About us

Living Positive Victoria is a not-for-profit, community-based organisation representing all people living with HIV in Victoria since 1988, and is committed to the advancement of human rights and wellbeing of all people living with HIV (PLHIV).

In response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, Living Positive Victoria was created as a safe place to provide support and advocate for those living with virus. The demand for services increased over the years and the organisation has now grown to a team of 16 individuals providing workshops, peer support and activities that increase the psychological, emotional and social wellbeing of those living with, or affected by HIV. Living Positive Victoria also works closely in partnership with a range of HIV sector and other organisations to deliver a comprehensive and coordinated response to the needs of PLHIV in Victoria, nationally and internationally.

Living Positive Victoria’s services reach a member base of more than 1600 individuals, their partners and family members and their families across all races, ethnicities, genders, ages and sexual identities.

Living Positive Victoria is an Australian, incorporated association and registered Australian Charity for taxation purposes.

Values

Dignity – we are proud of who we are, where we have come from, and the path we are leading.

Innovation – we are agile in our responsiveness to the needs of our community, effecting change from within.

Respect – we respect and support our members’ autonomy over their individual life-decisions and experiences.

Diversity – we support, and in turn are strengthened by, our community’s diversity and their confidence to express it in all aspects of life.

Vision

Living Positive Victoria shares the vision of the National Association of People with HIV Australia of a world where people living with HIV live their lives to their full potential, in good health and free from discrimination.

Mission

To enable and empower all people affected by and living with HIV in Victoria to be part of the response that seeks an end to the HIV epidemic.

Membership of Living Positive Victoria is FREE and is open to any person in VIC/TAS living with HIV, family members, health care workers, friends and supporters.

Living Positive Victoria works to provide programs and services for people living with HIV that go towards improved health education and awareness, building resilience, community connectivity, capacity building and peer-to-peer support.

With a one-off donation or regular recurring donations, your support will make a difference to the quality of life of people living with HIV and help us address the psychological and physical health barriers that alter the ability of people living with HIV to live the best life they can.

In preparation for our 2021 AGM, I’ve asked myself many times how do I truly reflect on what has been yet another unprecedented year? To say it has been challenging for our community, for other marginalised communities with which we intersect, for Victorians and for local and global human rights champions, would be too gentle.

The past twelve months have been a force to be reckoned with but the strength, kindness and resilience that I’ve witnessed in these confronting times is honestly what has been unprecedented for me. I have to tell you, dear members, that the staff of LPV and the CEO have been remarkable. The board and I have been emboldened by the support the staff team have demonstrated for each other and for every HIV positive person, their partner, their family or friend that has engaged with Living Positive Victoria during this time.

TEAM LPV has remained agile and adaptable to the needs of our members as our welfare and mental and physical health have become even greater priorities than they already were for our community. As the CEO’s report will mention, great focus was and is still placed on maintaining funding for our Special FLIP fund to provide assistance for those most vulnerable in our community. Please read the CEO’s report to see the details of all the crucial operational key pillar projects that continued throughout this time as well as exciting new projects – in particular the commencement of our Reconciliation Action Plan to support the national reconciliation movement and ensure that Living Positive Victoria develops respectful relationships and creates meaningful opportunities with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as we continue to grow and develop as an organisation.

The board turned to TEAM LPV’s values statement once more to guide us and help shape our governance vision for the year. We planned and executed a number of board planning days in person between lockdowns to focus on our responsiveness to the needs of our community but also to remain innovative and encourage each director to keep pressing forward within their area of expertise and individual skillset that they brought to the board. Working groups were a big focus of our year as a way to broaden our collective scope but also to take the time while our public and social services were paused to look internally and improve ways of working, to future plan and develop long term strategic goals. This resulted in a revived Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Working Group (I still encourage members and allies from CALD groups to join or express any interest you may have), the Fundraising Working Group put in place a program created by previous board director Judith Ardnt, an Olympic cyclist, who showed us how to use sport to showcase the bountiful and healthy lives positive people can lead today while also increasing the visibility of plhiv while raising awareness and funds at the same time. This was to culminate in the Great Victorian Bike ride in December 2021, with a team of LPV riders. Sadly, this has been postponed due to current lockdowns but look out for us in the near future as soon as the chance to ride ridiculous distances with TEAM LPV on our shirts becomes possible again. The Governance Working Group reviewed and streamlined our suite of policies and procedures and adapted these to meet the changing dynamics in working through numerous and sudden lockdowns.

