The Beyond Resilience Advisory Group along with NAPWHA and ViiV Healthcare are excited to announce the Our Futures: Beyond Resilience Congress will be moving online, allowing an even wider range of people living with HIV in Australia to participate in this landmark event. Use this form to register for the event.

The Congress is an opportunity to connect, discuss, debate and explore what it means to live ‘Beyond Resilience’. What comes next, when we know we can survive and thrive no matter what life throws at us? We’ll discuss opportunities to build and broaden the Positive Voice in Australia, as well as an audacious goal to improve Quality of Life for all People with HIV. Take this opportunity to hear from people with HIV from diverse backgrounds sharing their lived experience to connect, inspire and educate.

We’re excited to launch the program for our first session, Strengthening the Positive Voice for the Our Future: Beyond Resilience congress.

The positive voice includes all people with HIV — each of us advocates in our own unique way — as well as the organisations and groups that represent and support people living with HIV in Australia. In this session we’ll talk with community members about whose voices are missing or unheard, and how we can support emerging positive leaders. Panelists are people like you, some recently diagnosed, some living longer with HIV.

PANEL 1:  Whose voices are missing or unheard?
Featuring Michelle Tobin (NSW), Mutinta (Qld), Anth McCarthy (Vic), Hayden Patterson (SA).

PANEL 2:  How can we better support emerging positive leaders?
Featuring Nic Holas (Vic), Michael Brown (QLD), Sarah Feagan (Vic), Emil Cañita (Vic).

Our goal is making sure the positive voice reflects the diverse community of people living with HIV — our identities, perspectives, and experiences, and our hopes and dreams for the future.

You can join our virtual congress with a pseudonym, so you can participate while protecting your privacy. Don’t miss out!

There’s more to HIV care than suppressing viral load! Quality of life is the goal that underpins everything we do. In this session, Brent Allan will and Prof Jenny Hoy from the Alfred Hospital will discuss bold new plans for incorporating quality of life in HIV care. A panel of community members will ask how we can go beyond the individual focus of self-care to ensure everyone in the community benefits from good quality of life. And we’ll ask you, the audience, what quality of life means to you.

PANEL 3:  Quality of life in HIV treatment and care
Featuring Brent Allan in conversation with Professor Jenny Hoy (Alfred Health, Victoria).

PANEL 4:  From self-care to community care
Featuring Bev Greet (Vic), Sasha (Qld), Tim Krulic (Vic), Greg Kelly (SA).

You can join our virtual congress with a pseudonym, so you can participate while protecting your privacy. Don’t miss out!

I write to update you about the Our Future, Beyond Resilience Congress which was planned for February next year in Melbourne. The Advisory Group, which is made up of positive people, met recently to review the risk associated with the Congress and have decided that it will now not be possible to proceed with the Congress as planned.

The Advisory Group considered a range of issues connected to the impact of Covid-19 on the Congress, including the variable take up on vaccinations, the virulence of the Delta strain and the impact on immunocompromised people. On balance, the Group has concluded that there is too much uncertainty to ensure the safety of participants at a gathering the size and scale of the Congress.

This most recent risk assessment was one of a number that the Advisory Group has undertaken over the two-year journey to bring the Congress into being. At each stage of the Covid-19 epidemic in our community, the Advisory Group has considered the risk and the obvious benefits of engagement and connection for people with HIV. As a result of these assessments, the Advisory Group consulted its key partners—  The National Association of People with HIV (NAPWHA) and ViiV Healthcare – on the feasibility of a face-to-face gathering in February 2022. The date for Congress has already been moved forward three times and it was determined that it was not possible to continue postponing this event amidst the uncertainty of the current and future Covid-19 environment.

On November 10th this year, the advisory group along with NAPWHA will host an online event open to all HIV positive people which explores the Congress themes, and we hope that people who have expressed interest in attending the Congress will attend. Applicants who are not currently connected to a local organisation for people with HIV will be contacted directly and provided with resources to enable them to connect with local support, should they choose to do so.

I am grateful for the hard work and detailed planning of the Advisory Group over the last two years which means that, should circumstances change, the task of organising a gathering like the Congress will be that much easier and straightforward.

I would also like to extend the gratitude of the Advisory Group, to the wide range of organisations and individuals who have given their time and attention to the possibility of the Congress. I hope for and look forward to the day that the promise of a Congress for HIV positive people can be fulfilled.

If you would like more information about the online event, or more detail about this communique, please feel free to contact me.

Kind Regards
Robert Mitchell
Advisory Group Chair Our Future, Beyond Resilience Congress
Mobile: 0406 925 937

We, along with our sponsors ViiV Healthcare and NAPWHA, remain committed to our vision of bringing together the diverse population of  people living with HIV.

We are going ahead with a Virtual Congress to be held online on Wednesday 10th November from 2-5pm (AEST) on Zoom. You are warmly invited to join us and take part in the conversation.

Share your insights and experiences

The conversation will cover two main topics:

• building the positive community voice: whose voices are missing or unheard, and how do we support emerging leaders?
• quality of life beyond treatment: what can doctors and our community do to improve it?

Each topic will be discussed by panelists like you — a diverse group of people with different experiences, some recently diagnosed and some living for longer with HIV. The conversation will be facilitated to ensure everyone has a chance to share their perspectives. Registration is also open to people who work and/or volunteer in the community-based response to HIV in Australia.

Easy to join and take part

We acknowledge that some participants are unfamiliar with Zoom. You can join the conversation by telephone, or a phone, tablet or laptop. Once connected, you can watch or listen to the conversation, ask questions and share your views in a chat box. Importantly, you can choose what name to display, so your identity can be anonymous. We are also trialing live-captions for Deaf and hard of hearing participants.

Our hope is that everyone who registered for the Melbourne event can participate in the Virtual Congress and help achieve our vision of a happy, healthy, connected community of positive Australians.

Daniel Reeders
Virtual Congress Organiser
(on behalf of the Beyond Resilience advisory group