Grant: Catalyst Grant: HIV/AIDS CBR Program - General Stream

Involving people living with HIV in related organizational leadership and employment roles (PEERs) can be a highly positive experience for both the PEER and the organization. Role transitions, however, do come with challenges and we seek to maximize the beneficial aspects of these roles while minimizing the risks associated with them. Unfortunately, little is known about effective organizational practices, training, and policies to support employees in their work and whether or not support practices are related to the principles developed to ensure the greater involvement and meaningful engagement of people living with HIV (GIPA/MEPA). We use the term "PEERs" to refer to "People living with HIV Engaged in Employment Roles" in the HIV sector. This work will support a partnership based on equal participation and teamwork that creates opportunities for shared learning between people living with HIV, community-based academic researchers and AIDS service or related organizations that support PEERs in any paid roles within an organization (e.g. administrative, management, service provision, research), including full-time, part-time and honorarium-based work. We seek to document Canadian programs, policies and practices offering support to PEERs involved in a variety of paid roles within their respective organizations. The benefits and risks of support practices and policies and how such practices and policies impact on PEERs will be examined through a GIPA/MEPA lens. We will accomplish this via a national environmental scan which will allow us to create an annotated inventory of support models and practices for PEERs. We will assess a range of financial, psychosocial and other supports (e.g. optional employment benefits, education/training, counselling, peer support, etc.). We will develop a framework from which to identify wise practices, gaps and actionable next steps and facilitate activities to advance PEER related programming and policy changes.