Despite the constraints of the year, I have been immensely privileged to observe the dynamism of Living Positive Victoria staff and volunteers, who have achieved so much professionally and personally in the face of so many changes to their plans and hard work. They have made my term as President fly by with their perseverance and dedication to creating uplifting support during such complex times. Thank you to you all.

I also cannot commend our members and our greater community highly enough in how you continue to show those new to the concept of an enduring a viral pandemic how to practice compassion, strength and care without judgement or stigma. Thank you for the tools and advice that you also continue to share with me, the other directors and with your own communities.

I’m stepping down as President at this year’s AGM to focus on an exciting opportunity in my career as the new Community Education Advisor for Fire Rescue Victoria. I hope to remain a close support to the board and the new directors and find more opportunities to continue to volunteer for Living Positive Victoria in any way that I can, as I will deeply miss my role here.

This has been another fulfilling, vigorous and effective year at Living Positive Victoria and I thank everyone who continues to choose this organisation, to participate, to collaborate and to share your lives with us.

Christabel Millar – President

Welcome to my second report in my role as Treasurer.

On the bright side of these lockdowns, our financial position has been positively affected but our inability to deliver our full calendar of services, goes a long way to explaining the $87,000 surplus in our accounts, on top of the $27,000 from last financial year. This sets us in good stead for the coming years, as we leave lockdowns behind us and return to our regular service delivery.

As a service-based organisation, salaries and wages, along with rent, remain our biggest expenses. We saw program-specific costs drop, as our events calendar dried up.

In addition to the net surplus income figures, our net cash savings is also increased year on year, for the reasons above. This leaves us with more than sufficient financial fuel in the tank to be able to rebound strongly next calendar year.

Excitingly, our fundraising working group has this year commenced its first major fundraising event – a team we’ve entered in the Great Victorian Bike Ride. We’ve sourced corporate sponsors to get the team there and we have been fundraising hard individually and as a team to raise as much money as we can, while also continuing our ongoing fight against stigma. Our aim is to prove that being HIV positive should not be an impediment to living a full life. We’re seeking to raise $10,000 to help us launch new programs to help the community.

Finally, aligned with my role as Treasurer, my goal is to ensure the long-term financial viability of this organisation, which has worked hard for the past 30 plus years to deliver for our community. There’s ongoing work to review our long-term viability, with a focus on better aligning our fixed costs (like rent and wages) with our variable costs (like donations and funding).

Matthew Gallagher – Treasurer

Members, allies, partners, and friends.

For Victorians in particular, the year 20/21 was like no other. Melbourne endured what felt like an unending period of 112 days in stage 4 lockdown. At the time, it was quite difficult to convey what that shared experience was like to those outside our Victorian bubble, as we continued to contemplate the second pandemic we have faced together in our lifetimes, as people living with HIV.

At times, the impact on our services and our people living with HIV (PLHIV) population felt overwhelming but drawing from the collective strength of TEAM LPV, we implemented novel ways to stay connected and provide support, which remained our primary focus. Welfare, mental health and emergency support came sharply into focus in a way we had not experience for almost two decades.

Covid-19 and the response to it, continues to disproportionately affect communities and individuals at the margins and I want to assure all our members, that we have continued to work with the support of our funders in sustaining our special FLIP fund to support those most vulnerable within our diverse HIV community. Although direct service delivery was obstructed by circumstance, many crucial HIV response key pillar projects continued on behind the scenes. These included but were not limited to:

• Consultations for the upcoming State HIV Strategy
• The Alfred HIV Services review
• New reporting frameworks for DHHS
• The provision of information regarding access to vaccinations for PLHIV under group 1b of the roll out strategy
• Communicating with our membership around service adaptations and event postponements, arising from shifting levels of restrictions
• Participation in a diverse range of forums and webinars at both local and national levels

We spent much of our time trialing new ways of engaging our community across virtual formats. Initially things were a bit hit and miss with lower numbers of our membership engaging but with some adjustments and consistency with providing options for connection, we saw advances and innovation start to slowly build a sense of online community across some of our key populations and broader events calenda. This enabled us to extend our reach outside of inner metropolitan areas facilitating broader PLHIV engagement.

