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Lunch Positive invites you to its Community Lunch this Sunday, November 26

Every year in the lead up to World AIDS Day, local HIV charity Lunch Positive provides a community lunch that is open to everyone.

This Sunday, November 26, the Lunch Positive Community Lunch will take place at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church, Dorset Gardens, Brighton BN2 1SA. Everyone is invited to drop in for lunch, and doors open at 12.30pm. A buffet lunch is served from 1pm and includes main course, vegetarian, and vegan options. There is no charge, though donations are always welcome. The whole lunch is put together by our amazing volunteer team.

Lunch Positive provides a wide range of services. These include the weekly Friday HIV Lunch Club and Tuesday Support Drop-In, befriending and buddying scheme, wellbeing projects, specialised help from an HIV support worker, advice and information, food bank and home outreach. These address many serious challenges in life, including social isolation and loneliness, poor health and financial disadvantage.

Services are provided by our fantastic team of volunteers, recently awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. Lunch Positive provides the largest regular group support for people living with HIV locally, along with 1-1 and smaller group support for people who benefit from this. People using Lunch Positive describe it as an essential lifeline. The Lunch Positive Community Lunch is a chance to spend time together as a community, and celebrate all that can be achieved when we support each other.

Lunch Positive – all about community!

Lead Pic by Simon Pepper Photography 

Words by Gary Pargeter, volunteers and members

At Lunch Positive we’re so pleased that the global theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is Let Communities Lead. It speaks to everything we are as a charity, and all of our ways of working. Our work is the much needed continuation of support by and for people living with HIV that started when HIV first hit our community four decades ago, and remains invaluable to this day.

It brings people together for supportive friendship, fellowship, peer-support, and provides access to services and support that are often otherwise not reached. Crucially, people living with HIV are at the heart, meaningfully and actively at the centre of our organisation and services.

“It’s more than lunch. It’s a whole community that we don’t have elsewhere, it’s been transformational.”

People living with HIV drive all of our work, as trustees, volunteers and helpers, staff, and people using services whose experiences, opinions and voice are pivotal. Everything we do is built upon volunteering, and we’re hugely grateful to have received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, recognising the quality, impact and hundreds of thousands of hours given by our volunteers over the years.

Lunch Positive services and projects have evolved from of the work of the unique Brighton Open Door Project, founded in the mid-1980s, and alongside our 1-1 and smaller group support, we are immensely proud to still provide the largest regular social and support gatherings of people living with HIV in Brighton & Hove. As one of our members recently said “It’s more than lunch. It’s a whole community that we don’t have elsewhere, it’s been transformational”.

As people living with HIV, some for decades, others more recently diagnosed, we have a wealth of lived experience to share for mutual benefit. Through the conversations we share with each other at our weekly lunch clubs, within befriending, and at our Tuesday drop-in gatherings, we know that there is much to celebrate in the successful medical care and treatment for HIV. Yet still many people come along with poorer health, both HIV related and generally. They look to be part of this unique supportive peer community to overcome social isolation, share friendship, and cope on a day to day basis.

The gap in society between those that ‘do have’ and those that ‘don’t’ widens. Financial disadvantage can greatly impact people living with HIV on low and constrained income, of which we are many. Sharing a healthy meal, takeaway food, our HIV food bank and crisis home outreach are frequently described as ‘lifelines’, and never more than at these times of increased living costs. Social attitudes towards HIV have undoubtedly changed for the better, but we are far from living in an HIV-stigma free society.

“It’s like the family I lost, and I know that I am valued and have a purpose, which makes the world of difference.”

Negative attitudes towards HIV continue to be experienced by many people in the widest range of settings, and these can be hurtful, distressing and damaging. So often we hear examples of these as part of our sharing at Lunch Positive, where in response as people being together we find empathy, self-empowerment and renewed resilience. This year we were proud to present at the British HIV Association Conference on the research undertaken by University of Sussex and the impact of our work, and to share the many example of why our community led work is needed and so highly valued.

