2007 Conference of People Living with HIV
and Aids
Brace yourself for the largest ever event of UK positive people, writes conference
manager Malcolm Bryant
Next year will see the biggest ever conferencing event for people living with
HIV in the UK. Partners UKC, Positively Women and the National Long Term Survivors
Group will bring together people in all four countries that make up the UK.
In 2004 we held a hugely sucessful conference for people living with HIV and Aids. It was entitled: Changing Tomorrow - Am I Doing Something? This time we shall go further by challenging ourselves to be innovative. This time we ask What Are We Doing?
The 2007 Conference aims include:
• Encouraging community leadership
• Improving regional representation of people living with HIV
• Creating opportunities to form sustainable support networks
• Improving access to employment while managing healthcare, education, legal and finances
• Bringing the experiences of Ensuring Positive Futures (EPF) programme to a national audience
The 2004 Changing Tomorrow conference was a fantastic success; people came
together, developed their knowlege in workshops and seminar, shared experiences;
friendships blossomed and people left feeling energised with renewed purpose.
However, the last conference was seriously oversubscribed and many were unable
to attend due to a lack of places. With this in mind, for 2007 we propose
a conferencing structure that allows us to involve up to 4,500 plwha throughout
the UK
To ensure everyone across the UK gets a chance to make their voices heard, from spring to early summer, regional mini-conferences will be held. A ‘traditional style’ conference in September 2007 in London will be fed by these regional events, workshops and seminars. In turn, findings from the London conference will then be reported back in 13 regional feedback sessions.
By ‘conferencing’ this way, we can reach more people living with
HIV in more parts of the UK. We will engage established clinic user groups,
as well as networks that came together at the Changing Tomorrow in 2004, including
Africans Getting Involved and Poz-fem UK.
In addition, we want to capture the views those unable to attend the regional
or national events. A secure website will create a safe home for a broader
network of people living with HIV, giving a voice and providing support – especially to those who feel silenced by stigma and discrimination.
We will be recruiting 24 volunteers who will be trained to facilitate the
conferencing process. These volunteers will in turn work with regional partners
to train and develop regional volunteers.
These volunteers will help establish the corner stones of an accessible network
of people living with HIV. The training will include courses on living with
HIV; skills development including effective listening and communication; workshop
facilitation; report writing and conference management.
To ensure an inclusive agenda, a strategic steering group will oversee the planning of the conference. This will include representatives from professional bodies and HIV organisations. But most importantly we are aiming for involvement from people living with HIV - and that means you.
For the last two years EPF has been testing ways of supporting people with HIV towards gaining employment. They have also been pioneering ways to help unions and employers to tackle stigma and discrimination in the workplace. EPF will be at the conference to make their findings available and ensure that positive people from around the country are aware of what has been learned. Hopefully you will be able to take some of those lessons home with you.
Please take the time to complete the questionnaire on line by clicking here. We know it is long but only by canvassing your opinions can we find out what you want this conference to be. You are the experts on living with HIV and your views will ensure this conferencing experience is the success we know it will be.
• For more information contact Malcolm Bryant, 2007 conference manager
at mbryant@ukcoalition.org
back to contents - Issue 127
back to top of page
