San Diego has been selected by the National Association of People with AIDS to host a four-day training in community leadership for people living with HIV and AIDS. The program, entitled “People Living with HIV/AIDS Leadership Training Institute” (LTI), is made possible by a partnership with Ortho Biotech and the San Diego County HIV Consumer Council, and is exclusively for people living with HIV or AIDS in the San Diego area.

At a time when funding cuts are becoming a harsh reality for the HIV/AIDS community, new leaders are in great demand. In the last month, the HIV Consumer Council learned that, because of federal funding cuts, they would have to trim their budget by over $500,000 after having already cut $500,000 from the budget last August. The LTI is grounded in the belief that members of the HIV/AIDS community are best equipped to help each other gain the knowledge and skills needed to fully participate in the decision-making processes that influence their lives. The four-day LTI program in San Diego is completely funded through NAPWA.

“To bring in this training is costing about $12,000 to do the training,” said St. Clair Adams, chair of the HIV Consumer Council. “It’s a four day training and I think that it’s exremely important for consumers to understand the issues that are in front of them at this time – and those are budget cuts and the changing faces of programs – and what does work and what doesn’t.”

The principal goal of LTI is to help each individual participant identify her or his next steps in leadership development. Participants will identify specific skills training to be pursued and actions to be taken to facilitate enhanced community involvement and participation. The unifying thread throughout LTI is the goal of nurturing a community of people living with HIV/AIDS in which barriers of race, gender, class and life experiences are overcome in order to facilitate support among participants and growth throughout the broader HIV community.

“I think education is the key,” Adams said about the growth opportunity for new leaders, “to have them understand what it is they are even advocating for, and it also gives them the tools to understand the process: the diplomacy and the negotiation tools to go into a meeting such as the planning council or the board of supervisors or any elected officials office and know how to interact with those entities and ask for what it is they are asking for.”

The San Diego HIV Consumer Council is working with NAPWA to ensure that components of the training reflect the experience of San Diego’s HIV/AIDS community. Due to budget constraints, the program is only being presented in English, but Adams said that the consumer council is working with NAPWA in hopes of translating the training so that San Diego’s active Spanish speaking community can take part in the training eventually.

Space for the training is limited to 30 people, and scholarships are provided for all participants to cover the costs. A limited number of full scholarships are available to those that are outside of the San Diego metropolitan area – the scholarships cover travel, lodging, training, meals and registration. San Diego County residents are eligible to apply for a partial scholarship, which includes registration, training and meals only.

The LTI is open to any individuals with HIV or AIDS, and they are looking for a diverse group of individuals to apply, including people who have not been involved in the decision making process in the past.

“Everybody’s going to start somewhere and sometimes you want to choose someone who doesn’t have any experience to get them into the process and to have them begin to become involved,” Adams said. “The biggest criteria is those who show in their application that they are willing to participate and they are willing to commit to an advocacy role.”

To apply, visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to NAPWA, where you can download the application forms. The deadline for registration is April 22, at 6:00 p.m EST. To make sure you meet the deadline, fax the completed forms and attachments to Catina Perkins-Gibson at (202) 898-0435. Applications can be mailed to NAPWA, 1413 K St. NW, 7th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005. For more information, call (202) 464-5682.