SPARK17 is about founding a powerful educational and awareness movement against HIV, one which puts young people at its heart and has the power to grow organically. It is about recognising the spirit of the ambassadors within the programme, inspiring them to embrace their own potential and spread the flame of guidance and education amongst their peers. This isn’t just an experience, it is the creation of a collaborative global platform that feels relevant to young people, because through supported peer-to-peer learning we can ensure greater relevancy and understanding of the content, and unite a generation in the fight against HIV. This is the start of the fire that will transform the future.

To tailor the experience, ambassadors were sent a survey to assess their current skillset. From this, we determined the topics, teaching methods, and materials used. Industry experts were employed to run the sessions. The 3-day SPARK17 meeting comprised of: presentation skills, creative writing, creative and media planning (including audience recognition, budgeting & campaign creation), debating and discussion workshops.

To complement the main sessions, we hosted optional Ignite Sessions: interactive talks that covered topics such as paid media, video editing, media ethics, live streaming and future technology trends, providing an enriched experience for the 90% people in attendance.

All sessions emphasised how the learnings could be applied in real life, encouraging the ambassadors to utilise their enhanced skills.

To ensure the impact of the meeting continues, a post-event programme is underway which compromises of Facebook Live modules, to reinforce the learnings and provide additional, ongoing support.

45 people attended from 17 different countries.

This number allowed for an intimate meeting experience, where all ambassadors and educators were able to emotionally connect, share and learn. As a result, the ambassadors spoke of how they felt personally empowered and driven to initiate change.

The feedback from SPARK17 was extremely positive, and since the meeting, ambassadors have begun driving initiatives in their own communities, addressing HIV education, testing, and stigma, using the skills we gave them.

"SPARK17 has helped me create a communications plan for the youth advocates project I am working on" – Bakita, United Kingdom

"After SPARK17 I have trained more advocates who are coming up with social media campaigns to end stigma and discrimination" – Derick, Uganda

“It was a life changing experience” – Michael, United Kingdom

At the heart of SPARK17, is experience. We created a global education and support programme for young people living with HIV, but wanted to ensure it had an impact. So, we decided to engage with young people through their peers, ensuring we could create a relevant, collaborative programme of communication that would truly be understood and employed. We created a group of global SPARK ambassadors and held an inaugural meeting to immerse them in the programme, working with them to shape a collection of skills that would allow them to help their own communities, with our continued support.

ViiV wanted to reach young people, through young people. So, we appointed a group of global ambassadors and set out to create an inaugural meeting, SPARK17. We wanted to create an intimate feeling during the event to emphasise personal ability and responsibility, and to negate any bystander effect.

We established a collaboration with key non-profit partners on both a global and local scale, including Sentebale, TREAT Asia, CHIVA, Desmond Tutu HIV foundation, Adolescent HIV Coalition and IAS, amongst others, to lend expertise and to ensure that an enhanced global support network was available for the ambassadors.

We sought to create a welcoming space in which current HIV programmes and perceptions could be debated and challenged, because we wanted to do more than just teach skills, we wanted to create an enduring, collaborative programme where everyone felt inspired. After, we provided ongoing support to help the ambassadors in their own communities.

HIV poses a huge threat to young people. AIDS is the second leading cause of death globally amongst this age group, and the number of young people living with HIV rose by 28% between 2005 and 2015. They are subject to unique vulnerabilities that increase their risk to HIV infection, including structural inequalities, mother-to-child transmission, unprotected sex and economic constraints. And for those living with the disease, they are particularly vulnerable when confronted with the stigma, discrimination and violence associated with HIV.

Although there are youth group programmes in existence, we identified a need for a more inclusive and interactive peer-to-peer HIV education programme to help increase uptake. There was a need to not only educate, but to develop young advocates’ personal and business skillset and provide a safe space for expression, helping them feel supported and inspired to spread awareness and instigate change within their own communities.