HIV Outreach Workers Convene in Philadelphia for Bi-Annual Learning Session

Jen Condel facilitates a group activity at the MAI learning session.

Twenty-two outreach workers from 11 HIV service organizations across the Commonwealth gathered in Philadelphia on April 4 for a Minority AIDS Initiative Learning Session facilitated by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. This is the second in-person, statewide learning session offered since the COVID-19 pandemic, and participants were enthusiastic about the opportunity to network and share strategies for successful outreach to individuals in need of medical care. Participants shared challenges and strategies for meeting the needs of newly arrived immigrants, previously incarcerated individuals, pregnant women, and youth transitioning to adult care.

The session also included a presentation from the Philadelphia FIGHT Project TEACH (Treatment Education Activists Combating HIV) team, including Teresa Sullivan, Steven Johnson, and a team of peer educators. The program trains people living with HIV in the basics of secondary prevention and ways to communicate as peer educators and activists, and it has been adapted into education programs that meet the needs of previously incarcerated individuals, youth, women, the Latino population, and family members. Participants then had the opportunity to share their strategies for health education and strategies for engaging peers in their programs.