Positive Voices started in 2005, after a small Speakers Bureau pilot project at the Sussex AIDS Centre. When we merged with the Sussex AIDS Centre in 1999. Positive Voices was born.

We had received requests from organisations to hear directly from people living with HIV Positive Voices also provided opportunities for people living with HIV to develop new skills, educate others, and raise public awareness of the virus. 

Now, twenty years later, we have 55 speakers who work across the UK and have delivered talks to audiences in almost every community setting. Positive Voices is also joined by the HIV London Ambassadors Programme and the HIV Health Equity in Justice partnership which work to tackle stigma in the health and care, and criminal justice sectors respectively.

You can find out more about two of our Positive Voices, Sue Hunter and Michael Smith, and their reflections from the last twenty years, in their blog posts.

Since 2021, we’ve delivered over 800 Positive Voices talks, to over 56,000 people in the UK educating communities about HIV and challenging stigma. Many people still don’t know much about what’s it’s like living with HIV today. Outdated information means people living with HIV can face prejudice and discrimination at work, in school, when accessing healthcare and from family and friends. 

Every talk can help break down stigma and improve people’s knowledge of HIV. 

With your support, we can continue to reach even more people and move closer to ending HIV stigma for good. In its 20th year, you can help make change happen. Donate now.

Here are some testimonials from businesses, organisations, and schools who have booked a talk with our brilliant Positive Voices speakers:  

‘Thank you so much for the session today! I didn't know that people on treatment cannot pass on HIV and I wish that healthcare workers were more aware of this and altered their treatment of people living with HIV’. 

‘One of the best lectures I’ve been to! It was especially interesting to hear different stories and perspectives of life with HIV. I definitely feel like I know more now than I did before the talk’. 

‘I wanted to say thank you again to the three speakers. As a police officer I can forget that things I say as a throwaway or thoughtless comment can have a lasting effect on people. My understanding [of HIV] has come from TV shows - in Eastenders the way Peggy Mitchell treated Mark Fowler when it came out he was HIV positive. I think you are all amazing’. 

Booking a speaker: Find out more about the cost/fees involved and how to book a Positive Voices speaker.