SpringBoard has sprung

Our annual SpringBoard conference was last night. As one of the coordinators, I’m tired, but so happy at how things unfolded. People bravely tried new things (theatre), connected on their passions (sharing stories of activism) post diagnosis, and were physical together (yoga). They were challenged to think of new strategies of dealing with stress when they’re “in the thick of it” (you can’t run out for a massage when you’re at work, but there are other things you could try). Many participants considered whether they were balanced in their lives by doing the Medicine Wheel exercise. Of course we shared the common connectors of food and company.

Dr Susan Burgess elaborated on our theme of Space for Health with her keynote address, making connections between her work in Lesotho and Canada. 
   “Relationship is everything,” she said. People must feel they are cared for, connected and able to trust, regardless of their “space” physically, mentally emotionally. Everyone needs to feel valued. The conversation that followed had people nodding in agreement that HIV itself is not necessarily the problem, but social inequalities are, including the stigma and discrimination that follow HIV wherever it goes. I for one am energized to continue to confront these challenges.

Many, many thanks to the women living with HIV who shared their activist journeys, and the theatre troupe’s energy and enthusiasm (“You rock!” said one of the evaluations). Thanks to Shayna Hornstein for bringing in new ideas for stress management (people were grinning as they left) and Donna for her yoga at work session. Thanks to Dr. Burgess for taking space for health international. And ouf course, thanks to the staff here for all the support in pulling it off. See you next year.

- Janet

This was posted on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Education & Resources, Networking, Special Events, Spiritual and Emotional Health . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.

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