Founded in 2015 by activists living with HIV, The Reunion Project (TRP) is the national alliance of long-term survivors of HIV, collaborating with local and national HIV advocates, providers and researchers. Together, we convene and connect individuals and communities, sharing our experiences of survival and loss while honoring our past, and developing successful strategies for living and supporting one another—today and into the future.
The Reunion Project was founded by long-term survivors of HIV who recognized that there is an entire group of individuals who had survived the epidemic, but in many ways have been left behind by the community that they helped to build. The Reunion Project provides a safe space for survivors of HIV to come together and honor the fact that even though they have weathered great adversity and tremendous loss, many have come through the experience with a certain degree of resilience. We feel these stories deserve to be told, and shared, to help those who may need help in finding their way back out of isolation, depression, or post-traumatic stress that came as a result of surviving the epidemic.
The Reunion Project hosts one- and two-day summits (Town Halls) around the country. The summits consist of a mix of facilitated discussions, panels, and presentations led by key researchers, advocates, and long-term survivors of HIV and AIDS. The Reunion Project has received support from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Gilead, Janssen, Merck, ViiV, Walgreens, and TPAN, publisher of Positively Aware magazine. The Reunion Project has been to Chicago, Palm Springs, Philadelphia, Ft. Lauderdale, Atlanta, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New Orleans (virtual), Ft. Walton Beach, FL, Houston, and Birmingham, AL.
The Founding Steering Committee included TRP co-founders Matt Sharp (San Francisco) and Jeff Berry (Chicago), along with Jeff Taylor, Palm Springs; Gregg Cassin, San Francisco; Chris Bartlett, Philadelphia; Waheedah Shabazz-El, Philadelphia; and Louis Spraggins, Chicago.
