Young adults weekend away
Chiva organised a residential weekend for young adults aged 18-28 to come together to discuss the support needs for their age group and to explore future Chiva provision.
16 participants, 3 staff and 1 Chiva trustee spent 3 days in rural Oxfordshire exploring key themes relating to the support needs of this age group.
The evenings were spent exploring more personal journeys growing up with HIV and activities were designed to allow the participants to express themselves creatively and to explore aspirations for the future, with a particular focus on well being and self-care.
The daytime sessions were more broadly focused on exploring the needs of the cohort of 18+ young adults who have grown up with HIV. The group used Lego Serious Play to map out these needs. Participants worked in groups to come up with a list of approximately 50 barriers which prevented them and their peers from fulfilling their true potential.
Using a ranking exercise, participants voted for the themes or areas which they felt were most significant. During the morning of the second day the groups developed these ideas around future service provision further and then had to pitch their plans to a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style panel. The groups named their programmes as follows: Peace over Mind, Links, The Next Chapter and Quite The Stigma.