The GROW Project
Growing Rights the Organizing Way
Project Overview
The GROW Project is a transformative initiative by the North Carolina AIDS Action Network (NCAAN) designed to expand HIV advocacy across South Carolina, empower community voices, and build a sustainable grassroots movement. We’re training individuals living with and vulnerable to HIV in grassroots strategy, policy education, and intergenerational mentorship to create structural change and expand equity and dignity in the South.
“These trainings made me feel safe, as a woman living with HIV. I finally feel like my voice matters.”
“Our stories should guide policy; I am happy to be able to share.”
“I never knew I could speak to a legislator, but NCAAN showed me how.”
Goals
- Educate and mobilize HIV advocates across the Carolinas.
- Empower grassroots leaders with tools to advocate for HIV Justice.
- Inspire advocacy within communities.
- Center the leadership of Black and Brown communities.
- Host a legislative teach-in and a Capitol Day focused on collective action.
- Host an inaugural “My Speaks on Gervais Street” for advocacy & engagement.
- Build a strong SC Action Team for legislative engagement.
Key Outcomes
- Held a statewide conveneing with over 175 participants.
- Trained 30 advocates, including 12 Black women living with HIV.
- Secured $4,000 to support travel and eliminate barriers.
- Had two powerful “My Speaks” on Gervais with over 170 attendees.
- Established an SC Action Team to sustain community voice & policy education.
- Held 4 listening tours in Black communities, engaging over 200 community members in Columbia, Charleston, Florence, Rock Hill, Spartanburg and Greenville. 1/4 had lived HIV.
- Our communications team filmed advocate “Our Stories” videos of community leaders.
Community Impact
We’ve learned that storytelling and mentorship are not just tools—they are strategies for policy change, across our town halls. Action team trainings, and letter-writing efforts get participants “aware” of being invited into the work, not talked at. Some of the lessons that will shape the path forward include:
- Consistency matters: When we show up, follow up, and stay engaged, people respond with commitment.
- Cultural grounding is critical: Folks need to see themselves in the work and feel they have a stake in it.
- Timing and access count: Evening and weekend options helped bring new faces to the table, especially for those who work, parent, or live in rural communities.
- Intergenerational space, way, youth and elders alike brought wisdom, curiosity, and accountability to every gathering.
About Us
Mission Statement
The North Carolina AIDS Action Network improves the health and lives of all who are affected by or living with HIV. We build and expand communities and advocates through outreach and public education, coalition building, policy and leadership development, building to increase visibility and mutual support of people living with HIV & AIDS throughout our state.
Vision Statement
The North Carolina AIDS Action Network envisions a state that values the voices, knowledge, and life experience of people living with HIV & AIDS, where HIV education and healthcare are accessible, fact-based, compassionate and without moral judgment, and where people living with HIV & AIDS live in a community of mutual support and are afforded the same individual liberty of love, respect, and dignity.
Next Steps & Lessons Learned
- As we move into the final stretch of the GROW Project (July through September 2025), our commitment remains rooted in deepening community impact and inspiring a movement that will last for the long haul. We are not just closing out a grant, we are building a foundation for a movement that embodies social and justice-centered. In the next few months, we are focusing on:
- Training at least 20 new advocates with a focus on rural communities, young people, and women of color.
- Finalizing South Carolina’s HIV Policy Agenda using feedback and data directly from our town and listening sessions.
- Planning for advocacy postcards to state legislators to protect Medicaid and prevention funding.
- Hosting a convening with SCDHHS, ASOS, and justice-centered partners to align on access and prevention issues.
- Working alongside SC-based HIV and LGBTQ organizations, churches, and faith partners to strengthen our collective advocacy power.
- Working with our funders, partners, and you, we know the real work continues beyond September. Our network is growing, our projects are clear, and our hearts and minds are full of pride and gratitude for all those that most impacted lead the way.
