Putting Community First: Reflections from the “Community in Scope” Workshop

As a member of Youth RISE’s International Working Group, I was one of the civil society members selected for “Community in Scope: A Workshop on HIV Combination Prevention”, part of the SCOPE project from the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG).

The SCOPE project was designed to amplify community voices and provide tools and skills to advocate and collaborate across sectors, fostering HIV prevention responses that reflect real needs and contribute to reducing incidence: an approach that is fully aligned with Youth RISE’s mission.

The workshop gathered community workers and members, advocates, and activists from across Europe and Central Asia to exchange experiences, strategies, challenges, and good practices in HIV prevention efforts. Many of us identified as part of key populations such as people who use drugs, young people, trans and gender-diverse people, sex workers, migrants, among many others. Some of the organisations represented were ESWA, TGEU, the Safe Trip Project, and AIDS Action Europe.

The goal was to explore HIV combination prevention through a community-led, person-centered, intersectional, and rights-based health approach, aiming for the development of services and responses by those who are directly impacted by them.

Over two days, we engaged in discussions, site visits, presentations from expert community members, and capacity-building activities: we had conversations about biomedical, behavioural and structural strategies for HIV prevention, Casa Kuà generously opened their doors to us, and we addressed a topic that is often overlooked in health-related debates despite its relevance (particularly to me, as a social worker): the political and social determinants of health.

Since then, I’ve been reflecting about a concept that shapes both my personal life and professional practice, and that I was finally able to formulate and articulate with the support of this workshop: how we focus on fixing people, when it’s the system that needs fixing, and blame individuals for health outcomes that are not the result of personal choices.

This entire experience (including all the preparation details) was very affirming, and I felt no intention of tokenisation, which is unfortunately common. Lived experiences and harm reduction were not only recognised and valued but also actively put into practice in the whole process, and I felt a genuine and collective commitment and effort towards dismantling barriers, instead of the traditional rhetoric speeches.

And when it comes to “professional” contexts, I realised that it was one of the few times that I felt no need to justify my presence, even among such a heterogeneous group of people.

So, thank you to EATG for making this possible, and to everyone who co-created this space. And thank you to Youth RISE, for trusting me to represent the values we believe in and fight for.

Teresa Castro

Member of Youth RISE International Working Group

EATG Member

EATG’s SCOPE project aims to strengthen the skills and knowledge of community health workers, advocates and researchers in the field of HIV combination prevention. It focuses on communities that are inadequately served by policies and programmes.

The SCOPE project has been developed by the EATG and was made possible through a grant from ViiV Healthcare Europe Ltd.