Our Blogs

In October 2018 the City Bridge Trust, who have funded Spectra’s Trans counselling service for the past three years, informed us of a film-making scheme “Telling Your Stories” ran in partnership with Media Trust.  Offering ten charitable projects they supported, to have a short film made about their work by a professional filmmaker. Spectra had […]

This iconic costume is one of the key items for a project funded by Wandsworth Oasis with Spectra to educate & inform MSM and Young People in Wandsworth, about HIV & STI prevention, plus increased Sexual Health Awareness. To continue the decline in HIV infection rates –  PHE recommends prevention message and reduction of high risk […]

What a difference a year makes! In this picture the left image was taken on September 20th, 2018 and the right image, September 24th, 2019. Operations Manager at Spectra, and one of #Run4TeamSpectra2019 for this years’ World AIDS Day Red Runners on November 31, 2019 tells us about his experience of last year’s run and […]

Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP Minister for Women and Equalities Sanctuary Buildings 16-20 Great Smith Street London SW1P 3BT 2nd September 2019 Urgent request to intervene: Funding for sexual health services Dear Minister, We are writing to you as sexual health and HIV organisations to express our concern at the current funding situation for sexual […]

What an amazing time Notting Hill Carnival 2019 joining in with the Flagzmasband presentation thanks to Gilead Sciences we showcased #Gaia in the parade. If you got any pictures of our costume, don’t forget to share pics from the weekend with us using the hashtag #Gaia4Life Below are a selection of pictures submitted from the […]

Pride 2019 on July 6 was an amazing experience, as ever. With over 1.5 million people in attendance we felt the love and support, along with our peers, friends and colleagues that permeated central London and the Parade route. Here are just a few of the pictures on the day, with more to be added […]

Spectra’s HIV Prevention Co-ordinator for GMI, Gianluca Failla recently wrote an article for Italian website Gay News which has been translated below. Detailing the history of GMI and Gianluca’s role within the partnership. Link to the full article can be found here: http://www.gaynews.it/2019/06/26/gmi-partnership-come-fornire-un-servizio-unico-di-salute-sessuale-in-tutta-londra/ The GMI Partnership is a 10-year old partnership made up of three […]

OVERVIEW The trans-peer mentoring programme is designed to support individuals who would like holistic support around any issues that are important to you.  These might include gender identity, sexual orientation, self-esteem, relationships (personal and with professionals) and well-being issues, and we offer a safe, non-judgmental, supportive, and empowering environment in which to explore these. Many […]

Mindfulness Based Chemsex Recovery (MBCR) is a new programme we are launching in May in Soho. Spectra’s mental health lead Ben Hoff, and outreach worker Bex Freeman who are developing and co-facilitating the programme, were interviewed by Boyz Magazine, to give more background to our new service… Hi Ben & Bex, so what’s Mindfulness Based […]

Sexual Health Strategy Consultation The London Borough of Merton (LBM) and Merton Clinical Commissioning Group (NHS, CCG), working alongside NHS England, are responsible for commissioning sexual health services across Merton. To inform the planning and development of these services the CCG, in partnership with the council are developing a joint 5 year sexual health strategy […]