About Us
Who We Are
The Positive Experience is a Black women centered not for profit organization that works to teach Black women and their circles preventative and restorative HIV practices. We accomplish this through distinct programming for Black women, irrespective of HIV status, and by partnering with established non-profits, community based organizations (CBO), and AIDS service organizations (ASO) to lift their HIV arm through creating marketing strategies/campaigns, events, conferences that focus on HIV education, awareness and prevention.
Our direct programming includes three initiatives designed to reduce stigma, increase knowledge and support and to normalize HIV through narrative. Our It's Your SeroVersary initiative offers a new perspective, supporting women in reclaiming their serodate as a date of health awareness, acknowledgement and celebration.
We also offer direct support through the hive, a support group providing resources and recreation for women living with HIV. Positive and Still Pretty highlights the lives of the Black women thriving with HIV through digital storytelling.
The Positive Experience is not only a social support agency, but one with a social and reproductive justice mission. Our fulfillment of this mission takes a restorative approach to HIV for Black women due to the multiple forms of oppression women of African descent experience globally. A positive HIV diagnosis often increases the burden on Black women in the US. For this reason, we prioritize restorative practices for the women we serve.
We define restorative practice for HIV as:
1) Removing labels through strategic disclosure.
2) Redefining negative stigmas in the community and beyond.
3) Esteem building and coping strategies for those directly connected.
The Positive Experience supports CBOs and ASOs internal capacity building through consulting services, strategies and long term plans to strengthen the infrastructure and support the visibility of HIV/AIDS serving organizations seeking to become high performers in marketing efforts and programmatic operations.
We accomplish this by nurturing intentional alliances through coalition building and network development and enhancing the reach of organizations by providing direct and collaborative support services to HIV initiatives. With our marketing expertise, TPE supports organizations through leveraging all avenues of marketing to bring HIV information to community stakeholders and maintain a presence within HIV advocacy.
Who We Serve
The Positive Experience is for all Black women, irrespective of HIV status, and those who love and care for them. Founded and directed by LáDeia Joyce, a Black woman marketing and promotions strategist living with HIV in Memphis, TN, The Positive Experience was conceptualized, designed and created to serve Black women through direct services, and through organizational consulting for agencies providing services to Black women.
Through this two pronged approach, The Positive Experience seeks to broadly impact and improve the resources available for Black women regarding HIV.
How We Serve
The Positive Experience’s vision is that Black women living with HIV are emboldened to live full, healthy lives out loud while eradicating the stifling effects of fear, shame, stigma, stereotypes, and death. We accomplish this through providing consulting services for existing CBOs and ASOs and providing the public with programming centered around isolation and stigma reduction, through education, face to face support gatherings and digital visibility campaigns.
Our platform for isolation reduction includes educational programs for Black women living with HIV or AIDS, health promotions and campaigns to increase HIV education, awareness and prevention, and interventions with a goal of reducing internalized HIV-related stigma.
The Positive Experience focuses its efforts in the US South, and delivers digital media content and marketing services globally. We provide support and resources where women work, play, and pray. This includes communities at large, faith-based organizations, work sites and schools. We offer onsite consulting services as well as digital/remote consultancy for executive staff, organizations and program developers.
Why Is This Important?
Black women are one of the few population groups for whom HIV rates are increasing, despite the development of more treatment drugs, increased focus on prevention, and increases in awareness of the virus.
Black women HIV diagnoses are also more impactful on their communities because they are often the breadwinners and caregivers for entire family systems, meaning a diagnosis is likely to interrupt their lives as well as the safety and well being of those in their homes, those who depend on them economically, as well as the communities (churches, social organizations, civic groups, etc.) that are upheld by their labor.
Lastly, because of their deeply embedded roles in their community and family, Black Women who live with HIV are subjected to stigma, both internalized and externalized, when it comes to receiving support and care around their diagnosis, frequently leaving them without vital support at one of the most necessary times in their lives.