Many of these innovations and new ways of working will remain in place as we continue to chart a pathway through the pandemic. I would like to acknowledge our amazing operational staff group, board of governance and sector partner CEO’s Aaron Cogle from NAPWHA, Kirsty Machon from Positive Women Victoria and Simon Ruth from Thorne Harbour Health. I have personally drawn much benefit from the reciprocal collegiate support received throughout this challenging period. The strength of these primary relationships remain core to supporting all PLHIV regardless of where they access their care and support across our state.

We have come through 20/21 with stronger relationships built on endurance and fierce determination to support the ever-diversifying communities with which we engage.

We did have some opportunities to connect, with an in-person Planet Positive event held in March, exactly 12 months after our previous event. The emotion and relief in just being together was on display and played a part in reinforcing our resilience built on social connection.

Midsumma Festival was postponed, but we were able to participate in the Pride March, held in May. There was a strong contingent including children and families marching together with TEAM LPV under the banner of Together Again.

We also managed to have a NAPWHA Operational Leadership Group meeting in NSW which gave us much heart and strength to continue working together on areas of shared interest.

Behind the scenes, the work went on and despite all the challenges we were able to deliver some key projects and begin shaping others that are currently underway.

We recently launched our Disclosure Guide via a virtual event. We had a range of speakers from diverse community and identity backgrounds who shared disclosure stories both good and bad. These narratives born of lived experience added another dimension to the content contained within the resource which is available via our website.

We remain grateful for the grant we received from the Victorian Law Foundation which enabled us to have that document reviewed by HALC to ensure legal accuracy so that people living with HIV now have access to a source document providing relevant and contemporary information regarding the responsibilities and considerations that enable better informed personal decisions around the what, where, who and how of HIV disclosure in Victoria.

I would like to acknowledge Queensland Positive People for their support and sharing of the IP from their disclosure guide, which provided a solid foundation for us to work from and adapt to our local jurisdictional requirements and considerations.

We were engaged as lead partner in a Burnet Institute grant to develop an online portal for HIV and Ageing - Well Beyond 50.

This site, which is hosted on our web portal, provides a range of information on relevant subject matter and opportunities for community connection for people over 50 living with HIV.

We will continue to develop content for this website over the months and years ahead and launch this website officially in early 2022.

This website is live now and I invite all PLHIV and their families and carers to take the opportunity to engage with the site and participate in its evaluation.

People living with HIV have been involved in the development of content for this exciting project defined by recognised MIPA principals which help us support people living with HIV across their lifetime journey.

More than 50% of all people living with HIV are now over fifty and with a welcomed reduction in new diagnosis, this cohort will continue to grow into the future.

It is our long-term vision that this website, with the support of our sector partners, will become a trusted Victorian services directory, a source of relevant and contemporary information and community connection to assist you in maintaining crucial quality of life measures by extending the sense of shared partnership and agency in care and support our diverse community in ageing well.

In February we held a staff planning day at the Multicultural Hub in Melbourne’s CBD. It was a great chance for our staff team to come together to discuss our recent challenges and prioritise key projects moving forward including our LMS (learning management system) to upgrade our IT infrastructure; begin our journey toward a RAP (reconciliation action plan) and look toward to our involvement in the Our Lives Beyond Resilience – Positive People’s Congress, now rescheduled to take place in February 2022.

We acknowledge the costs and heavy burden that the last year has had at the individual and community level and I continue to take pride in the way that our community has supported each other over the last 12 months.

Members, I am humbled by the resilience and determination we have witnessed over the last year. It has been a great well of strength for TEAM LPV to draw from and re-enforces our determination to build an organisation that is safe, accessible and relevant for every person living with HIV in Victoria.

Thank you.

Richard Keane – Chief Executive Officer

Adapting to change

To be able to maintain regular and consistent contact with members, clients, partner organisations and the community during the 20/21 period has meant a re-think of the way we present our programs, services and events in an effort to sustain ongoing and meaningful engagement across all levels of the organisation.

The big question we had to ask ourselves was how to adapt to the hurdles that CV-19 had placed in front of us so that we could continue to deliver HIV support and education. For Health Promotion Officer, Vic Perri, delivering programs for those newly diagnosed with HIV as well as people with HIV 50 years of age and over, the change to navigating from 'in person' to the online space had to be quick. This involved a lot of multidimensional learning. As for many other people, zoom became the video communication of choice. To deliver the practicalities of a workshop, for example, there were many inherent challenges in communicating online compared to in person. The feel of the room, the clear visual cues and the intimate sense given by a physical presence previously felt with 'in person' workshops/groups was all gone as we gathered online.

