The Positive Voices team are looking to recruit new volunteer speakers to share their stories of living with HIV with the public.

Positive Voices speakers help Terrence Higgins Trust in their goal to educate and reduce stigma around HIV by talking about their lived experiences to audiences such as schools, businesses and healthcare providers.  The aim is to provide a personal perspective on what it is like to live with HIV whilst also encouraging better understanding of HIV, dispelling myths and reinforcing HIV prevention messages.

Why join positive voices?

You can read Florence's story about why she volunteers with Positive Voices here.

Becoming one of our speakers brings are range of benefits, including:

• Comprehensive induction and training package
• Professional storytelling and public speaking training for all positive voices volunteers
• Formal and informal emotional support and supervision
• Peer support and networking
• Build confidence and gain new skills and experiences
• Opportunity to undertake additional training programmes
• Flexibility to sign-up to talks that fit your schedule and preferences
• Provision of references after completing six months’ volunteering

Equity, diversity and inclusion

Terrence Higgins Trust is committed to achieving a good volunteering experience for all of our volunteers.  As an organisation we prioritise equity, diversity and inclusion, with a focus on reducing health inequalities.

A key ambition of the Positive Voices team is to recruit a volunteer pool representative of the population living with HIV in the UK.   We therefore particularly welcome applications from Black people of African heritage, who are currently under-represented.  

We always endeavour to meet our volunteers’ access needs.  We would be happy to discuss accessibility requirements and reasonable adjustments with potential volunteers.

We are required to ask all applicants to disclose unspent criminal convictions; however, a criminal record is not necessarily a bar to volunteering with us, and all cases will be reviewed on an individual basis.  The positive voices team would also like to hear from people who have experience of living with HIV in prison.

Who can apply?

All speaker must be 18 years or over

Our Positive Voices volunteers speak about their experience of living with HIV, we are therefore unable to accept applications from people not living with HIV. 

Speakers must be at least six months post diagnosis.  This is because we find that people who are newly diagnosed tend not to be ready to share their experience until they’ve had further support.

Timeline

We will review applications on an ongoing basis.  Shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend an informal interview and asked to shadow at least one Positive Voices talk.  This gives a good understanding of what the role involves and allows us to determine who may be suited for the role.  Successful applicants will be invited to attend storytelling and public speaking training, which we will be running throughout the year.