that we want to see, so I think it depends on if we hit those markers, whether or not the goal is met or successful.
Raymond Thomas:
I think that's right. I mean, obviously if we're trying to change legislation, and that happens, that's obviously a win. I think success for me varies, as Jeremy said, from event to event. I've had events where I have had three people come out and I've had events where I've had 50 people come out. And I don't necessarily look at the events where there are less people as not being successful because I've gotten some of my strongest advocates from just being in the room with just those four people. So it's not necessarily about numbers, so I think it's important that we kind of look at it big picture. So they're small victories that kind of help create the larger ones.
Taylor Watson:
Yeah, I love what you just said because it really isn't about the numbers sometimes. I mean, there's sometimes where you get your four best advocates on your side and you go and make some noise and then you're bringing someone to the table. So something that... And I'm going to just give an example here, so we did an activation in Minneapolis against UnitedHealthcare for their PBM practices where they're essentially taking money that we use for our clinics to get people their medications, and we wanted to bring the CEO of UnitedHealthcare to the table. And there was less than 10 of us, and the noise we made and the people looking out the windows of their corporate building watching us and their security guards coming out to let us know we're being too disruptive, that brought them to the table to have that discussion with us. That was one of the first activations where you almost immediately saw the payoff of what you did. And that little piece of, I want to call it, that nugget of success just instantly fueled my fire and reminded me why I'm in this work.
Lauren Hogan:
Thank you guys all, honestly, just for being vulnerable and honest in the spaces in what you do. So we are pretty much at time. So I do have one final question for you guys, and we want to kind of end on a more positive note. But what is your favorite memory of being a mobilizer? I know Taylor, you said you've got some stuff regarding police interaction and how that's gone. So what's your favorite memory just being in this role?
Taylor Watson:
Okay, so I got to take it back to the activations that we did in Boston, which was against Moderna and the patents that they had on the COVID-19 shot. And the fact that we were there for two weeks straight, all the team chipped in some of their own time. We were on almost a rotating schedule where a couple of people would be there for a few days and we'd fly in new folks. And that constant agitation that we brought to those people in that building was just incredible, because you would just watch them, it's my favorite thing to watch them looking out the windows, all the employees who were just like, "What are they doing?" And we were just incessant. And so that was so much fun to see that happen. And we had the security guards out there, people watching us, we'd have employees walking by making snarky comments about what we were doing.
I remember one guy walking past with his bicycle and he's like, "Don't you guys need to go home yet, what are you doing here still?" And it's just those little comments where, in the time, sometimes it could almost, it definitely could agitate me a little bit because you do get that sense of, "Okay, when are they going to break?" But in the long run, we really did make an impact because they were talking about us, they saw us out there and we just pushed hard enough where at the end, if I remember this correctly, they did end up releasing the patents. So it was one of those things where in the short term, maybe you didn't see it pay off the same way and those agitators who were kind of making the comments back were getting to you. But again, we see it out and we see the long run when we do our activations.
Raymond Thomas:
I think my favorite moment is the same at every activation actually. And that moment is the moment when somebody walks by and says, "What are you doing?" Or they're taking a picture, because that's one more person that we've been able to touch and one more person that is able to share in and learn about our message.
Jeremy Myers:
Yeah, I like that. Well, my favorite experience is, it's kind of because of the reason Raymond gave is because of the impact of that moment gave me. And that was when AHF mobilized to Jackson, Mississippi for the water crisis, that was in September. And that was, for me, it was the first time since being with AHF, seeing them rally behind a cause that wasn't directly related to the services or things that we provide.
And it was just really amazing to see how quickly AHF responded and then to see the reception we got in the community there. Because it was interesting at the time that while Jackson was getting all the attention, all the media attention on other people coming in to deliver water, there was a very small pocket of individuals that had gotten forgotten. And that was the people who were in the homes who were not mobile and couldn't get out. And I thought it was so impactful that AHF was able to come in and find that void and fill it as quickly as they did. And it kind of reminded me as why it is I do what I do with for AHF. So for me, that was the most memorable experience I've had.
Lauren Hogan:
Well, thank you guys so much. Like I said, I really appreciate, well, we really appreciate, rather, I should say, all of the amazing things that you guys do and being on the front lines and always advocating and being just the foundation of this organization. So we appreciate you so much and we are definitely looking forward to seeing how you guys can continue to be just these amazing disruptors as you described.
Jeremy Myers:
Thank you. I appreciate being here.
Lauren Hogan:
So thank you guys so much for tuning in and we'll see you next time. Thank you so much for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the show, please subscribe, share it with your friends, like, post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. Follow us on Instagram @ahfterhours and see you next time.