It Starts With me

Get ready for National HIV Testing Week 2023

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National HIV Testing Week starts Monday 6 February 2023 so please prepare by familiarising yourself with this year’s campaign and the different ways you can get involved.

A new campaign for 2023

National HIV Testing Week is a campaign to promote regular testing among the most-affected population groups in England. Regular testing helps to reduce the number of people living with undiagnosed HIV and those diagnosed late.

This year, the campaign returns with a new strapline, ‘I Test.’, across all National HIV Testing Week
materials, replacing ‘Give HIV The Finger’, which has been in place for the previous five years. The headline ‘I Test.’ is followed by a line that explores people’s different reasons for testing. This allows for flexibility in responding to different audience needs.

The new strapline and campaign approach was developed and adopted following findings and recommendations from evaluations of ‘Give HIV The Finger’ and audience insights gathered over the summer of 2022. Audiences were involved through focus groups and surveys throughout the development process. It builds on the concept of the National HIV Prevention Programme’s umbrella campaign, ‘It Starts With Me‘ by positioning testing as something normal, desirable, and that we can all take personal responsibility for.

Please see sample images from the campaign below. The campaign features a wide range of models with some resources translated into a number of languages. You can see the whole range of campaign resources via HIV Prevention England’s resources portal.

How to get involved

There are many ways you can get involved and support National HIV Testing Week. We are inviting organisations to participate by running campaign events, providing testing opportunities and promoting HIV testing, and prevention awareness, with our support. For more details, please download the campaign briefing [PDF].

Free Resources

Free resources to promote HIV testing this National HIV Testing Week are now available to order.

Log in to order leaflets, posters, and merchandise to support your National HIV Testing Week activities.

All printed resources are also available to download as PDFs.

Order your resources now.

Social Media Pack

The social media pack is now available to download.

It Starts With Me: real people, real stories

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Today is the launch of the refreshed It Starts With Me campaign. The campaign champions strong individuals who are playing their part in stopping HIV: whether someone is HIV positive, negative or making the decision to test for the first time. They are doing something and have embraced the ‘It Starts With Me’ spirit.

Meet two of our campaign volunteers

Adam, 29, is excited to be part of the campaign and promote the message that there is no need to be afraid of HIV.

‘I’m not HIV positive but I know people who are living normally thanks to the treatment they take. I found out from them and my own research how much HIV has changed and that it’s treatable’ he said.

‘I think the main reason people shouldn’t be scared to get tested is because knowing you’ve got HIV is better than not knowing – at least that way you can get treated – and you are actually safer with someone who has HIV and is undetectable on treatment, than someone whose status you don’t know. I play my part in stopping the stigma around HIV by openly talking about it and regular check-ups. I’m proud that I know my status.’

Adam

Nana, 34, also cares deeply about taking action to stop HIV.

‘I’m very passionate about HIV prevention because I feel a duty to my community to do it. We can stop HIV if we all make the small personal commitment to get tested regularly.

‘It’s simple – if people get tested and are positive; they get help, they get treatment. If they test and are negative, they seek to remain negative. That’s just about it.’

What does he do to help stop HIV? ‘I get tested regularly because I know the facts about HIV. I’m standing up and making a difference.’

Nana

How can I get involved?

All organisations engaged in HIV prevention can order free It Starts With Me resources to support their work, including outreach and community events.

Some of the resources available to order include wallet leaflets, posters, booklets, stickers and display stands. Resources may be ordered free of charge.

For enquiries about campaign resources and further information please email [email protected].

Visit the new It Starts With Me website

Order resources

Launch date of the new look It Starts With Me Campaign

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ISWM_2016_initial_briefing 218x300We’re pleased to be able to announce that the new look It Starts With Me campaign will launch on 20 September 2016.

Since 2013, the national campaign has used social marketing, local engagement and policy work to increase HIV prevention knowledge and behaviours – including testing and condom use – in the nation’s most at-risk groups. The recent evaluation by TNS-Global revealed that while successful, there are more opportunities for the campaign to have greater impact. We hope to incorporate the evaluation feedback into the refreshed campaign.

The campaign aims to provide clear, consistent messages and activities across the country. These will seek to encourage individual responsibility, increase HIV testing and preventative behaviours and improve HIV knowledge.

The key elements of the campaign include video, advertising and provision of HIV prevention resources. Video, digital and print media will effectively promote messages of accessibility and acceptability of testing.

Find out more from our briefing document [PDF]