Community Innovation Program 2006

The GlaxoSmithKline - Shire BioChem Community Innovation Program promotes innovative projects that meet the needs of targeted groups of people living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) who face greater difficulty gaining access to services, antiretroviral treatment and the health system. The Program has granted $1,160,000 to more than one hundred and forty-two projects over the past eleven years. Eight community-based AIDS organizations across Canada shared the $100,000 available in 2006.

This year's Program recipients, and the amounts of their grants, are as follows:

AIDS Coalition of Cape Breton. $5,000. To improve the care, treatment and support of aging PHAs in Cape Breton through a series of HIV education workshops targeting staff at long-term care facilities.

AIDS Committee of Toronto. $15,000. In partnership with Voices of Positive Women, to implement a Treatment Options and Wellness Retreat in 2007 for HIV+ women from across Ontario.

AIDS Saint John. $13,000. In association with the Department of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick - Saint John, to develop and implement a series of interventions to provide HIV information, support, referral and testing services to injection drug users in the community.

Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE). $15,000. In association with Toronto People With AIDS Foundation, to develop and pilot in Toronto (for subsequent use by ASOs across Canada) an "Improving Access to HIV Treatment" train-the-trainer workshop, training manual and plain-language resource materials.

Maison Plein Coeur. $10,000. To develop, implement and evaluate a series of creative arts workshops to assist PHAs (focused initially on men who have sex with men) to improve their antiretroviral treatment adherence.

Nine Circles Community Health Centre. $15,000. To deliver and evaluate a pilot project utilizing HIV+ peer outreach workers to assist PHAs facing multiple access barriers to improve their adherence to antiretroviral therapy.

Positive Living North - No keheyoh t'shi'en t'schena. $15,000. To support addiction recovery utilizing workshops, recovery groups, healing/ talking circles, retreats and other activities based on Medicine Wheel philosophy, thereby enabling PHAs to make healthy decisions regarding antiretroviral therapy as a viable option.

Vancouver Meals Society - A Loving Spoonful. $12,000. Using a community development planning process, to develop and implement a partnership framework (eg. centralized client management, purchasing and other cooperative mechanisms) for HIV/AIDS food and nutrition programs in Vancouver to increase PHA access to appropriate nutritional services and education.