SUSTAINing Together Training Scholarship Opportunity

Healing-Centered and Anti-Oppressive Leadership:
Cultivating the Next Generation of Emerging HIV Leaders

Scholarship Details:

The SUSTAIN Wellbeing COMPASS Coordinating Center is excited to announce an intensive training opportunity for emerging leaders in the HIV field within the US South. The 2-day in-person training will be held in Houston, Texas, from Wednesday, March 26, and Thursday, March 27, 2025. We will select 15 recipients. They will receive a $1,650 scholarship stipend to offset the travel costs to and from the training (including flight, hotel, food, rideshare, and any other costs associated with the travel) and compensation for their time. SUSTAIN will provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks during the full days of training. 

About the Training:

As seasoned HIV leaders transition out, a new generation of passionate advocates is poised to step in, bringing fresh perspectives to drive progress in the fight against HIV. In the US South, where organizational capacity and infrastructure are scarce, this shift in leadership highlights a unique opportunity to build structures and enhance leadership styles that address unique healthcare needs and evolving structural challenges. This also underscores the need for mobilizing and planning to address the current HIV landscape and the intersectional structural issues contributing to the HIV epidemic, specifically in the Southern US. 

There is a need for a new generation of HIV leaders to actively work against systemic oppression, advocate for racial and social justice, and create inclusive environments that are trauma-informed and healing-centered. Furthermore, it is critical for emerging leaders to unlearn practices rooted in white supremacy work culture, patriarchy, and other oppressive approaches that continue to perpetuate inequality, discrimination, injustice, marginalization, and power imbalances. This 2-day workshop will delve into strategies that resist oppression as a leader and skills that foster healing-centered environments for everyone. 

This training will: 

• Discuss the historical and current landscape of HIV, intersectionality, and systemic oppression
• Discuss historical HIV leadership and their responses to the HIV epidemic
• Identify ways in which healing-centered and anti-oppressive leadership styles can combat current structural issues that contribute to the HIV epidemic 
• Identify and practice leadership strategies and skills that resist oppression and foster healing-centered environments for everyone

Participants will engage in group discussions, role-play, and other hands-on learning methods to learn how to utilize leadership approaches or practices rooted in anti-oppression, relationship-building, decision-making, and communication in their daily work. 

Scholarship Eligibility:

• Scholarship applicants must live in the 12 US southern states supported by COMPASS (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Texas).
• Scholarship applicants must answer the question of what makes them an emerging leader. For this training opportunity, we are using a broad definition of "emerging leaders." For instance, an applicant could be an early or mid-career professional who has recently taken on a leadership position or has limited experience in that role. Applicants of any age who are new to leadership are welcome to apply. Applicants will be able to highlight what makes them an emerging leader in their responses.
• Scholarship applicants must demonstrate a commitment to serving people living with HIV and people with lived experiences who are most systematically impacted.

If you are selected to receive this scholarship, please note the following:

• If selected, the scholar must actively participate in all aspects of the program through completion (i.e., attending and participating in the 2 day training, completing pre and post-surveys, etc.).
• If selected, the scholar must attend the entire training in person at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas.
• Please note that for this training opportunity, we will not offer translation or interpretation services, however, we are developing programming specific to Latinx communities. Be on the lookout for Spanish/multilingual training in the future.

The deadline to submit a scholarship application is Sunday, November 10, 2024, at 11:59 pm CST. For questions, assistance, and accommodations, contact Lladira Aguilar at laguila9@central.uh.edu and Alejandra Avilés (aaviles3@central.uh.edu). 

View the PDF version of the application HERE.