BUILDING BRIDGES 2 HEALTH: HIV Health & Wellness Summit 2025
“Youth & Young Adults – The Future Is Now”
October 23, 2025
The Center’s annual “Building Bridges 2 Health: HIV Health & Wellness Summit” assembled community members, advocates and healthcare professionals to address current trends in HIV prevention, awareness and care. This year’s theme “Youth & Young Adults: The Future is Now” opened the door for education and dialogue, and an opportunity to serve this community in new & exciting ways, as well as a time to address other issues that impact youth.
Throughout the course of the day, participants were informed about current programs and were updated with new trends for engaging youth & young adults in advocacy and community building. A panel of three youth advocates answered questions related to their experience with HIV work with their peers and offered insight on how to move forward. The summit provided break-out sessions in the form of six different workshops that furthered the discussion on health-related issues, including Sexual Health, PrEP & PEP access, Overdose Response, Youth-led Sexual Education, and more. Participants had the opportunity to choose which workshops they wanted to attend.
One of the major highlights of the summit was the Keynote Speaker, Princess Jauan Durdin, a nationally recognized Youth Leader and Advocate, who shared their personal experiences with program development and implementation. We were encouraged to include youth & young adults in all aspects of programming. The Master of Ceremonies, Dr. Tiffany B. Robinson Young, did an amazing job of keeping the momentum going and summarizing the day’s events.
“Building Bridges 2 Health” reminded us that we have the knowledge, we have the tools, and most importantly, we have the power — the power of awareness, responsibility, and compassion to lead, advocate, and create change. We also left knowing that Youth & Young Adults are not just the leaders of tomorrow; they are the changemakers of today. They are the future & the future is now.
Master of Ceremonies: Dr. Tiffany B. Robinson Young, Ed.D.
Keynote Speaker: Princess Jauan Durbin
Sponsors: ViiV Healthcare & PACT Coalition
Thank you to all who attended, who facilitated workshops, who presented and asked questions, and helped to make it a huge success. Let’s continue to build bridges to health.
