Possible Activities
This is a list of relatively easy activities that can be undertaken in your community to acknowledge the observance of the appropriate HIV/AIDS Day. Should you decide to implement any activities, consider tailoring them to meet the needs of your community.
- Hold a forum at a local high school, public library, or community center to discuss HIV/AIDS issues.
- Encourage your local newspapers or school districts to sponsor essay, poetry, and/or poster contests on the specific celebration.
- Hold a news conference with leading city officials (e.g., Mayor, health department director) to raise public awareness of the impact HIV/AIDS has had in your community. To help increase HIV/AIDS awareness, invite other local public officials (health department officers and community leaders) to talk about the challenges remaining in the battle to fight the epidemic.
- Encourage the Mayor to visit a local HIV/AIDS service organization (ASO) or community-based organization (CBO) to discuss their current activities and future plans in responding to HIV/AIDS.
- Convene a town hall meeting and invite local healthcare providers, policy makers, educators, community and faith-based leaders, and the general public to engage in dialogue about the impact of HIV/AIDS in the community. Invite people living with HIV/AIDS to share their experiences. Hold a reception for participants immediately following the town hall meeting.
- Highlight the specific observance of the HIV/AIDS Day in your community newsletter and on list servers, bulletin boards, and/or Web pages.
- Submit an HIV/AIDS awareness editorial or a letter to the editor to all of your local newspapers. You may want to use or tailor the attached sample talking points to address the specific needs within your community.
- Encourage your local radio stations to broadcast Public Service Announcements (PSA) leading up to the specific observance day in an effort to help increase HIV/AIDS awareness. Please feel free to download the PSAs contained in this site for your local station.
- Ask your mayor or other local elected official to send a letter/memorandum to all city employees (often the largest single employer in any area) about the specific HIV/AIDS Obsrvance Day, and to inform them of available city services (e.g., HIV testing and/or counseling sites).
- Contact local newspapers and television and radio stations NOW and encourage them to develop a story on the impact of HIV/AIDS in your community and/or let them know of your availability to be interviewed.
- Contact your local television and radio stations to participate as a guest on locally produced "morning" shows and/or radio call-in shows. See the attached media interview availability sample, which you can easily adapt and use.
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