Bradley Engelmann

Born 20.1.64  -  Died 23.10.96

Positive People Taking Leadership Roles

Bradley Engelmann became involved in HIV/AIDS activism when he was first elected to the Program Management Committee of People Living with HIV/AIDS Victoria in 1992. Soon afterwards he was elected to the Openly Positive representative’s position on the board of the Victorian AIDS Council/Gay Men’s Health Centre (VAC/GNHC) which began a long commitment to the work of the organization. He became the convener of the committee which ran the Positive Living Centre in St Kilda and set about trying to involve positive people in helping to make decisions around the services and activities which the Centre provided.

Bradley sought to take positive people’s involvement in decision-making one step further by organizing a team of positive people to stand for the Executive and Board of the VAC/GMHC in 1995. Their success in becoming elected to Board positions was a milestone for the organization. It gave positive people a real sense of empowerment, an involvement in advocacy and in the decisions around the service delivery which directly affected them. Bradley’s year as President of VAC/GMHC began the difficult process of transition of services from Fairfield Hospital to the Alfred and Royal Melbourne Hospitals. Bradley was instrumental in obtaining promises from the new hospitals on the levels of service to be provided, using his Ideal Hospital document as a basis for what positive people required from the new facilities. He was a passionate advocate for positive people’s participation at every level and a great exponent of their needs and issues.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Coase

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