It is with great sadness that we share the recent passing of Ruthann Tucker. Ruthann was a strong and present Director, visionary and champion of the HIV/AIDS Sector in Ontario for many many years. She dedicated her life to the HIV/AIDS community, working at ACT, Fife House, the Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) and The Hamilton AIDS Network. Ruthann was also the recipient of an OAN Honour Roll Award in 2005 for her contributions to the sector – years before her work was finished. In partnership with a network of community leaders in the HIV/AIDS sector and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network,

Dane Griffiths, Associate Director of the Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance (GMSH) penned a recent article for CATIE’s Blog calling out the urgent need for a widespread scale-up of harm reduction efforts in gay men’s health in Canada. The article, found here, also provides a thorough comparison of international harm reduction strategies and offers suggestions to organizations looking to expand services to reach gay men who use substances while having sex in advance of the GMSH’s launch of the Party N Play Your Way campaign later this year. Congrats, Dane!

CATIE  is looking for people living with HIV and their partners to share details of their relationship story on camera as part of a fun and upbeat national “Undetectable = Untransmittable” (U=U) campaign. CATIE will be hosting photo and video shoots in cities across the country, and they invite you to share your story in English ou en français!  Please feel free to share it with individuals, couples or organizations that you work with Want to know more? Contact: abrett@catie.ca

As part of a larger process of streamlining, updating and hopefully simplifying our OAN bylaw – we will be holding focus groups with our membership starting in March. An email with more details will be sent in the coming week!

This is the last call for registration for the ED/Board Chair Forum – and a special thank you to all those who have already done so. The registration link was emailed to all OAN Member Directors to be passed on to their respective Board Chairs/Co-chairs but if you have not received yours, please reach out to Ryan at rkerr@oan.red by Monday, January 28, 2019. We are very excited to host this final Skills program of the fiscal year with our largest group yet!

National LGBT publication IN Magazine recently published an article about the inspiration and vision of Keith McCrady, Executive Director of 2-Spirits. Congratulations, Keith!

The Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) is currently seeking community feedback on anti-stigma campaigns related to HIV/AIDS, including PrEP and U=U. Participants are asked to watch a 3-minute video and fill out a 7-minute survey. Click here to help!

The deadline to submit a nomination form for this year’s OAN Honour Roll award ceremony is just around the corner! Forms are due no later than end of day Monday, January 14th, 2019 to allow our committee to review submissions and invite inductees to our event on Saturday, March 2nd. There are three awards open for public submission: The Person with HIV/AIDS Leadership Award The Caring Hands Award The Community Partners Award For more information and to download a nomination form, go to our Nomination Form page.