Community Innovation Program 2008

The GlaxoSmithKline – Shire Canada 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 $1,360,000 to more than one hundred and sixty projects over the past thirteen years. Eight community-based AIDS organizations across Canada shared the $100,000 available in 2008. 

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

Africans in Partnership Against AIDS (APAA) – Wellness and Treatment Support Group for PHAs from the ‘Habesha’ Community. $15,000.. Create a culturally and linguistically specific support environment for newly-diagnosed and long-term survivor PHAs from the Habesha community living in the GTA.

AIDS Committee of Durham Region – Positive Living: Long-Term Survivor Health Promotion Resource Development & Training Project. $13,000. .  Through community kitchens and peer support, provide opportunities for HIV+ African women living in the Lower Mainland to empower one another, access HIV/AIDS information in a supportive setting, and build knowledge and skills to meet their healthcare needs.

AIDS Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador – Stick To It. $15,000..  Develop, deliver and evaluate, in collaboration with Eastern Health Provincial HIV Clinic and the Newfoundland and Labrador Positive People Network, an HIV treatment adherence information and support program for

AIDS Thunder Bay – Women HIV/AIDS: Safety, Sex and STIs. $6,000. Train female PHAs to deliver HIV/AIDS and STI prevention, risk and treatment information to at-risk women in Thunder Bay who are not currently connected to these services.

Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE) – Prise positive/ Positive take. $15,000.. In collaboration with Fréquence VIH, JASE, and Vidéographe, to pilot a project that provides HIV+ youth with the skills and resources to create videos addressing issues of HIV stigma and discrimination, to be disseminated through YouTube, CATIE and Fréquence VIH websites.

Maison Plein Coeur – Project Cabaret Placebo. $15,000.. To develop, implement and evaluate a series of acting, creative writing and theatre production workshops for PHAs to facilitate improved adherence to antiretroviral therapy.

Youth Community Outreach AIDS Society (YouthCo) – The Women’s Initiative for Support & Education & Re-entry (WISER) $11,000..  Building on the WISE project which provided peer-delivered support and education programs to street-involved HIV+ women aged 15-29, WISER develops and initiates harm reduction/ health promotion initiatives focused on young HIV+ women living with street violence to support their continued fuller integration into society.

Vancouver Meals Society-A Loving Spoonful – Emergency Service Nutrition Program. $10,000. . Develop, implement and evaluate a six-week home-delivered full and balanced nutrition service (including meals, nutrition guidance and counselling) for PHAs primarily house-bound due to recent hospitalization/ acute HIV-related illness.