One of the other challenges was asking people to commit to yet 'another' zoom session. One of the things that COVID has done as we hibernate at home is the blurring of the borders of our previously compartmental lives. From social catch ups via video on Skype, Facetime and now increasingly on zoom to working and participating in workshops/education. Service providers such as ourselves were asking people to spend even more time on zoom. It proved to be a big ask!

While there had been ups and downs and 'technical glitches' along the way, the main thing that we had done throughout is to stay connected as well as given the opportunity to our members to stay connected with each other. Even if our members had faced challenges of their own, just knowing that Living Positive Victoria was always there, even through lockdowns, gave a sense of comfort and security and would have gone some way in helping to ensure that isolation would not be a feature of our lives during the pandemic.

“When I signed up for Living Positive Victoria’s Taking Charge – Peer Support Network in 2020, I had no idea what lay ahead of me. I got to know and interact with Vic and Gerry - the amazing presenters. They made me feel welcome in a safe and secure Zoom environment. I applaud them for taking time out of their Tuesday evenings, so that they could help people like myself … now that the program has finished, I know that I have the tools to live a healthier life mentally and physically. I have made amazing connections with people I call my friends now.”

The past 18 months has created quite a number of challenges in the delivery of both talks and training for the Positive Speakers Bureau (PSB). The disruption to services that the PSB provided was initially quite challenging for members and clients alike. The ability for our speakers to attend events in person were severely curtailed, and ongoing lockdowns also meant that many of the training sessions and one-on-one coaching of new speakers could not take place physically.

However, the CV-19 crisis stimulated new and innovative ways of engagement for the PSB. Training moved to online training sessions using video conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Teams so trainee members of the PSB could engage with their peers and maintain their connection with Living Positive Victoria. Telephone conferencing and one-on-one training via email was also initiated so that trainee speakers could continue on their journey of becoming advocates for themselves and others.

The delivery of talks to clients also necessitated a change in how the PSB provided speakers. Speakers were requested to provide a list of platforms they could use from their home electronic devices and asked if they were comfortable in delivering their talks using video conferencing platforms. Living Positive Victoria also offered support to any speakers who may have needed support in downloading or upgrading such services.

The move to online presentation of our key calendar events, the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial and our World AIDS Day events, while presenting significant logistical shifts in approach, delivered outstanding results in terms of increased attendance and scope of engagement.

For example, our traditional in-person International AIDS Candlelight Memorial would attract between 100 – 150 attendees each year. The streaming of the virtual event in May 2021 saw 2,435 people view the event via either Facebook or Youtube. Similarly, our 2020 World AIDS Day event reached 1038 people online, compared to approximately 150 attendees at a traditional in person event.

During a year of restrictions and lockdowns, some of our events for women, heterosexual folk and families, such as Camp Seaside and the Christmas Party, were unable to go ahead. Some aspects of these events were able to be delivered remotely, such as the provision of Christmas gifts for children, and the hosting a costume trivia night online.

Our collective ability to pivot in the face of change is evidence of the strength of our community and our continuing desire to hold on tight to the togetherness we have formed, as people who know unity through adversity.

LIVING LONGER AND HEALTHIER

In 2020 Living Positive Victoria engaged its first ever Elder Peer Advocate to work within our existing Peer Navigator program to support people who are living with HIV 50 years and over. This position was made possible with funding from the Gilead Together Grant Program, for a twelve month term.

The role of the Peer Elder Advocate was designed to address the social isolation that can increase as people grow older and to ensure that people remain connected to their communities and in appropriate clinical care.

Living Positive Victoria’s Peer Support Manager, Sara Graham, says, “The commencement of the role was timely, with recent months being particularly difficult for older people living in Victoria. For many older people living with HIV, this is the second major pandemic they have experienced in their lifetimes. The Elder Peer Advocate will act as a valuable member of the Peer Navigation Team and provide experience, insight and compassion and bring invaluable strength to our older members and our clinical and community partnerships to support the wellbeing of older Victorians living with HIV.”

