Get Involved

Get Involved

Host or Attend An Event

There are many ways to get involved in your community to raise awareness about one or more of the epidemics. Learning and spreading the facts is one way. We can all do our part to fight stigma and End the Syndemic!

Host a testing event, educational event, World AIDS Day event, or even a memorial vigil at your school, church, or community center. October is AIDS Awareness Month and December 1st is World AIDS Day.

Click on Learn More to find a list of all the National HIV Awareness Days:

Learn More

HIV isn’t the only epidemic with an international awareness day. Attend a statewide or local Overdose Awareness Day Event on August 31st! Click the link to check out Connecticut’s 2021 International Overdose Awareness Day Flyer.

Join a Meeting

Click a meeting below for more information:

The CT HIV Planning Consortium (CHPC) is a statewide planning body for HIV care and prevention services. It is a diverse group of providers and community members, including PLWH. Meetings are open to the public.

The Ryan White Part A Planning Council serves Hartford, Tolland and Middlesex counties, meets regularly and is supported by Amplify Staff, Marie Raynor.

The New Haven/Fairfield Counties Ryan White Planning Council has local meetings to plan how HIV care and prevention services will be funded and implemented at the local level. Meetings are open to the public.

Help Combat Stigma

What is stigma?

Stigma refers to unfair attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, or judgements toward people living with HIV or at risk for HIV. People with HIV, STIs, SUD or VH, are often treated and talked about negatively, and this can cause them harm and keep them from getting the help and services they need.

How does stigma impact people?

Stigma and discrimination:

Make it harder for people and communities to combat HIV
Make it harder for people to get tested for HIV out of fear of being labeled and mistreated
Make it harder for people living with HIV to get the lifesaving services they need
Make it harder for people living with HIV to disclose their status to family, friends and partners

Enacted Stigma can:

Result in discrimination or potential violence
Result in loss of housing, jobs, relationships, etc.
Result in reduced hope, fear, anxiety, depression, isolation, etc.
Result in people with HIV not getting the information and services needed for fear it will make others think they have HIV, are promiscuous or unfaithful, or are members of populations associated with HIV, like people who inject drugs, sex workers and gay men.
Result in poorer health outcomes.
It can make people less likely to get tested for HIV, use condoms, ask their partners about their status, use clean needles and injection equipment, or access biomedical prevention options, such as male circumcision and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), essentially preventing them from staying safe.