The meaningful involvement and participation of children, young people and young adults is central to our work at Chiva. Our staff team strives to involve young people in everything we do and encourage them to become young leaders, all supported by Participation Manager Abi Carter.
When we start work on a new project, we talk with our youth committee and other young people from the outset to ensure that projects are youth-led and will meet their needs from the start. Young people’s voices are at the heart of our awareness-raising and influencing activities, such as our Education toolkit and Life Growing Up film.
The Chiva Youth Committee
Central to this work is our youth committee, a group of 20 young people who live with HIV and feed into various Chiva projects. Members are aged 13-17 and hold their roles for 2-3 years.
Camp Leaders and other opportunities
We actively encourage young adults and alumni to help lead activities and mentor young people. We recruit a group of Camp Leaders for the Freedom 2 Be support camp each year, a role for 18-25 year-olds who’ve grown up with HIV. We also take on volunteers to support staff in running residential and day meet-ups on an ad hoc basis. Apply to volunteer as a Camp Leader here, or reach out to Abi at abi.carter@chiva.org.uk to enquire about other opportunities.
Clinical trials and studies
We think it’s extremely important for young people living with HIV to be actively involved in clinical research and trials. Take a look at the ways young people are getting involved.
Contact Abi on abi.carter@chiva.org.uk to find out more about our participation work. We are always interested in working with other organisations on specific youth participation projects.
