Viva is a community of women living with HIV in BC, who communicate with other HIV-positive women directly, primarily online. Established in 2007, the group started as a listserv (a confidential group email list) to facilitate easy communication. Today, Viva provides peer support, reduces isolation, offers a notice board for its members to post events and information related to HIV/AIDS, and a space to connect people who want to take action on the issues that are important to them.

In 2023, existing Viva members approached Ribbon Community (formerly known as AIDS Vancouver) with ideas about future options for Viva, including collaboration with Ribbon. Since then, Ribbon Community has worked with existing Viva members to create a new online space for women living with HIV that will be hosted at Ribbon Community.

Today, Viva is a virtual space by and for women living with HIV, hosted by Ribbon Community. As of June 2025, Viva is available on a platform called Slack.

To join the Viva Slack community, please complete this confidential form. Information will only be shared with Ribbon Community staff who support this program directly and will not be shared with case managers or other staff members.

Who can join Viva?

To join Viva, you must:

  • agree to contribute to a welcoming and respectful space and uphold our participation agreement,
  • live in British Columbia,
  • be a woman (this includes trans women and cisgender women, whether or not a person was assigned female at birth) and/or Two-Spirit, gender diverse, nonbinary, and gender creative people who choose to participate in a women-centred space
  • be living with HIV as confirmed by a health record or health practitioner.
  • be a teenager or older - typically, the Viva community is open to people who are 13 and up. Ribbon Community will consider age-specific needs for participants under the age of 18.

Trans women are women. We recognize that gender is not about body parts.

We welcome Two-Spirit, gender diverse, nonbinary, and gender creative people who choose to participate in a women-centred space. We recognize Two-Spirit, gender diverse, and nonbinary voices have distinct, unique experiences that we honour and respect. 

What happens once I complete the form?

Ribbon Community will confirm each person's eligibility to join Viva. Once confirmed, participants will receive an invitation to join our Slack space and a welcome letter with more of an introduction. 

What about my confidentiality?

We will never share your personal information without your permission.

Other participants in Slack will not be able to see your email address. Each participant can choose their online display name for the Slack community. This can be any name you choose, including the name you use in your day-to-day life, or a name that protects your confidentiality. 

When a participant joins Slack, other participants will see their chosen display name, and they will see display names of all other participants in the space. Participants in Slack do not see each other's email addresses.

More details will be provided with the welcome letter and invitation.

We encourage you to make choices about confidentiality within the space that work best for you. All Ribbon Community team members in the Slack space in a paid role have their staff affiliation indicated in their username.

Who moderates the Slack channel?

Ribbon team members will respond within one business day to any concerns about messages that do not fall within our commitment to a welcoming and respectful space and the Viva participation agreement. Ribbon team members are typically available Monday through Friday during business hours to address concerns within Viva. All participants can ask for moderator support at any time, and Ribbon may choose to pause a conversation if moderation is not immediately available.

The Viva Committee - Charlene, Kath, Margarite, Shelly, Raina, among others - are in the Slack group to encourage and support women, and will let Ribbon Community team members know of anything that requires additional moderation.

What is Slack?

Ribbon team members do not provide services via Slack. This does not offer crisis care or response.

Slack is an online way for approved people to communicate with each other. It combines direct messages and group conversations. It is searchable. The Ribbon Community Slack is only available to people who are eligible to be part of Viva. Messages in group conversations are only available within Slack for 60 days.

These YouTube videos made by Slack are helpful if you are just getting started with Slack. We know Slack could be intimidating for new users and we are happy to connect with people one on one to support new users.