In the words of one of our members, Simon: “When I joined Lunch Positive I was at the very depths of life. I had tried to kill myself and was still getting the care of a psychiatrist. I had given up on life and had no interest in taking my HIV meds. The accommodation I was in was so poor, I know it sounds daft but just a simple thing like not ever being able to shower myself in order to be clean and having no heating sometimes got me so depressed and feeling ashamed, I couldn’t sleep and then I slept all day.

“Coming to Lunch Positive where I know I’m accepted and wanted, makes all the difference. I can’t thank everyone enough for the kindness and friendship people have shown. The help from the support worker getting my housing sorted was life-saving. Slowly, I’m putting life back together again and I couldn’t have done it without you.”

And from one of our volunteers, Michael: “I had always felt so low about my HIV, and how difficult I found it to cope. I always felt I’d failed. Now I’m involved with other HIV+ people I feel so much better about myself. It’s like the family I lost, and I know that I am valued and have a purpose, which makes the world of difference. I love it when everyone is together, talking and making the best of life, and I’m eternally grateful to be a part of making that happen.”

Please look at our website and help us spread the word of our services, think about volunteering with us, and consider making a donation to help us continue this invaluable grassroots community work. Thank you. Please visit www.lunchpositive.org

Brighton & Hove communities to come together on Friday, July 21 to combat HIV stigma

Friday, July 21 is Zero HIV Stigma Day, a call-out for everyone to come along to the first ever Zero Stigma Rally at Jubilee Square, outside Brighton’s Jubilee Library.

HIV stigma still affects many people who are living with HIV, with almost 75% of people in the UK reporting experiences of discrimination. Surveys show that people living with HIV still experience negative perceptions and reactions because of their HIV status in social, healthcare, workplace, and community settings; and HIV stigma can prevent people coming forward for testing and starting treatment.

It needs to be a whole community response to combat this! Understanding HIV and stigma is everyone’s responsibility, and we want to reach & involve as many people as possible to help achieve the goals of zero HIV stigma, and no new cases of HIV.

The Zero Stigma rally starts at 5.15pm with diverse speakers sharing experiences of living with HIV, words from local MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, poetry, music from Rainbow Chorus, and much more. The Martin Fisher Foundation HIV Awareness Bus will be on Jubilee Square all day, sharing information together with grassroots HIV charity Lunch Positive serving free refreshments throughout the day.

During the day, Terrence Higgins Trust will be providing HIV testing from the Rainbow Hub room at the Ledward Centre, where Lunch Positive will also be providing a free Queer Allies Lunch. The fantastic More to Me Than HIV exhibition will be at the main library. These are just some of the amazing things happening on the day.

Please come along on Friday, July 21 to join in solidarity with people living with HIV and to combat HIV stigma. The Rally is at Jubilee Square, outside the main library starting at 5.15pm.

More details are on the Martin Fisher Foundation website.

World AIDS Day Partnership: remembrance and solidarity

Reflecting the impact of HIV on our community, a vigil on World AIDS Day December 1 – has been a long held tradition in Brighton & Hove. Prior to the now well established annual gathering at New Steine Gardens, candle-lit vigils were held at various places in the city including the Old Steine, and prior to that at the AIDS Memorial Tree planted in the gardens of Brighthelm on Queens Road.

Over the years these vigils were attended by many hundreds of people, meaningful spaces to remember those who have died, commemorate lives taken too soon, stand in solidarity, for individual and collective expression of the impact of HIV on our lives.

This year the Community World AIDS Day Partnership has again been working hard to bring together the annual Candlelight Vigil and Reading of Names of people locally who have died with HIV.

The partnership was established in 2009 to plan and support the vigil taking place around Tay, the Brighton AIDS Memorial in New Steine Gardens. Many may remember the inaugural event 13 years ago, all eyes on the new memorial, a reader’s stage, swathes of red fabric dressing the railings of the gardens, and moving classical music to close.

