from AIDS Vancouver
‘The New Face of HIV’, represents a community initiative to better reflect the realities of living with HIV today. In British Columbia, people living with HIV have access to the best treatments at the earliest stages of infection. Advancements in HIV treatment make treated HIV a manageable condition. Individuals with access to modern treatment interventions such as HAART can now expect to live normal lifespans with few, if any, HIV-related negative health outcomes.
There is substantial evidence that the likelihood of transmitting the HIV virus by someone who is undetectable is negligible.
The New Face of HIV is an education and awareness project that will work with targeted groups who are currently the most impacted by the virus (gay, bi, trans, OMS men, indigenous people, vulnerable women, youth). Through our HIV Online Helpline, social media and print campaign, we will engage the public with the most up to date information on HIV, in order to reduce stigma, thus improving testing and treatment and prevention outcomes that will reduce infections.
The term “HIV-positive” is currently an umbrella term used to describe anyone living with HIV, regardless of their viral load, prognosis, and infectiousness. Due to medical advances in treating HIV, this is no longer accurate. By rebranding HIV and using new terminology such as “Undetectable”, “Treated HIV”, “HIV Neutral” and/or “HIV in Remission” we can encourage education about HIV and move away from the negative health associations and outcomes of the term HIV-positive. New language is necessary to reduce stigma and promote empowerment. Undetectable = Untransmittable.
Some individuals in the Undetectable community have already started to use these new terms to describe themselves. Using more accurate language to describe their health condition has helped them feel more empowered and freed them to disclose their HIV status. With this project, we hope to make this new language common terminology that can help undetectable individuals feel more confident talking about their status, while also facilitating adherence to treatment, decreasing barriers to testing and expanding safer sex messaging.
- If you are interested in being a part of this exciting project:
Are a person living with HIV and are Undetectable? - Do you have a passion for educating people and delivery dynamic workshops?
- Do you possess experience in working with volunteers and in providing workshops and seminars?
- Do you have at least two years’ relevant work experience in a nonprofit organization in volunteer management?
- Are you available to work part-time, two days/week, in a fairly independent role on a temporary contract basis?
If you were able to check off all of the boxes above, then please send your resume/CV to:
[email protected]. No phone calls please.
This posting will remain open until a suitable candidate is found. Although we consider every application carefully, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. AIDS Vancouver is an equal opportunity employer and we encourage applications from those of diverse backgrounds (incl. gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, community origin, and HIV status).