Living Positive Victoria CEO, Richard Keane, says that “upon applying for this grant in 2019, we could not have foreseen how crucial this opportunity would be for older people living with HIV in the context of, what for many, is the second life threatening pandemic we have experienced across our lifetimes.

At the time of announcing the grant, Amy Flood, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, Gilead Sciences said, “we believe that strong community partnerships can have a significant impact in the communities affected by serious diseases. The Gilead Together Grant is a testament to this belief and is a unique programme that supports projects that place people at the centre of care. We look forward to partnering with organisations to create an environment supportive of people living with HIV to enable them to reach their fullest potential each day and live a fulfilling life.”

During this time, Well Beyond 50, a web portal designed for PLHIV 50 and over, was developed by the Burnet Institute in partnership with Living Positive Victoria, Thorne Harbour Health and Alfred Health, along with Positive Women Victoria and Bolton Clarke.

The objective of the website was to connect people with the right support in relation to health concerns as well as programs and resources to assist with day-to-day needs. The site contains a social hub, offering a place where users can find information on volunteering opportunities, events or peer-led programs. It also provides links to groups and online communities of people living with HIV for socialising and networking. Additionally, a service directory provides information about organisations, services and clinics that support older people living with HIV.

Well Beyond 50 website is a single destination for everything related to HIV and ageing. It aims to simplify and enhance access to community connection, information and resources that will enable people to live and age well with HIV.

The collaboration was strengthened by teaming up with the HIV Futures study at La Trobe University where respondents aged over 50 were asked questions about their health and social needs. Responses revealed that people ageing with HIV experience a range of challenges beyond those directly related to HIV. Isolation, loneliness and poor mental health were prevalent concerns affecting quality of life. These findings guided several focus group discussions with community members in 2020 to deepen our understanding of lived experiences of ageing with HIV and preferences for addressing these needs through a website.

Engaging with the community was pivotal. It ensured that the platform would reflect the needs of people ageing with HIV in Victoria.

At Living Positive Victoria’s 2021 International AIDS Candlelight Memorial we joined organisations worldwide to raise HIV awareness and remember the friends and family we have lost to AIDS, along with all people who continue to live with HIV.

We heard keynote addresses from Professor Suzanne Crowe AM, and Ms Judith Gorst, as well as personal stories by John & Susan from the Positive Speakers Bureau.

So powerful and rare were the stories of lived-experience by Susan and John that we re-live them in this year’s annual report.

EMPOWERING OUR COMMUNITY

With a key mission of working to advance the human rights and wellbeing of people living with HIV, with dignity and respect, Living Positive Victoria is proud to have launched a guide to the legal issues around disclosing your HIV status in Victoria.

The Disclosing Your HIV Status Guide for Victoria was developed in collaboration with the HIV/AIDS Legal Centre of NSW and funded by the Victoria Law Foundation. Queensland Positive People developed a socio-psycho aspect to their guide, which is a tool to help people living with HIV to understand the realities of disclosing their status. It was this part of the guide that made us realise there is more to producing this guide than just educating the body positive about the legalities of disclosing their status. From this, we decided to make a second version of the guide which would be a quick look up guide written in simple English to make the guide more accessible. It is not often that people need to read the full disclosure guide. Generally, people have a specific question that needs answering or a specific situation they would like to know more about. The pocket disclosure guide provides succinct and easy-to-digest answers for frequently asked questions. It also points to the relevant sections of the full guide for anything more complicated.

Living Positive Victoria has focused on gathering resources and curating collaborations to develop this resource because, despite how far we have come, stigma is still a very real issue for people living with HIV.

While developing this guide, it was discovered that the ‘sex by fraud’ definition in Victoria means that if someone asks you your HIV status with regards to sex, then you must tell the truth so as not to deceive the person into having sex with you. While consent is sexy and informed consent even sexier, there is a point where this becomes blatant bigotry; especially considering the biomedical advancements we have made with both PrEP and U=U with treatment as prevention. Living Positive Victoria is currently working to get a better understanding of where this line sits and is collaborating with other communities, such as the trans community, to make ensure that xenophobia is not given a legitimate platform.

While the development of the disclosure guide has shown us some areas of Victorian law which need addressing, it has also shown us other areas that need highlighting. One such area is solid organ donations.

