People with HIV benefit from Rainbow Fund and Pride grant funding

Peer Action’s health and wellbeing therapies benefit people living with HIV following a Rainbow Fund and Brighton Pride grant.

Peer Action was established to encourage and empower people living with HIV to value their health and wellbeing while minimising the impact of loneliness and anxiety.

Peer Action is made up of members who are HIV+ or who are affected by HIV. They are expanding with groups formed irrespective of gender, transgender, sexual orientation, race, religion or nationality to create a safe, confidential space for a community led peer support group to meet in a relaxed, informal and social setting.

From the Rainbow Fund grant, provided thanks to last year’s funding from Brighton Pride, the group has been able to offer six community-based therapy events and given 154 separate therapies. In addition the funding has helped to provide 33 ear acupuncture treatments and a further 36 therapy sessions at the Sussex Beacon.

On top of the therapy events Peer Action has been running weekly yoga sessions for the last two years, on average they sign in ten service users which over six months is 240 spaces taken. For many service users this is a good way of improving core strength and thus improving posture along with general relaxation and mindfulness.

Paul Elgood, Chairman of the Rainbow Fund said: “Peer Action are a good example of the community-based and volunteer-led group making a huge impact in health and wellbeing for local people with HIV. Their work really highlights how well the funding from Brighton Pride has been used in the community.”