As the overdose crisis impacts communities in Ontario and across Canada, London continues to find creative ways to address these issues. As the first community to open an Overdose Prevention Site in the region, London has gradually transitioned from  providing a temporary solution, to now, providing services 12 hours daily for 365 days each year! Congratulations to Brian Lester and the Regional HIV/AIDS Connections team for their leadership in spearheading such important work.  Please see more details in this Media Release.

We are so sad to be saying goodbye to Kim Dolan. Kim has served as Executive Director of PARN for more than 16 years and has played a central role in leading the growth of the agency and HIV programming in her region. Kim has also served on the OAN Board for many years and was Co-Chair between 2005 and 2009. Her contributions to our collective work are numerous and we thank her for her deep committments. Please join us in thanking Kim for her important contributions to Ontario’s HIV sector, the OAN and the lives of people living with

The OAN is actively recruiting new Board Members! We’re accepting applications for two Director positions. One of these must be from the Eastern Region and both must be people living with HIV. To apply, fill out the form (found here) and email it to governance@oan.red by Friday, January 31, 2020 at 5:00 pm. Following a review of applications, we’ll then arrange interviews with selected candidates in early February. Successful candidates will then be appointed by our Board in February. Thank you for taking the time to help shape the future of our organization.

For the past several years the OAN has worked to strengthen its response to PHAs in Ontario and to perfect the ways that we engage PHAs in the work we do.  At last year’s Annual Meeting, our Members and PHA delegates told us that we should move forward with the creation of an Advisory Committee of people living with HIV to inform our important work. Since this time the OAN board has worked to finalize the Committee’s terms or reference (TOR) and met with a working group of PHAs to give us feedback on the TOR and guidelines for Committee

The Toronto Opening Doors Conference will be held  on February 24th and 25th and the theme of the conference is Crossing The Threshold: Emerging Doors to Care.  By the end of the conference, participants will have increased their individual and collective understanding, knowledge and capacity related to connecting and staying connected in care within the context of HIV today, specifically around: Diverse and evolving holistic care and support needs of PHAs today Available resources and referral processes Tools, processes and specific examples of success Please use this link to register for the Opening Doors event.

Bruce House is conducting a housing needs assessment for people living with HIV/AIDS. They are trying to assess the local need for palliative, transition, and respite housing and interested in knowing how other organizations have gone about this. Please contact their consultant, Natalie Duchesne by e-mail (natalie@connect2knowledge.ca) or phone (613-807-0779) to share your views. Bruce House fait une évaluation des besoins de logement des personnes vivant avec le VIH / sida. Dans le cadre de ce travail, nous essayons d’évaluer le besoin local de logements palliatifs, de transition et de relève. Nous aimerions savoir comment d’autres organismes ont procédé pour

In 2019, the First Nations Health Directors Association (FNHDA) introduced the Lateral Kindness Gram. The Lateral Kindness Gram is a resource developed by the FNHDA to promote lateral kindness by sending an uplifting message. With the Lateral Kindness Gram you can recognize a client, peer, friend, family member or an acquaintance for their positive attitude at work, their contributions to the team, or the work they do.  Click here to learn more about how this works. To send an uplifting message to someone, please use this link.

The Positive Leadership Development Institute (PLDI) is seeking passionate, driven and hardworking facilitators who would like to help their peers develop as leaders in Ontario’s HIV sector. We are seeking PLDI graduates who are interested in co-facilitating PLDI core skills, governance and communications sessions with us. We are also seeking people who are inspired and excited by collaboration, engagement, and making new connections with the most incredible people. Does this sound like you? And would you like to join Tara, Martin and Joseph as a member of the team? If so, we would love to hear from you. For more

This Valentine’s Day, the Ontario AIDS Network is thinking of the thousands of women and young women who are living with HIV in our Province. Women living with HIV are among the many courageous and compassionate leaders in our movement and it’s important that we reflect upon their resilience and strength as positive women. To the women who do it all alone To the women who just moved to the country and are without support To the women who numb the pain To the women who just want to be heard To the women who just got dumped To the young

ACCHO is proud to be celebrating Black History Month and honoured to be marking African, Caribbean and Black Canadian HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on February 7th, by launching a province-wide campaign – The Care Collective – targeting African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) women with the aim of increasing HIV awareness, promoting HIV testing, and sparking conversations around HIV.  Data shows that more than half of the women testing positive for HIV in Ontario are ACB women, and these numbers are expected to go up.  Although remarkable headway has been made in the fight against HIV, in fact because remarkable headway has been