Tay

For those of us behind the scenes, the reading of names was coordinated with absolute precision by local and notable activist Arthur Law, who sadly has since died. Since then the partnership has continued to coordinate and help resource the event held on December 1 every year.

The World AIDS Day Partnership is formed of local HIV charities and community groups along with other community stakeholders, and meets regularly on the run up to World AIDS Day. Its role is to deliver the Candlelight Vigil and Reading of Names and to also help coordinate and promote other community World AIDS Day activities happening in the city.

This year the partnership is delighted to welcome a new member, the Ledward Centre. This is particularly poignant as local LGBTQ+ leader James Ledward was a founding and active member of the partnership before his death in 2019, and a strong advocate for people living with HIV.

Working collaboratively, members of the partnership undertake a range of roles. These include the collection and guardianship of names of people who have died and are read at the vigil, arranging the use of New Steine Gardens for the event, invites to readers of the names, providing marquees and equipment, promoting and signposting the vigil and activities, managing social media, providing volunteers for the event, coordinating volunteers and stewarding the vigil. In recent years, new initiatives have also been introduced by members of the partnership, very often through volunteering their time.

These include the production of a high quality online vigil which was broadcast when Covid-19 measures meant it was not possible to gather in person, and each year hosting a popular YouTube channel and Facebook page holding messages of solidarity from a wide range of key stakeholders and supporters.

Following World AIDS Day, the partnership reconvenes to consider how things have gone, always with a view to ensure that the vigil is of the substance and quality that it deserves.

Every year the Brighton & Hove Rainbow Fund holds a gate collection to help fund certain equipment costs of staging the vigil.

Members of the World AIDS Day Partnership include Brighton AIDS Memorial Project, Brighton & Hove City Council, Frontline AIDS, Ledward Centre, Lunch Positive, Martin Fisher Foundation, More to Me Than HIV project, Peer Action, Rainbow Hub, Romany Mark Bruce, Sussex Beacon, Sussex HIV Ecumenical Chaplaincy and Terrence Higgins Trust South.

For more information on this year’s World AIDS Day Vigil and other activities, visit ‘What’s On’ HERE

HIV Community Representation

Lead Pic: Gary Pargeter. Photo by Chris Jepson.

Earlier this year I was overjoyed to re-elected as the HIV Community Rep within Brighton & Hove Community Works. My role involves bringing the voice and expertise of the community and voluntary sector, and lived experience of HIV, to local authority policy makers, cross-sector partnerships and forums. In this role, continued working with the Brighton & Hove Fast Track City taskforce has been a productive and meaningful exercise, with everyone who participates valuing the strengths of the voluntary sector, working collaboratively, the need for and opportunities that strong and cooperative relationships provide. Brighton & Hove is the UK’s first Fast Track City, with goals to get to zero, ending new cases of HIV by 2030, and an end to HIV-stigma.

Community representatives and partner organisations involved are working flat-out to achieve this, with considerable success. The passion and energy of organisations working locally such as Terrence Higgins Trust South and the Martin Fisher Foundation are inspiring, taking well-informed, creative and innovative approaches towards achieving the fast track city goals, and so importantly they are actively working openly and collaboratively with the widest range of stakeholders.

NHS stakeholders have continued to embrace these goals, including a ground-breaking piece of educational work aiming to make the local NHS Health Trust one which is free of HIV stigma. Other recent innovations in the local NHS trust include the introduction of ‘opt out HIV testing’ when attending the Emergency Department.

When people have routine bloods taken as part of their visit, a test for HIV sits alongside the many others that will routinely be undertaken. Rightly so, in my opinion, as HIV should continue to be normalised and understood as such without stigma or undue apprehension within the wider population. Contributing to this work continues to be a fulfilling experience, working with clinicians who value and have a genuine desire to understand and involve people with lived experience of HIV.

