The health and wellness weekend retreat is offered to the attendees of the Greater Boston area but also from other areas across Massachusetts HOCC is connected to: CARE's from Fitchburg, North Shore Health Project’s, Brockton Health Center, and the south shore. In May 2017, HOCC celebrated its 6th annual retreat with 50 women who joined together at a beautiful retreat center in Essex Massachusetts to mark years of living positively with HIV/AIDS. Each year the retreat continues to evolve into one of our most innovative health initiatives for women to practice lessons learned, try positive lifestyle modifications, plan and eat healthy meals, begin a walking program, develop stress reduction strategies, participate in wellness workshops, and connect with 50 other women challenged by living with chronic illness.
This retreat was our most powerful event with our peer educators offering a workshop on Stigma and Disclosure which set the tone for an open exchange of experiences, feelings and strategies to live by without fear of being alone with the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS. Throughout the weekend, women shared their struggles with addiction, strategies for talking to their children about HIV, and learning how to better manage their HIV disease with nutrition, mental health care, and acupuncture, among other strategies. For a number of women, it was their first time out of the city. Women left wanting to maintain their connection to themselves and others and motivated to continue moving forward in their lives towards wellness and health.