At the request of George House Trust and starting in February of 2016, Result CIC (RCIC) embarked on a 1-1 coaching programme with gay and bisexual men. The programme was called ‘being +’ and offered up to 12 sessions delivered face to face, by telephone or Skype. All 3 methods have previously proven to be highly successful and coachees were asked at the outset which method of engagement they preferred.

This is the 4th time that RCIC has coached people living with HIV so we decided to write more about it as we approach World AIDS Day.

Find out what activities George House Trust are running as part of World AIDS Day.

Result CIC is a Community Interest Company – one of the forms of Social Enterprise. We specialise in providing coaching and personal development training for excluded and marginalised people including a significant number of clients living with HIV and many with other long-term health conditions and disabilities. The programmes we have run so far, combining coaching with group workshops, have seen an average increase of self-assessed personal confidence levels of more than 40%. Coaching is of course confidential but to give a general idea, people on our coaching programmes have been able to:

- get a better insight into themselves, their strengths and hence increase their confidence
- take decisions and change their habits to improve well-being and general health
- apply for and get new and better jobs
- take up or rediscover hobbies and activities they enjoy
- take decisions which lead to forming positive new relationships and/or strengthening existing ones
- appreciate, use and develop their networks of contacts

Here are some of the things our group of coachees had to say:

“My coach helped me to build confidence and don’t give up…..and helped me to become stronger….he helped me a lot to re-discover myself and continue exploring new opportunities.”

“I have become more confident and mindful of my actions. I feel more empowered to say no to people which I found difficult before. Coaching helped me consider other avenues for accessing help which I found really useful.”

“I think the biggest gain for me was increased confidence in myself, particularly with regards to what I had to offer in an employment/skills sense but also what I had to offer as a person. At a time when confidence was low my coach mirrored back things I had forgotten about myself and this gave me a push to realise I could do the things I was setting out to do.”

“I have changed my career, which has also enabled me to have a shorter working week including travelling, which has made my work/life balance better. I am more open and honest about being HIV positive. I am also now considering if and when to tell close friends and even possibly my family which I didn’t think I would do. I feel I am in a much better head space around being positive and while not being what I ever wanted, I am dealing with it much more positively and not letting it rule my life and thoughts so much.”

This programme was generously supported by The Monument Trust.