So, now over 40 years since HIV became known, and with previously unimaginable advances in prevention, treatment and care, to the point that we’re now talking about the goal of no new cases by 2030, and an end to HIV-stigma. Of course these are ambitious aims, but ones we must all embrace. As people living with HIV, whose voice is so often sought and valued, we surely must acknowledge that for very many people living with HIV, this is now normalised and that life feels no different to others who are not living with HIV. But that still for some people there remain health challenges, inequalities, adverse social circumstances – all of which can present themselves without warning at any time; and that still for many of us adjusting to living with a diagnosis of HIV takes time, often requiring added empathy, understanding and support from others.

I frequently encounter and talk with other HIV reps and people living with HIV as activists and influencers. Our nation and the HIV community that has evolved over decades has produced a wealth of us, and the newer Fast Track Cities in England have embraced community representation as essential to achieving their aims.

For those many people like myself, to represent is a privilege, and we are often in the position of already having had our own support needs met, often living well with HIV. So, with decades of lived experience of HIV, it’s essential that our voice and influence is always authentic, and representation evidence and needs led. We must be unbiased and impartial, hold strong values of service to others, model behaviours of cooperation, impartiality and respect that we expect of others towards the widest range of people living with HIV.

I’m proud to stand alongside so many others that do just that and as a result to make a difference to the lives of people in the HIV community that I value and belong to.

Quick update from Lunch Positive

For everyone’s information, Lunch Positive is now providing home delivery of free meals and food items to anyone with HIV in need.

We have dedicated liaison worker, Tony Russel who will coordinate all food enquiries.

Contact for support should be made through our website form, or usual number 07846 464384.

All the best to everyone,

Gary

10 years of Lunch Positive…

10 years of Lunch Positive……with appreciation!

Gary Pargeter reflects on the impact and achievements of Lunch Positive over 10 years.

I started to write this before the recent and saddest news of James Ledward’s passing. Having got to know James progressively well since Gscene started, I write this with deepest and sincere gratitude for all of the support he and Gscene have given our voluntary sector, Lunch Positive, our HIV and our LGBT+ communities. Much of this writing will be about celebration and achievement, of which James played a big part, and continues so. I hope James would enjoy what I’ve written, and not have asked me to edit!

This year has been one of special celebration for Lunch Positive. An achievement of 10 years of authentic grassroots voluntary action, over 500 weekly HIV lunch club sessions, and much more. Quite something for a community group and organisation that is delivered by volunteers and now often fills a room of up to 80 people!

It seems an age ago in 2008 that the organisation which we grew from, Open Door, closed through lack of funding. In fact, there is now a whole new generation and community of people with HIV who will probably never have heard of Open Door or the many other small, community-based, peer-led HIV groups that used to exist in Brighton & Hove. Here we’re so fortunate to be a community that still actively seeks to support each other, in a multitude of ways.

This year has been one of growth for us, and we have developed our projects even further. In addition to the weekly lunch club we now have a monthly 50+ Evening Supper Group, a pilot group in Eastbourne, an advice drop-in in partnership with Terrence Higgins Trust, and a range of Lunch Positive wellbeing activities – all reflecting the interests of members.

As we do every year, to keep it relevant and wholly purposeful, we talk with our members, volunteers and stakeholders. We seek to continually develop our understanding and explore the difference we make, the needs we meet, and what we might do or become in the future. This year we’ve been having these discussions more widely than ever before – an appreciative enquiry. Friendship, peer-support, community, help at times of need and crisis, and volunteering all still come at the top of the list. The unique form of peer-support that Lunch Positive provides, and the value of people volunteering, have been constant accolades. Our volunteers are truly amazing, I can’t adequately convey how committed, hardworking, and inspirational they are.

Here are just some of the things that we’ve heard and learned from our members, frequently moving and insightful.

“What an amazing feeling there is in the lunch club, how friendly and welcoming people are.”

“People really care about each other and they know that the club cares about them.”

We’ve also heard that; “The lunch club focuses on being a social network, a sanctuary, a place without barriers.”

