Learning Objectives:

• To facilitate participants’ reflection on lived challenges and personal values
• To promote awareness of participants’ pre-existing resilience, resources and strategies in dealing with stigma and discrimination
• To promote awareness of the connection between individual/communal/cultural values and the strategies one uses to face challenges

Materials: Worksheet 3.6.1 – Value-guided strategies to address stigma and discrimination.

Time Required: 45 Minutes

Activities & Instructions

Instructions to Participants

• Facilitator #1 says:
• “The following exercise is connected to previous exercises about values – the Lifetime Achievement Award party and Cultural and Personal Values).
• Just as our personal and community values help us navigate through life, they also guide our strategies when dealing with challenges—individually, communally and in the larger society.
• In this exercise, we will revisit our values and explore the various strategies we use in our personal lives and within the community, and how these strategies and values can be used to deal with the challenges associated with HIV-stigma.”
  (Facilitator #2 to hand out Worksheet 3.6.1)

1. Individual Work (10 minutes)

Facilitator #1 continues:

• “For this exercise, we would like you to start by first working individually for about 8-10 minutes.”
• “You now have a copy of the value-guided strategy worksheet. Please take the time to complete this worksheet.”
• “On page one, for the top column, think of one experience in your personal life where you have dealt with stigma and discrimination or social injustice in an area other than HIV. (for example, homophobia, sexism, racism or any of the isms). Think of how you have dealt with it, and what were the values that guided you to take that action.”
• “For the bottom part of the worksheet, think about a non-HIV related challenge that your community faced, and an action/strategy that was used to address that challenge. Then think about what were the values that drove your community to take that action. You can choose any community you identify with – your racial community, your faith community, LGBT community, or even a specific workplace or community organization etc.). You do not have to be directly involved in the strategy to describe it.”
• “After you have completed section 1, continue to section 2. Think about a challenge related to HIV and/or HIV related stigma and discrimination that affects your community. Think about one strategy that your community has used to address that challenge, and what values guided this strategy.”
• “One thing to remember is that, you do not have to choose only strategies that you consider to be very successful to include them. It is important to just recognize whatever difference these strategies may have contributed to reducing stigma or improving the situation.”

(Facilitators: While participants are working; set up 3 flipchart pages each with 3 columns. One page for personal non-HIV challenges & strategies; one page for community level non-HIV challenges and strategies; and one page for HIV related challenges & strategies.)

2. Large group: Debriefing (30 min)

Facilitator #1 Continues:

• “Now let us go around and share our challenges, values and strategies. “
• “Given the time, to ensure we have a chance to share the air with everyone, please try to share your stories in 2 minutes or less.”
• “We have set up the flipcharts to help capture or summarize your sharing in 3 columns: the challenge, the strategy and the values that guided the strategies for each of the 3 things we asked you to reflect on.”
• “Please follow the order of the worksheet in sharing your stories. Let’s start with the personal level non-HIV challenge and strategies; then the community level non-HIV challenge and strategies, and then finally HIV specific challenges & strategies. Is that clear for everyone?”
• “By the end of the exercise, we will have identified some key values that empower our action and also individual and collective strategies that we can use to challenge stigma and injustices.”
• (Facilitator #1 to moderate the reporting and Facilitator #2 to note key words during the sharing onto the flipcharts as described above.)
• (After participants have shared their reflections, facilitator #1 begins the debriefing part of the exercise by asking the following debriefing questions.)

Debriefing Questions

• “What are some of the common values that drive our actions against various types of stigma and injustice?”
  (Facilitator to invite some popcorn responses and summarize)
• “What lessons can we learn from our own or other community’s efforts against stigma and injustices that we can use in dealing with challenges in our own lives?”
  (Facilitator to invite some popcorn responses from participants and then summarize)
• “In this exercise, we have gathered some individual and community strategies in dealing with non-HIV issues. Which of these strategies do we think we can learn from and use to challenge HIV related stigma and discrimination?”
  (Facilitator to invite some popcorn responses from participants and then summarize)

Key Summary Points:

• We already possess strategies and strengths that promote and sustain our resilience.
• Clear values are powerful driving forces in informing and motivating a principled response in dealing with challenges and injustices.
• Shared values and principles are critical in mobilizing collective responses against stigma and injustice.
• Our individual challenges are often linked to wider systemic and social injustices. Our individual well-being is connected to and dependent on the overall wellness of our communities and society.
• There are also links between the various forms of stigma and discrimination. Many of the strategies we use in dealing with one form of social injustice may be transferable to others.

Source:

Li, A. T., & Wong, J. P. (2011). SJCB protocols for CHAMP Study. Toronto, ON: Community Alliance for Accessible Treatment.

Worksheet 3.6.1 –Value-Guided Strategies in Dealing with Stigma and Discrimination Exercise

Think of one experience in your personal life where you have dealt with stigma, discrimination, or social injustice in an area other than HIV. How did your personal values guided you in addressing this?

Think of a non-HIV-related injustice that your community faced, and an action taken to address it. How did your community’s cultural values help to address it? (Can be local or global)

How have our community’s values helped deal with HIV-related stigma and discrimination?

What lessons /strategies have we learned from these experiences that can inform our work in addressing HIV stigma here and now?