In late August, members of the North Carolina AIDS Action Network traveled to Atlanta for Encuentro 2025, a three-day regional gathering focused on health justice and community power for Latinx and LGBTQ people in the South.
Encuentro—an event organized by NCAAN partner Latinos in the South—brought together public health leaders and grassroots organizers from Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee to share skills around healthcare access, protecting immigrant communities, and collective resistance.
The opening plenary, The State of LGBTQ Latine Health in Georgia, hosted by Latino LinQ, featured Dr. Carlos Saldana, Dr. Valeria Cantos, and Sin Reyes of the Feminist Center for Liberation. Speakers highlighted how discrimination and language barriers contribute to unequal health care access across our region.
Workshops throughout the weekend covered topics like grant writing, voter mobilization, art as activism, HIV testing strategies, language justice, grassroots campaigns, de-escalation skills, and trans health care. Sessions like Transformando el Trauma en Poder Creativo and Out of the Binary: A Trans Healthcare Workshop centered healing and inclusion in Southern advocacy.
NCAAN staff joined conversations on the intersections of health equity and immigration, sharing experiences from North Carolina’s HIV advocacy community while learning from partners across the South.
In response to increased immigration enforcement in Georgia, organizers also modeled ways to host events safely and transparently for attendees of varying immigration statuses.
By participating in Encuentro 2025, NCAAN reaffirmed our commitment to advancing community power and health equity in HIV advocacy alongside partners like Mijente, Alianza Americas, and La Choloteca. Together, we’re working to ensure that all members of our communities have access to health, safety, and community care.