That “barriers break down completely when you are here,” suggesting that many members find Lunch Positive creates a unique time for them each week, which is not available elsewhere. Lunch Positive provides different ‘things’ for people at different ‘stages’ of their life. When people have suffered from an acute trauma, such as loss of a partner, or long stay in hospital, then, “Lunch Positive is like a sanctuary where people can go.”

People spoke about it as a key to “rebuilding’’ their lives, a place they could go and “just be”. One person said for months after being in hospital it was the highlight of his week, the social event of his week, a way of reintegrating back into life. What a privilege it is to be part of Lunch Positive as a volunteer or worker, and to know the project makes this kind of difference.

Just recently, Kings Fund, the health charity that shapes health and social care policy and practice, held a national conference where the theme was ‘Community is the best Medicine’. What a perfect opportunity. Along with other charities we were selected to present on our work. We shared our experiences of community-based work and volunteering, and it was an exhilarating experience. Hundreds of people together sharing and learning about each other’s differing work, impact, and the contributions of volunteers on health and well-being. Crucially, we shared the voice of our members, as here, and the message we frequently hear resonated loudly, “make it community, not just clinical!”

So with this is mind, as we look towards another World AIDS Day and beyond, let’s celebrate all of the advancements and achievements of HIV treatment, care and equality that so many more people now possess. But please remember that these are not necessarily the reality or attainable for everyone, nor all of the time.  Being, acting and caring as a community still matters incredibly so, and makes a major impact. Let’s never give up on this nor think it’s a ‘job done’. Thank you James, and all our supporters for understanding and advancing this. At Lunch Positive it has touched the lives of hundreds of people, and continues to do so. With appreciation – from all of us!

To find out more about Lunch Positive, to volunteer or find other ways to participate or to check out their many events, see our website.

 

Lunch Positive and World AIDS Day

December was an exceptionally busy month at Lunch Positive, the weekly lunch club for people who are HIV positive.

IT started with huge appreciation given by the members and volunteers following the empowering speech made in Parliament by Kemptown & Peacehaven MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle about being HIV-positive for the last ten years.

This was especially poignant to everyone at Lunch Positive as during the speech the MP referred to Lunch Positive founder Gary Pargeter being an inspiration for him to talk about being HIV-positive in public for the first time, and his reflections on the work of the charity.

The Mayor of Brighton & Hove Councillor Dee Simson lunched with members on Friday, November 30 to celebrate World AIDS Day on December 1.

The Mayor spoke of  the need to combat HIV stigma, and reflected on the continued support many people living with the virus still need. She made a point of talking to everyone present which was much appreciated by all the sixty people present who regularly attend the lunch club each week.

Lunch Positive volunteers and members were  involved in helping organise a variety of World AIDS Day activities and events. On World AIDS Day they hosted a community buffet lunch, all prepared by volunteers. Over 50 people attended, including existing friends supporters, and some new faces.

In the evening, Lunch Positive volunteers donated over 100 hours of their time to help stage the World AIDS Day Vigil and Reading of Names, followed by the annual World AIDS Day Charity Concert, which was raising funds for Lunch Positive. Local choirs performing included Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus, Actually Gay Men’s Chorus, Rainbow Chorus, Brighton and London Belles, Resound male voices, Rebelles female voices, Sweet Chilli Singers and Qukelele, the all women ukelele band.

The evening was hosted by Fox Fisher and Owl and a team of fourteen Lunch Positive and Rainbow Chorus members helped provide refreshments to everyone at the concert during the interval.

Lunch Positive also led on involvement in the production of an anti-stigma exhibition, presented at the Rainbow Hub in St James Street. Titled My Brighton, My HIV – Re-framing HIV Stigma the exhibition featured local people with HIV, empowered to be visible and challenging HIV-stigmatising views.

