The UK’s leading HIV charity will help people living with HIV in London, Essex, Brighton, Shrewsbury and Cambridge to get back to work.
A quarter of people living with HIV in the UK are currently unemployed. Terrence Higgins Trust’s Work Positive programme has relaunched today across the UK for another year, providing work experience, mentoring, peer support, employment coaching and training to people living with HIV who have been unemployed for two years or more.
On July 1 the programme, funded by Big Lottery Fund, will relaunch for its sixth year, accepting applications until August 7.
By matching participants with work experience to help them build skills ‘on the job’ and by providing a mentor to support them along their journey, 46 per cent of Work Positive participates have secured paid work during or after taking part.
People living with HIV face many barriers when going back to work, including gaps on their CV, low confidence or self-esteem and lack of skills. The Work Positive scheme from the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity supports people to overcome these barriers, meet new people and develop and renew skills for today’s workplace.
Micael, who completed Work Positive last year, said: “I’d tried other back to work schemes before but I wasn’t getting anywhere and when I left for the day the support stopped, but with Work Positive I was made to feel like a real person, who could contribute to society.
“Ruth gave me the opportunity to get out and get work, but the programme also gave me the wider support I needed to live a happy and healthy life, like helping me eat well – and on the morning of my graduation I was offered a paid job!”
Ruth Burns, Work Positive co-ordinator at Terrence Higgins Trust, says: “The Work Positive Programme has gone from strength to strength over the last six years. Every year we see our participants transform into confident professionals who are a real asset to the workplace.
“We want this year’s scheme to be just as successful, and we encourage anyone with HIV who feels they need a boost onto the career ladder to apply.”
To find out more about Work Positive and if it is right for you, please contact Ruth on workpositive@tht.org.uk
