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CHAMP Provides Scholarships to Positive Youth Institute

CHAMP was able to offer scholarships to five terrific young people ages 21 and 22 to attend the Positive Youth Institute in Atlanta in early August. The Positive Youth Institute, a project of the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA), is designed to train HIV-positive young people from across the country in the life skills required for good health through workshops and interactive sessions that address medical and social issues and allow the participants a safe space for self-expression and personal development.

We appreciate the assistance of NAPWA and the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute in helping to make these scholarships possible.

Scholarship recipients Kimberly Canady, CC Conway, Lolisa Gibson, and Tony Ray, all of New York City, and Corey Boyette of Phoenix, Arizona shared some of their experiences and thoughts with us.



Reflections from the scholarship recipients who attended the Positive Youth Institute

Lolisa: I enjoy meeting and networking with youth who are HIV positive. I wanted to be supportive of youth who had been newly diagnosed and had questions that they may have felt more comfortable asking of other positive youth... The Positive Youth Institute gave us the chance to interact the entire time. I took something from each workshop that I attended. They allowed us to learn something new. I really liked that we had fun while also learning and meeting new people... AIDS service and advocacy organizations should meet more often with young people to hear the problems that we face so that they can better meet our needs. I really enjoyed myself the entire time.

Tony: The institute provided exactly what I wanted it to – it gave me a sense of community and helped me find people like me. The programs appealed to at least one side of your personality or helped you through something you might have thought you were fighting through alone. I’m happy to have been given the chance to go to such a wonderful experience. Thanks CHAMP.

Kimberly: I wanted to meet more youth who were positive. The institute helped me realize that I’m not alone in this epidemic. You’d meet someone who was newly diagnosed with no one to support them. You could be the one to help them through the hard times or just to talk to... The scholarship recipients who went on the trip will always be my close friends. We’re all different in our own ways, but the experience brought us closer. Since then, we all talk daily... The people I met at the institute made me laugh and cry with their touching stories and knowing that we all had so much in common even though we live all around the country. Many of us talk on the phone daily or share our thoughts through MySpace. Now more then ever, I'm interested in AIDS activist work. I’d love to be involved with educating youth about HIV/AIDS in their communities.

CiCi: We not only want to be the future – we want to be the present. We want to be included more! We should be included in every service provided, every decision made, and every board that helps change the way our community survive. If agencies and organizations were led by youth, they'd understand the needs of young people... Thank you so much for providing me the opportunity to attend this conference!