Not many people know that there is nothing stopping people living with HIV from registering on the organ donor register or that HIV is not a contraindication for solid organ transplantation. Positive to positive solid organ donation has already happened in Australia. This is an important medical advancement for Australia, considering around 5% of people living with HIV have kidney disease. Living Positive Victoria is currently working with the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand, DonateLife, and NAPWHA to develop a nationwide health promotion campaign to inform people living with HIV of this. We are also collaborating with the Peter Doherty Institute to create an organ tissue bank to further biomedical research on the long-lasting effects of HIV on the bodies of those living with it.

The development of the Victorian Disclosure Guide has given us a clear map of the current legal landscape for living with HIV in Victoria.

It has also shown us which communities within the body positive that are most concerned by these laws. In the three months prior to the launch of the guide, Living Positive Victoria had received one request for advice from a single unemployed heterosexual CALD male regarding sex, relationships and criminalisation. In the three months after the launch of the guide, we have had two requests from a single CALD working mother regarding bridging visas, Centrelink ineligibility, and denied income insurance upon declaring HIV, as well as the same heterosexual CALD man from the three months prior regarding a workplace form at start of his employment requesting a list of medications.

Although the number of inquiries did not decrease after the launch of the guide, our peer navigation team has felt more confident in discussing possible legal situations with their clients and referring them to the guide. The peer navigation team has also reported that their clients feel more secure about the information given in the guides (and from the peer navigators) as they understand that the guide has been checked and verified by appropriate authorities.

Living Positive Victoria’s peer navigation team has noted that the launch of the disclosure guide has generated more discussion around the current legal obligations in Victoria within the body positive. The guide has caused people living with HIV to check their current understanding of the topic and to then discuss their previous misconceptions with their friends, peers, and support networks.

Not only does the guide bring Victoria in line with the other states of Australia in providing legal information, but it is also increasing the legal literacy within the body positive in Victoria. Living Positive Victoria is proud to have developed such invaluable resources for its members.

GROWING AND LEARNING TOGETHER

It’s the strength of our combined communities that have allowed us to maintain connection and foster supportive relationships when times get tough.

At this time, it’s appropriate to acknowledge the five-year mark since the merger between Straight Arrows and Living Positive Victoria and it is timely to reflect on the impact of the merger on Living Positive Victoria’s organisational capacity and service delivery for all people living with HIV in Victoria. At the time of the merger, the leadership of the two organisations were keen to ensure the sustainability of services for women, heterosexual men, and families, and to expand the service model of Living Positive Victoria to include direct services to all people living with HIV.

Prior to the merger there was some trepidation from Straight Arrows members and the leadership that the needs of women, heterosexual men and families would be subsumed in the larger organisation of Living Positive Victoria. Throughout the merger process, open and robust discussions were held between the leadership of both organisations to ensure that this would not be the case. Since the merger, our service offering for women and heterosexual men has expanded since the merger. We have retained important programs such as our camp for families, our Christmas party, dinner and chat for heterosexual men, and Phoenix for Women. We have introduced new offerings, including an increase in the number of places at our adult retreat for women and heterosexual men, a mixed gender dinner and chat, positive relationships workshops and access to other Living Positive Victoria programs such as Positive Ageing and Gen Next.

The merger has not only improved service delivery for women, heterosexual men and families, it has changed the culture of Living Positive Victoria. It has impacted all areas of Living Positive Victoria service delivery and operations, leading to increased collaboration between staff and a sharing of expertise and resources that has expanded and improved service delivery across the organisation. Furthermore, it has changed the focus of the leadership and staff to consider the lived experiences of all people living with HIV in Victoria more broadly. It has shifted the focus to ensure that all people living with HIV are considered in Living Positive Victoria’s internal and external communications and the programming of services. Staff have gained a deeper appreciation of the impact of HIV on the diverse communities that we work with.

The collaboration of our experienced staff across Living Positive Victoria has fostered amongst our staff a deeper understanding of the diverse lived experiences of our clients. This has enriched our work and improved our ability to offer targeted services to people from particular groups, whether based on gender, sexuality or ethnic background. An example is our Positive Relationships workshops. Originally these were targeted at women and heterosexual men. The team who developed and facilitated the original workshop have worked with other members of our team to develop a positive relationships workshop for gay men and men and gender diverse people who have sex with men. It has also improved our capacity to provide services that can be accessed by all people living with HIV, improving connections across our community.

