ViiV Healthcare Australia Announces Winners Of Their Positive Action Community Grants

ViiV Healthcare Australia has announced the four Australian community-based HIV organisations that are set to receive funding of the Positive Action Community Grants (PACG) from its eighth cycle of the program.

These four out of the five recipients have received their part of the $200,000 which will be used to address the quality of life for those living with HIV, among other HIV health related research.

The grants were awarded to:

• Positive Life NSW who aim to provide support young people transitioning from paediatric to adult HIV care services, manage mental health, wellbeing and quality of life as they navigate the healthcare system.
• Living Positive Victoria with their aim to improve health literacy and understanding of HIV across the many multicultural communities and providing translations for important HIV related information in eight languages.
• National Association of People Living with HIV Australia (NAPWHA) wants to bring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with HIV from across the country for a 3-day residential workshop that aims to promote healing, lived experience expression, and increase engagement in treatment and care.
• National Association of People Living with HIV Australia (NAPWHA) to help them with their regular podcast that hopes to collect and broadcast stories and voices of those living with HIV.
• Bobby Goldsmith Foundation for their aim to evaluate the extent to which a tailored suite of Health and Well-being programs can help the quality of life for people with HIV.

By receiving the funding, Community Engagement and Partnerships Manager at ViiV Healthcare Australia Ann Maccarrone hopes that these projects will have a positive and lasting impact on those living with HIV.

Science can help break down #HIV stigma and discrimination.

Simple as that. pic.twitter.com/OKZlgoQPb4

— ViiV Healthcare (@ViiVHC) February 16, 2023

“We are proud to be supporting community organisations who are actively working to improve the lives of people living with HIV,” Maccarrone said.

“While all the submissions from this cycle were impressive, the projects submitted by the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation, Positive Life NSW, Living Positive Victoria and National Association of People Living with HIV, stood out for their ability to address the unmet needs of people living with HIV while working to make tangible and meaningful impact on improving quality of life.”

Positive Life NSW

The Star Observer spoke with the CEO of Positive Life NSW, Jane Costello who spoke about how the organisation plans to use the funding.

“We will be using our Positive Action grant to support our new Positive Transitions program, which will help support young people as they transition from paediatric to adult HIV care services,” she said.

“The monthly sessions will create a safe space for young people living with HIV, where they can discuss critical topics and share their experiences around navigating the healthcare system, treatment and sexual health information and decision making.”

Costello agreed that the use of social media to help de-stigmatise HIV and educate others, particularly young people, on HIV is an important tool.

“With many people – especially young people – being very active on social media, it’s important that safety is paramount, evidence-based and updated information is accessible, easy to understand and shared on these platforms,” she said.

“This is something that our Positive Transitions program touches on during the monthly workshops.”

As the Viiv (PACG) is an annual thing, Costello hasn’t ruled out applying for the grant again for future projects.

“When we have eligible projects in the future, we would most definitely explore the opportunity to apply for another Positive Action grant,” she told the Star Observer.