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.

Young people 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.

The SPARK programme was established to reach young people specifically by creating a global network of young ambassadors, so that life-changing initiatives and messages around HIV treatment, prevention, fighting stigma, empowerment and mental health support could be spread on a peer-to-peer basis, helping to increase the relevance of the content and its understanding.

SPARK 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.

"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

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.

SPARK was established as a comprehensive, long-term commitment to supporting the health and wellbeing of young people living with HIV, aiming to combat stigma and discrimination, and provide education around treatment and prevention.

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 so that they could feel emotionally supported and empowered. Through this collaborative programme, our objective was to inspire these young people to spread awareness and initiate change within their own communities and amongst their peers.