Growing our peer to peer support network

Living Positive Victoria implemented its Peer Navigation Program in 2018. We were able to build on the expertise in one-on-one peer support for women and heterosexual men that had been developed at Straight Arrows. Services have been expanded to provide support to people of all genders and sexualities. Our diverse Peer Navigators work as an integrated team. They share learnings and expertise through reflective practice, ongoing professional development and group supervision. The Peer Navigators are an important first port of entry to Living Positive programs and services for many of our clients. Through their one-on-one engagement, Peer Navigators foster trust with their clients and encourage their further engagement in our programs and services. We are seeing an increase in the number of clients accessing our services for the first time, beyond what can be explained by the pattern of new diagnoses. We are also seeing that clients are connecting more often with services that offer them social support and that they are staying connected through repeat attendance which has been reflected in strong engagement in our programs and events.

Particularly, in the past year, Living Positive Victoria has changed both tangibly and intangibly, improving services and ensuring the long term sustainability of peer-led services for all people living with HIV in Victoria.

Creating cultural bonds

It’s not just forming alliances amongst folk of differing gender and sexualities that has allowed Living Positive Victoria to strengthen the reach and impact of our programs and services. An ever-strengthening bond between Living Positive Victoria and Victoria’s CALD communities promote a greater diversity of the principles that feed into our MIPA (meaningful involvement of people with HIV/AIDS) and GIPA (greater involvement of people with HIV/AIDS) outcomes.

In the case of the Latin American and Hispanic Rainbow Community (LAHRC), although the CV-19 pandemic slowed down outreach activities, the group was able to participate in the 2021 Midsumma Pride March, coming together with a strong message about unity.

The LAHRC HIV Latinx group also participated in the formation of NAPWHA’s Health Literacy Framework project for multicultural and diverse communities, allowing the voices HIV positive Latinx people to be heard at a national level, further enabling conversation and representation within the HIV response.

Living positive Victoria’s 2020 World AIDS Day Community Forum, hosted by the Burnet Institute, was themed HIV and COVID: lessons learnt and issues raised.

The panel, moderated by Dr Chris Lemoh from Monash Health, comprised Carol El Hayek from the Burnet Institute; Vicky Saputra from Living Positive Victoria's Positive Speakers Bureau; Hope Mathumbu from the Victorian African Health Action Network; Dr Tafi Marukutira from the Burnet Institute and Valentina Gamarra from Living Positive Victoria's Positive Speakers Bureau.

We are proud to revisit this community forum in this year’s annual report to highlight and reinforce the value of promoting diverse cultural bonds that strengthen and empower our community.

President’s Award

Adam Ehm

Awarded at the discretion of the President to an individual, group or organisation within the broader community that has demonstrated visionary leadership in improving the quality of life for HIV-positive people. Often the recipient will have served over a long period and contributed to high level improvements in services for HIV-positive people and to an increased level of awareness of HIV issues.

This year’s President’s Award goes to Adam Ehm. Adam has served on Living Positive Victoria’s Board of Directors for five years, two of which were as an exemplary President. This year’s award reflects the extraordinary dedication made by positive people like Adam, who give their professional and personal time and energy to further the wellbeing of people living with HIV here in Australia and globally. Adam has done so without exception in all the time he has been engaged with LPV, at every monthly Board meeting without fail Adam reports on the additional advocacy he does. This includes his long-time membership of DARE CAB, where he provides international PLHIV representation on the Community Advisory Board for Global HIV Cure Research as well as locally on the Doherty Institute’s Community Advisory Board for HIV Cure Research. As President of LPV, Adam lobbied the BBV/STI national Covid-19 taskforce to ensure that there were PLHIV voices and representation engaged on this high-level committee, signifying his commitment to the MIPA principles and reminding our healthcare community that nothing for us without us still remains pertinent today.

Adam also has an incredibly proud and long history with the Positive Speaker’s Bureau. If you have ever been so lucky to hear him speak, you will know how powerful and comprehensible he is, while always remaining deeply approachable and receptive. He now has such expertise in this area that he is providing mentoring and training for new speakers to the PSB.

Thanks go to Adam enough for the support and exceptional leadership he has provided during his time with Living Positive Victoria. The organisation has learnt so much about equity and inclusion from Adam, as he has helped to further embed such principles into our governance practices many times. We thank you Adam for your dedication. He has been a hero to many of us and we know he will continue in that way in all that he does. We hope he will continue to engage with us across other opportunities long into the future.

