CHLP Hosts Positive Justice Project Partners Group Meeting in Atlanta
In October, CHLP hosted an in-person meeting of the Positive Justice Project (PJP) Partners Group in Atlanta. The meeting brought together 13 leaders from state, regional, and national organizations working to fight against HIV and STI criminalization.
CHLP established the PJP Partners Group to bring together advocates and organizations to share updates, resources, and strategies in the work to end HIV criminalization. The national organizing group is a vehicle for trusted and aligned partners to learn and engage with their peers, and build strategic advocacy responses to the needs on the ground guided by members’ past experiences, skills, expertise, and analysis.
In particular, the PJP Partners Group is emphasizing the roles of survival and safety in the storytelling and movement-building work in which advocates are engaged, and crafting an expansive and comprehensive strategic framework of liberatory techniques to free people living with HIV from incarceration. Additionally, the PJP Partners are actively deliberating on coalition-building and different modalities for lived experiences to be shared with and impact members of the community.
This in-person meeting was designed to help advocates share their experiences and expertise in ways to fight HIV criminalization as well as showcase some of CHLP’s work. It helped advocates get to know each other in a more intimate and candid space free from funder and executive culture.
PJP Partners Group members in attendance included Melanie Reese and Ronnie Taylor of Maryland Coalition to Modernize/Repeal HIV, Todd Fuqua of the HMM–Indiana, Dorian-Gray Alexander of LCCH, Cole McAfee of Freedom Oklahoma, Nathan Cisneros of the Williams Institute, Kerry Thomas of the Sero Project, and Maxx Boykin of Prep4All/Georgia HIV Justice Coalition.
Joining the convening virtually were CHLP Advisory Board Member Olivia G. Ford of the Well Project, Sallie Thomas of PWN, Molly Pearson of Missouri, Becca Cleary of Sex Work Decrim, and L of the New York STI Decrim coalition.
Hosting the group from CHLP were Executive Director S. Mandisa Moore-O’Neal, Senior PJP Attorney Jada Hicks, Staff Attorney Sean McCormick, Policy and Advocacy Manager Amir Sadeghi, Public Health and Advocacy Strategist Kytara Epps, and Operations Manager Dalene Davenport.
Partners Group members facilitated presentations on a wide range of topics, including storytelling methods such as oral history and storytelling based on restorative/transformative justice, and a power-building quilt-making activity. Other presentations included state-based strategy methods such as data collection, liberatory strategies to free incarcerated PLHIV, and the ins and outs of coalition building. Senior PJP Attorney Jada Hicks also shared an example of advocacy efforts related to a recent prosecution to explore the varied ways coalitions can support people living with HIV and facing HIV criminalization charges.
The group also reviewed CHLP’s soon-to-be-released Guiding Principles for the Positive Justice Project. Input from the partners will be incorporated into the final Guiding Principles document, which will be fully released in December during the next installment of CHLP’s Abolition for our People webinar series. “I'm learning that I'm becoming an abolitionist,” said Melanie Reese, member of the Maryland Coalition to Modernize/Decriminalize HIV. “And that the only way to be a human being on this planet is being an abolitionist.”
The PJP Partners Group meets every other month and is focusing on work for 2026, such as statements for HIV awareness days, presentations from group members, and a debrief on the convening.
