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Brief History of Grace Project
Grace Project was established in year 2000. NIAS, as part of its
public education and outreach to Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities organised a conference in 1999 to sensitise the local communities of Berkshire to the emerging trend in Heterosexual HIV infection in Slough and Nationally at the time, HIV had hitherto been considered a 'Gay' disease.
It became apparent following the conference that there were people in the
audience who were HIV+ albeit undiagnosed. A few BME participants at the
conference took up the challenge to undertake HIV tests and found themselves
positive. This uncovered a need and requests for a different level of service
that NIAS was not accustomed to providing.
NIAS management's immediate reaction was to seek referral and partnership
links with local stakeholder towards finding a solution to the problem at
hand. HIV at the time within local BME Communities was very much a taboo
subject, furthermore, local Gay communities were not prepared to share existing limited resources with the new and unfamiliar group of emerging service users readily.
The need to overcome the resultant high level stigmatisation and
discrimination experienced by the known positive BME people in Berkshire led to the establishment of the Grace Project. The project was able to address
the twin challenges of stigmatisation and discrimination experienced by
sufferers, by empowering Black and Minority Ethnic sufferers, their family and
carers to design, operate and deliver an outreach service within their own
communities and at the same time offer hope, care and support to families
affected using culturally appropriate interventions.
The interventions of Grace project have proven to be sustainable in spite of limited funding as a result of the commitment of its users and the target communities at all levels of the project's intervention.
For more information on the project experiences till date, please email us @ graceproject@nias.info
Our Approach
We believe that a positive HIV diagnosis is not a death sentence, it is an opportunity to make life adjustments and to make every day count more.
The Grace project supports its service users to explore various options after an HIV+ diagnosis.
The project works from a holistic perspective to ensure that all the concerns of the service user are taken into account in service planning.
We strive to get more for our service users by working in partnerships with other stakeholders through :
- providing access to training and information for community workers, health policy officers and health care practitioners
- being involved in colloborations aimed at providing support and prevention programmes to Black Minority Ethinic (BME) communities in Berkshire.
- offering physical, emotional and spiritual support and advice on a daily basis to those living with HIV and and their close family members and friends
- Conducting outreaches to our community to establish community partnerships for prevention and support