HIV Young Leaders Fund to Launch in 2010 A new partnership effort between youth networks and donors
The HIV Young Leaders Fund is an innovative funding mechanism driven by a broad range of organizations, including international and country-level youth-led networks. The mission of the HIV Young Leaders Fund is to enable and develop new leadership in the AIDS response among young people most-affected by HIV.
“Peer-based programming is highly effective yet chronically underfunded and youth-led programs often lack support for core resources,” said Liping Mian, World AIDS Campaign Youth Campaign Coordinator and HIV Young Leaders Fund Interim Steering Committee member.
Young people account for close to 45 percent of new HIV infections. The Fund aims to ensure that young people living with HIV and most-at-risk young people set funding priorities for their own communities.
“The HIV Young Leaders Fund is responding to the needs of marginalized youth at the country level who are affected by HIV and AIDS but have limited or no resources to make a change,” said Anna-Kaye Rowe, Coordinator of Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network and also a Fund Interim Steering Committee member.
The HIV Young Leaders Fund will make small grants to youth-led initiatives primarily at the local level. Priority will be given to projects that address the needs of young people living with HIV and most-at-risk young people in the community.
The Fund will support: • Local, regional, or international HIV advocacy • Local peer-based education, care and support services • Community mobilization for young people
Grant applications will be released in March 2010, and the Fund will announce its first round of grantees in July 2010 at the Vienna International AIDS Conference. An Interim Steering Committee will serve as the governing body for the HIV Young Leaders Fund in 2010.
The following organizations sit on this governing body: Global Network of Sex Work Projects, Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, GNP+’s Interim Reference Group on Young People Living with HIV, International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, World AIDS Campaign, Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Y-PEER, Young Positives, Youth R.I.S.E, and the country networks IPPF+ Nepal and Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network
The HIV Young Leaders Fund is hosted by the HIV Collaborative Fund, a project of the Tides Network. The Collaborative Fund is a community-driven grants-making mechanism that has disbursed over $15,000,000 to community mobilization projects globally since its inception in 2004. The Interim Steering Committee has hired an Interim Young Leaders Fund Coordinator for early 2010. A hiring process for the permanent position will commence in April 2010.
For more information on the HIV Young Leaders Fund, please see below:
BACKGROUND: the HIV Young Leaders Fund First meeting of the Fund Interim Steering Committee
November 19 -20, 2009 New York City
The HIV Young Leaders Fund is a new community-driven funding mechanism for youth-led HIV initiatives. The HIV Young Leaders Fund will invest in young leaders and their coalitions, while at the same time raising the visibility of their work and strengthening the sustainability of their initiatives. The Fund is an innovative partnership effort between global and local youth networks and donors in the AIDS response.
Why an HIV Young Leaders Fund? Currently there is no HIV funding mechanism that allows young people to fully govern and direct substantial funding to youth-initiated HIV projects that focus on young people living with HIV and most-at-risk young people. Young people affected by HIV and young people living with HIV do not receive adequate resources to conduct advocacy and services for their peers, or to develop as leaders. To create a different future for the AIDS response, young people affected by HIV must be supported to lead in their communities and beyond.
Focus of Fund The HIV Young Leaders Fund will provide small grants for youth-led initiatives that focus on addressing the needs of young people most-at-risk of HIV in their community, and the needs of young people living with HIV. The types of projects supported by the Fund are: • Local, regional, or international HIV advocacy • Local peer-based education, care and support services • Community mobilization for young people most-affected by HIV.
The Fund will also prioritize supporting grantees that cannot access funding elsewhere – such as supporting the core operating costs of a community-based organization.
The Fund seeks to support both independent youth-led organizations and youth-led projects within non-youth-led organizations. The Fund defines youth-led as having project leaders under the age of 30. Additional criteria will be outlined in the application materials.
Grantmaking scope For its first year of grant-making, youth led organizations and initiatives from anywhere in the world can apply. Applicants can apply for small grants ranging from $1,000 to $50,000 USD. The grantmaking process will be accessible to a wide range of youth-led initiatives, and grant applications will be available in several languages. Potential grantees will be provided support in developing proposals to the Fund.
Supporting young leaders The HIV Young Leaders Fund will help seed new leadership in the HIV response by cultivating national and regional youth HIV networks and supporting the capacity building of grantees through trainings and leadership development based on grantee need. Grantees will receive post-grant assistance with monitoring and evaluation, fiscal management, and other areas. Grantees will also have access to mentorship and support as they carry out their projects.
Governance Young leaders representing HIV networks and organizations will govern the Fund, ensure its accountability to young people affected by HIV, and guide the Fund’s evolution. An Interim Steering Committee of young people representing both global and local networks will direct the strategic direction of the Fund in 2010, its first operating year. The Interim Steering Committee will select the Fund Coordinator, priorities for funding, Fund values and policies, and more.
During 2010, the Interim Steering Committee will work to create a transparent policy for Steering Committee membership selection that ensures different youth constituencies have input into membership selection. In late 2010, the Interim Steering Committee will transition to a new Steering Committee. Steering Committee membership will change according to this policy. Organizations represented on the Interim Steering Committee:
Global Network of Sex Work Projects, Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS, GNP+’s Interim Reference Group on Young People Living with HIV, International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, IPPF+ Nepal, Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network, World AIDS Campaign, Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Y-PEER, Young Positives, Youth R.I.S.E
Grantmaking decisions In 2010, the HIV Young Leaders Fund will convene nine three-person regional Community Review Panels (CRPs) of young people with expertise on youth HIV issues to screen grant applications, determine which proposals from their respective regions meet eligibility requirements, and score proposals based on their merit. The Interim Steering Committee will lead an open call for regional CRP member applications, and CRPs will be selected through a transparent decision-making process. These regional CRPs will meet online and on the phone to determine proposal eligibility for final consideration.
In June 2010, a global CRP composed of one representative from each of the regional CRPs will meet in- person to make the final grant decisions. In addition to the merit of the proposals, the global CRP will also take geographic and population diversity and gender balance into account when making final project selections.
Management
The HIV Young Leaders Fund will be hosted by the HIV Collaborative Fund. The Collaborative Fund is a community-driven grants-making mechanism that has disbursed over $15,000,000 to community mobilization projects globally since its inception in 2004. The Collaborative Fund is a project of the Tides Network. The HIV Collaborative Fund will serve as an advisory body to the HIV Young Leaders Fund, and the Tides Foundation will serve as the fiscal agent for the Fund and will oversee grants administration. The Interim Steering Committee has hired an Interim Coordinator for the Fund, and will begin a global search process for the permanent Coordinator position in April 2010.
Preliminary Timeline Early March 2010: Grant applications released April: Search process for Coordinator begins May 1: Grant application deadline Early July: Grant awards decided Late July: Grantees announced at the Vienna International AIDS Conference
A special thank you to the Ford Foundation for their generous support of the HIV Young Leaders Fund’s first Interim Steering Committee meeting.
If you'll be in Vienna, join us for a Networking event and party to celebrate the work young people have done at AIDS 2010! By invitation only. Read More »
If you'll be in Vienna for AIDS2010, don't miss the world premiere of Y-PEER short film, "Suha and Karim", followed by an encore screening of "Maja" short film. The show starts at 8PM! Read More »
