Going Red across Coventry to raise awareness of HIV
On 3 February, Coventry City Football Club welcomed members of the Integrated Sexual Health Service to the 1st team training ground in Ryton to discuss the Go Red campaign. Players for the Sky Blues including team captain Sam Ricketts had their photos taken in the GoRed T-Shirts to show their support of such an important issue in Coventry. Following this, Sky Blues in the Community have also been involved in supporting Go Red for Feb with the staff team wearing T-shirts and spreading the word about the campaign.
On 6 February 2016 they were at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena supporting the Wasps Big Community Event. The community event held before the match between the Wasps and Newcastle Falcons was full of activity: Wasps players meeting and greeting supporters, a live band and dancing and singing from pupils at local Coventry schools. There was also a wheelchair basketball competition, an indoor football game, and lots of stalls, one of which our #GoRed team were using to promote the Go Red for Feb Campaign.
With Coventry having one of the highest rates of HIV in the West Midlands, the Go Red for Feb Campaign is about raising awareness of HIV within the city and breaking down the stigma surrounding HIV. The #GoRed team had plenty of support for the campaign at the Wasps Big Community Event, with lots of the fans happy to have their photos taken in the #GoRed t-shirts. These photos and lots of information and facts about HIV can be found on our Twitter account: @CWPT_CovISHS.
The #GoRed campaign will be running throughout February, with the aim of getting people to wear something red, share their photos, and use the #GoRed to tag their posts on social media. This is one of Coventry’s biggest HIV awareness campaigns- we want to get the message out there and change some of the negative beliefs around the HIV.