Gary Pargeter
Gary Pargeter

Gary Pargeter, Lunch Positive Service Manager said: “We deeply appreciate everyone’s support of Lunch Positive throughout the year, and always so wonderfully expressed at World AIDS Day. The lunch club service at Lunch Positive is getting ever busier, involving, supporting, and empowering increasing numbers of people, and we are so grateful that this is recognised and valued.

“Small charities like ours, carrying out effective frontline work, make such a difference to the lives of people in our communities, and we are proudly peer-led by people with HIV in everything we do. There is no ‘typical’ person who comes to Lunch Positive, we are a diverse, accepting and inclusive community group.”

However, to demonstrate the impact Lunch Positive make to the lives of positive people, service user, Tommy said : “Before I came to Lunch Positive I was alone, I felt invisible, and I wouldn’t have seen anyone from one day to the next. It’s been a lifeline. I had at times felt like ending it all. Being here has helped me change that feeling. Thank you Lunch Positive.”

Lunch Positive volunteers at World AIDS Day fundraising concert
Lunch Positive volunteers at World AIDS Day fundraising concert

LETTER TO EDITOR: Thank you for my award

“I am so grateful and happy to have received the Princess Diana community award at the Golden Handbag Awards – most especially because of all the wonderful citations that people have written.

Reading those, it feels quite overwhelming, in a good way! I am so grateful to everyone that contributed – and for all the kind and supportive words.

In all that each of us does individually and together, it already feels so rewarding to be active within a community that cares about and supports others; particularly those who are often marginalised, disadvantaged, and most vulnerable.

I’m so deeply grateful for all the support of our Lunch Positive volunteers. There is never a week goes by that I don’t reflect on what we have all created together at Lunch Positive, with and for our HIV community.

It is all so amazing – the commitment that everyone shows to our work and each other; and the sheer determination to achieve what we do every week at the lunch club and throughout the year in all of our other activities through voluntary action.

It really is a brilliant team, providing such an effective service that reaches so many people, with such impact. Our volunteers are fabulous! Thank you all so much, friends, colleagues, supporters. I’m overjoyed to have received this award.”

Letter from Gary Pargeter, Service Manager at Lunch Positive

 

HIV charity offer support to service users struggling with Universal Credit implementation

Lunch Positive respond to Universal Credit implementation in Brighton & Hove.

As the implementation of Universal Credit enters its final stages, there are big changes ahead with the longstanding link between disability benefits and higher levels of other benefits decreasing.

New claimants may be worse off and existing claimants who experience a change of circumstances can also possibly lose significant amounts of benefit.

Most claims need to be claimed and managed on-line with little or no telephone or face to face back up except for the most vulnerable claimants.

Lunch Positive is planning its own response to these fundamental changes in the welfare benefits system, aiming to support people with HIV in its own way.

A group of key volunteers will undertake specialist training in understanding this new benefit and will be available at lunch club sessions each Friday at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church to signpost information and specialist services to support people.

The lunch club will introduce additional computers for members use, with 1-1 support from volunteers to help complete on-line claim forms and manage these claims.

A new page will be added to the Lunch Positive website giving information on key welfare benefits, including information and help to access local specialist support services such as money advice workers, crisis support services, and food banks.

Lunch Positive has continued to develop its own emergency food service, taking donated food from local suppliers and making these available on a weekly basis to people at the lunch club who may need them and the charity has extended its network of referrers to support the supply of emergency food to people in need and crisis.

Gary Pargeter
Gary Pargeter

Gary Pargeter, Service Manager at Lunch Positive, said: Many more people experience economic disadvantage and poverty than is often realised, including significant in-work poverty.

“No one should struggle unnecessarily, and we hope that our service along with other support services will be a port of call for people when they are in need.

“We know that many people sometimes find it difficult to ask for help, to acknowledge that times are very hard, or worse. As the people delivering Lunch Positive, we come from the HIV community, and many of us have experienced or share these challenges. Please, never feel that you cannot ask for support. Empathising and helping wherever needed is what drives us.”

For more information about Lunch Positive, click here

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