where sex and fashion intersect: smart cougars partner with one to host project condom

On Wednesday, April 18th, The University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work’s SMART Cougars (Substance Use, Mental Health, and HIV/AIDS Risk Assessment and Testing) celebrated sexual health awareness by partnering with ONE® to host Project CONDOM. 

This year's event kicked off with a campus resource fair where student and community organizations including SMART Cougars, Avenue 360 Health and Wellness, Graduate College of Social Work, Gilead, STICC, FAB, CPE, Baylor Teen Health Clinic, UH Wellness, and the LGBTQ Resource Center distributed sexual health resources and swag to students, including condoms, lubricants, and oral dams.

After the fair, students gathered in the Student Center's South Houston Room where local drag artist Angelina DM Trailz, host of this year's Project CONDOM, performed “Fashion” by Lady Gaga. Following her performance, student models entered the runway, displaying a variety of unique garments featuring non-lubricated condoms donated by our team at ONE®. This year's show featured designs by seven organizations/individuals: SMART Cougars, Avenue 360 Health and Wellness, Cougar Peer Educators (CPE), Fashion and Business (FAB), Global, Baylor Teen Clinic, and guest designer, Blackberri.

To keep attendees engaged, organizers invited them on stage where they participated in of games for a chance to win a variety of sexual health-related prizes. At the end of the show, Angelina DM Trailz performed once again, this time to “Me Too” by Meghan Trainor.

To cap off the night, SMART Cougars and Avenue 360 provided free rapid HIV testing to attendees with the goal of encouraging students to know their HIV status and view sexual health as part of their overall health.

Our team at ONE® thanks SMART Cougars for hosting a fantastic event. This year's show drew over 100 attendees from whom organizers garnered extremely positive feedback. Furthermore, the event could not have been a success without the help of additional partners and sponsors including Gilead, STICC, Trader Joe’s, Berta’s Bakery, Ogle Cosmetology, Domino’s, and Adam & Eve.

Congratulations SMART Cougars! #RubberontheRunway

More about the SMART Cougars program:

SMART Cougars (Substance Use, Mental Health, and HIV/AIDS Risk Assessment and Testing) is a grant funded partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and research program between the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work and Avenue 360 Health & Wellness, formerly Houston Area Community Services and Bering Omega. Located in the UH Wellness Center, SMART Cougars seeks to prevent and reduce substance abuse, mental illness, and the transmission of HIV/AIDS among students at UH and surrounding communities who are Hispanic/Latino, African American, Asian, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern and North African who are ages 18-24. SMART Cougars aims to achieve this by reducing the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, mental health, and substance use as well as promoting sexual health and sex positivity. While minority young adults are the targeted population, any individual at the UH campus and in the surrounding communities that seeks services can participate in SMART Cougars.