What is NYHAAD?
National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (NYHAAD) is commemorated annually on April 10th to urge policymakers and the public to take action regarding the impact of HIV and AIDS on young people. The day also highlights the HIV prevention, treatment, and care campaigns of young people in the U.S. Check our what we’ve got planned for this year and download our social media toolkit to participate in NYHAAD 2025!
MONDAY, APRIL 7th – #NYHAAD 101 Launch
Stay tuned to our Instagram account @advocatesforyouth to learn more about the NYHAAD campaign, our values, and our demands.
TUESDAY, APRIL 8th – NYHAAD Ambassador Spotlights
Follow us at @MyStoryOutLoud to see how NYHAAD Ambassadors are leading HIV prevention, treatment, and care campaigns in their communities.
THURSDAY, APRIL 10th – Virtual Roundtable at 5pm ET
April 10th is National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day! Join us and thousands of accounts across the country in posting online using #NYHAAD. We encourage you to use the Social Media Toolkit here for inspiration. Remember to use #NYHAAD in your posts, no matter what social media network you choose.
In addition, be sure to meet us online from 5:00 PM EST – 6:30 PM EST for #OurHIVPlan: Voices of Activists Living with HIV. This youth-led panel features three activists living with HIV sharing their experiences, insights, and demands. From access to prevention, treatment, and care to bold strategies for ending the epidemic, this conversation centers youth leadership and calls for action rooted in equity, support, and lived experience. Register here.
FRIDAY, APRIL 11th – Movie Night! at 9pm ET
Join us for a virtual screening and live chat in partnership with BLACK, GAY, stuck at home (bgsah). bgsah is a project created by Michael Ward (@michaelxward) and Joshua Henry Jenkins (@joshjenks). As the world was asked to stay at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, they recognized a need for affinity and community remains. Click here to register for the screening of The Year We Thought About Love, directed and produced by Ellen Brodsky.
Why is NYHAAD important?
Today’s young people are the first generation who have never known a world without HIV and AIDS. The CDC reports that in 2020, youth aged 13 to 24 made up 21% of the new HIV diagnoses in the United States. Young people living with HIV are the least likely of any age group to be retained in care and have a suppressed viral load. Addressing the impact of HIV on young people requires they have access to affirming, culturally-competent, and medically accurate resources and tools.
What is the NYHAAD Collective?
The National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (NYHAAD) Collective is comprised of youth activists leading HIV prevention, treatment, and care campaigns in their communities. Their campaigns highlight the challenges faced by young people living with and impacted by HIV, offer insight on how they combat stigma and discrimination on local, state, and federal levels, and enhance the awareness among physicians, policymakers, and youth-serving organization staff, etc. about the existing disparities.
What are the campaign demands?
➤ Increasing empathy and reducing stigma about HIV and its impact on young people on campus and in communities; ➤ Affirming policies around HIV care, treatment, and prevention on campus and in communities; ➤ Decriminalizing HIV; ➤ Accessing HIV services, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), on-campus and in communities without parental consent; ➤ Updating sex education curricula, which includes medically accurate information about HIV.