In our stigma plans we published last March, we made a commitment to work with others to end stigma in London by 2030. We want to tackle HIV stigma in London.
One of the main areas we identified was supporting people living with HIV to end self-stigma. This negative self-perception can deeply affect people’s wellbeing, impacting physical, mental and emotional health.
The first step will be to form a ‘community of practice’. This is a group of people with a common interest, coming together to learn from their joint experiences.
We will be looking for individuals or organisations with experience of empowering people to change how they feel about their HIV status, as well as confidently challenge discrimination. We will be funding the community of practice to work together for two months on a HIV stigma empowerment framework.
The application process for this will open the beginning of February. Subscribe to our newsletter on this website and our social media accounts to keep up to date.
Fast-Track Cities will also be recruiting a skilled facilitator and report writer. Their role will be to gather information and evidence from the community of practice, and turn the findings into a framework.
This framework will be shared later on this year. At this stage, organisations will be invited to bid for funding to deliver the empowerment work to tackle self-stigma.
Email to find out more about the community of practice or the facilitator/report writer role at hlp.londonftci@nhs.net