WASHINGTON, June 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — In May, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, DC launched the most recent cohort of its Spill the Tea Ambassador Program, funded by the Viiv Healthcare Positive Actions Grant.
The program recruits Black women ages 18–24 — often but not exclusively college students — to serve as leading community voices on sexual health, HIV prevention, stigma, and related topics. Once candidates are selected, members of PPMW’s Education team will provide these ambassadors-in-training with basic education on topics like HIV, sexually transmitted infections, PrEP and PEP, antiretroviral medicine, and the resources and services available at PPMW.
In preparation for the important discussions around sexual health that trainees will eventually lead, ambassador training involves prompting introspection on the part of trainees. “We spend time unpacking participants’ own ideas about sex, STIs, HIV, and the stigmas they may already carry,” says PPMW Director of Education Aleia Mays.
The Spill the Tea Ambassador Program and its training curriculum are grounded in ViiV Healthcare’s Risk to Reasons framework, defined by Viiv Healthcare as an endeavor to “develop new messages, new messengers, and new methods to increase awareness and action around HIV prevention and care to Black women of cis and trans experience.”
Citing recent data indicating the disproportionate impact of HIV on Black Americans, especially Black women and LGBTQIA+ people, Mays says:
“This work matters because Black women are disproportionately affected by HIV in this country. Despite making up only about 13% of the female population in the U.S., Black women accounted for half of all new HIV diagnoses among women in 2023. Those numbers are heavy — but there is something we can do about them. And learning from someone who looks like you, who maybe has had the same misconceptions, concerns, or hesitations, can make all the difference.”
Since the Spill the Tea Ambassador Program’s founding in 2023, 17 fully trained ambassadors have reached over 300 community members at local education sessions and tabling events. This, according to Mays, is only the beginning; in 2026–27, the program is poised to train and mobilize more ambassadors than ever before.
The current cohort is the first the organization has ever assembled in the summer, running from May to mid-August and following a slightly accelerated version of the standard fall program. A few weeks after the completion of their training, participants will begin to gain hands-on experience facilitating community education sessions.
“Ambassadors facilitate a 90-minute session called Spill the Tea: Reclaiming Your Voice, which centers self-care and HIV prevention as part of overall wellness. One of the activities during the session is a card game we created called “What’s Tea” — our spin on the Hot Takes card game — designed to break down stigma and unpack the messages that shape how people think about sexual health,” explains Mays.
Spill the Tea Ambassadors are also required to represent PPMW at community tabling opportunities, such as Pride events and neighborhood health fairs. These opportunities are often coordinated in partnership with other DC- and Maryland-based community outreach organizations. As the program’s lead, Mays embraces inter-organizational collaboration and encourages community members to reach out about opportunities for Spill the Tea Ambassador tabling.
This summer’s Spill the Tea cohort will be soon followed by the program’s annual fall cohort, which runs from October 2026 to April 2027.
Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, DC (PPMW) provides high-quality, affordable reproductive health care; promotes education programs that empower all individuals to make informed reproductive choices; and protects the right to make those choices. PPMW is the oldest and largest provider of family planning services in Metropolitan Washington, serving Washington, DC; Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland; and Northern Virginia.
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SOURCE Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.
