Values

HIV Young Leaders Fund aims to close the gap in youth-led HIV initiatives through ‘funding the unfundable.’ HYLF enacts this value through funding projects led by and serving young people 30 years and younger who are seeking to make a difference in the AIDS response and who are often excluded from or unreached by existing programs, such as young sex workers, young men who have sex with men, young people who use injection drugs and young people living with HIV. HYLF has a specific focus to support work that is unfunded or underfunded by existing funding mechanisms, including core funding for youth-led organizations.

HIV Young Leaders Fund recognizes that who these young people are – the young people excluded or unreached – varies greatly from community to community. As a result, three of HYLF’s principles are geographic representation, gender diversity, and community-involvement in decision-making. What does this mean in practice? It means that grant decisions will be made by reviewers who live and work in the regions of grant applicants, and that the global Steering Committee of the Fund has 12 members from 11 different countries representing different affected communities. HYLF will work to ensure people of all genders are involved in decisions about grant making and in HYLF’s governance.

We are committed to the meaningful involvement of young people living with HIV throughout HYLF governance bodies, in decision-making and in funding priorities. Currently 30% of HYLF’s Steering Committee is living with HIV, and through our grant making priorities HYLF is committed to supporting the leadership, capacity, support networks and services for diverse communities of young people living with HIV.  A minimum target of 30% of funding will go towards the needs of young people living with HIV.

HYLF is also committed to the values of meaningful youth participation and youth leadership for diverse youth populations. Our Steering Committee is composed of young leaders from different HIV networks. Grant reviewers and grant recipients are young people under the age of 30. In our efforts to ‘fund the unfundable’ we are committed to support the personal development of young people from key populations. This includes supporting capacity and skills development through training and education for those most affected by the HIV epidemic.