Special Acknowledgement Award

The Low Rez Choir

The Special Acknowledgement Award is given to an individual, group or organisation that has had a significant impact on the lives of people living with HIV through a sustained and extraordinary contribution that supports and empowers our positive community.

Melbourne’s Loz Rez Male Choir was established in 2008. Specialising in pop arrangements, the choir unites men from diverse cultural backgrounds through the joy of singing.

The choir is approximately 50 men strong, divided into high and low tenors, baritones and basses. The choir performs major concerts and smaller events around Melbourne and across regional Victoria.

The Low Rez Choir has had an ongoing and rich relationship with Living Positive Victoria since 2014 when they first performed at the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial. Over the past seven years the choir has volunteered their time and energy into providing music and song to many of our events and added an extra poignancy to them.

The members of the choir are all volunteers and their sense of service and commitment, even in the midst of the COVID pandemic, has helped us celebrate and remember loved ones at a time when we most need it.

Living Positive Victoria will always be grateful to the members of the Low Rez Choir for the hundreds of hours they have dedicated to Living Positive Victoria and people living with HIV, their generosity, and their love for entertaining us and feeding our hearts and souls.

Positive Health and Wellbeing Award

The Burnet Institute

The Positive Health and Wellbeing Award is given to an individual, group or organisation that has made an exceptional contribution to supporting, building and delivering excellence in health care, research and health promotion initiatives which improve the health and wellbeing of people living with HIV in Victoria.

With the right antiretrovirals at the right time, many people living with HIV have outlived the prognosis given to them in the early days of the epidemic. The priority now, is to age well. For outstanding vison and leadership to this end, the Positive Health and Wellbeing Award goes to The Burnet Institute, for the key role they played in developing the Well Beyond 50 website - a single destination for everything HIV and ageing.

In Australia, well over half of all people living with HIV are now aged over 50 and there is an emerging and critical need to provide effective and community-centred services to support people to age well with HIV.

The new Well Beyond 50 website aims to simplify and enhance access to community connection, information and resources that will enable people to live and age well with HIV. Along with project partners Living Positive Victoria, Thorne Harbour Health, Alfred Health, Positive Women Victoria and Bolton Clarke, The Burnet Institute has facilitated the delivery of a vital platform that will reflect the needs of people ageing with HIV in Victoria.

It is with this foresight that the Burnet Institute allows organisations such as LPV, and our partner organisations, to address a range of challenges directly related to ageing with HIV, such as isolation, loneliness, mental health and quality of life.

Community Development Award

JOY FM Breakfast – The Murphys

The Community Development award is given to an individual, group or organisation who has supported and empowered our positive community to sustain and build activities and meet emerging needs.

JOY FM is an LGBTIQA+ independent media organisation, made up of the diverse voices of the rainbow. JOY delivers community media that informs, entertains, and empowers rainbow communities across Australia and the world, with the purpose of building a more inclusive society.

The JOY FM Breakfast Show – The Murphys – has been key to facilitating the sharing of essential news and updates for the positive community via regular on-air chats with LPV during a time when the upkeep of the health and wellness of our positive community was vital.

It is only with the support of JOY FM that LPV has been able to reach the community directly via the radio in our homes, our cars and through our ear pods.

JOY FM provides content across multiple platforms to enable the voices of our HIV community to be accessible to people of all abilities and locations. Living Positive Victoria is proud to be able to contribute to the diverse and inclusive voices that so happily parallel needs of LPV’s members, clients and the aims and missions of our organisation.

Participation, resilience, equity of access, peer-led empowerment and building a better quality of life for all people living with HIV are only a few of the reasons that motivate our volunteers, our members, our valued donors, our fellow partner organisations and supporters to continue their involvement with Living Positive Victoria.

Our thanks come, not only from our dedicated staff and board, but from the ever-diversifying communities living with and affected by HIV who realise that with your support, we are stronger together.

Thank you

Living Positive Victoria acknowledges the support of the Victorian Government.

Living Positive Victoria (People Living With HIV/AIDS Victoria Incorporated)

ABN 67 049 438 341 • Registration No. A0039027B

Coventry House 95, Coventry Street, Southbank, Victoria 3006

T: 03 9863 8733

F: 03 9863 8734

E: info@livingpositivevictoria.org.au

livingpositivevictoria.org.au