More Information from ViiV Healthcare

ViiV Healthcare was established to take an innovative approach to the challenge of HIV - and we do. It’s who we are. An innovative approach means we go beyond developing new medicines, we seek insights to better understand the unmet needs of people living with HIV. We connect individuals and communities to develop and support community programs that focus on HIV prevention, care, and treatment.   

The voice of the HIV community informs everything we do. As the only company solely focused on HIV, we think differently, act differently and connect differently to improve the lives and outcomes for all people. From the beginning, ViiV Healthcare’s Positive Action programs have worked to reduce stigma and improve access to care for communities around the world and has supported more than 300 programs across the globe since 1992.  

Positive Action for Youth (PAFY) was launched by ViiV Healthcare in 2017 as an initiative focusing on mentorship as a tool to help young people living with HIV stay engaged during the transition from pediatric to adult care. Since then, PAFY has become ViiV’s flagship program for young people living with or affected by HIV. ViiV’s partnership with grantee organizations has changed our ways of working to better center young people at the table in a more meaningful way, as an ongoing practice of reflection, accountability and action. We believe that what we learned as an initiative can help the field grow and ultimately create better programs for young people.   

Our Own North Stars: Supporting the Next Generation of Leaders provides an analysis of the impact of the Positive Action for Youth initiative, shares our own lessons learned from the first five years and how we’ve leveraged those lessons to evolve the initiative and outlines practical implications for both funders and organizations serving young people. This report was created to inform, inspire and ignite community-centered solutions to disrupt current trends and conditions in HIV prevention, treatment and care and improve the health and well-being of young people living with and affected by HIV.  The report provides real-life examples and details about peer support models, how organizations create safer and braver spaces, deficit and asset framing relating to youth and stigma, and power and age-related dynamics.