The CORE Project’s final multi-stakeholder workshop, held on 5 December 2025, explored how community-led health responses can survive and adapt amid shrinking health funding, contracting civic space, and declining political attention to HIV. The event brought together 50 participants from across Europe, including community leaders, civil society organisations, UN agencies, EU institutions, academia, and regional networks, to reflect on lessons learned and chart strategies for sustaining community-led responses beyond the project’s lifetime.
CORE (Community Response to End Inequalities) was established to demonstrate that community-led health interventions are effective, particularly for populations often excluded from mainstream health systems. The project’s final workshop aimed to share results, hear diverse perspectives on equity and innovation, explore resilience strategies, and discuss sustainability in the ongoing fight to end AIDS as a public health threat.
The project achieved notable results across multiple countries, expanding testing for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and syphilis in community settings, engaging new community-led leaders to deliver services for people who use drugs, transgender individuals, sex workers, gay men, and Roma and African migrant communities. CORE piloted integrated testing in non-traditional venues, strengthened peer-led workforces, and created 84,700 testing opportunities, exceeding targets by up to 91%. High positivity rates highlighted the ability of community-based approaches to reach previously undiagnosed individuals. Initiatives included outreach in gay saunas in Romania, work with Roma communities in Slovakia, support for migrants in Germany and Sweden, sex worker engagement in France, and contributing to Cyprus’s approval of free PrEP programs. Peer-to-peer support and centralized management enabled smaller organisations to succeed, providing a model for future funding mechanisms.
Despite these successes, sustainability remains uncertain. Funding was identified as the greatest threat, followed by restrictive legal frameworks and a hostile ideological environment. Many participants expressed concern that while community-led services are efficient and essential, they are often the first to face defunding.
The broader European and global context presents additional challenges. Massive cuts to UNAIDS and WHO HIV/TB/hepatitis capacities, widening data gaps, and squeezed disease-specific funding are reshaping the HIV response. Persistent epidemiological challenges include late diagnoses, limited PrEP uptake, and reliance on fragile donor support. Participants emphasized the need to reframe HIV advocacy, embedding it within broader health discussions, including health security, pandemic preparedness, migration, mental health, chronic disease, and vaccine-preventable conditions. Engaging with evolving EU institutions and international partnerships was deemed essential for maintaining political momentum.
Leadership within the HIV community is under pressure, with shrinking budgets, burnout, and increasing hostility threatening long-standing civil society leaders. The workshop highlighted the importance of investing in new and diverse leaders, creating inclusive leadership structures, and supporting smaller, community-led groups, especially sex worker- and migrant-led initiatives.
The workshop also examined alliances beyond traditional HIV networks, emphasizing the importance of partnerships with human rights movements, patient groups, and broader health coalitions while navigating potential tensions between different advocacy frameworks.
Looking ahead, the CORE project concluded that community-led responses are indispensable. Surviving the current challenges will require adaptation, political courage, and renewed solidarity. The project’s legacy demonstrates that even in times of uncertainty, communities can lead and must remain central to any credible strategy to end AIDS.
