10 Fun Things to Do During this Weekend in Toronto

What to do in Toronto this weekend

City of Toronto Festival and Events Calendar

CATIE is partnering with THN to deliver a training course for you and your colleagues on our latest course: HIV Prevention. A full course outline is attached to this email where you can find out more.

REGISTER HERE: You may register for this course by clicking on this link.

Please feel free to forward this email to interested colleagues!

The purpose of the course is to support frontline service providers to accurately and meaningfully discuss HIV transmission risk and prevention strategies with their clients. 

This course includes approximately six hours of online instruction delivered over five weeks. It includes weekly self-directed modules, collaborative discussion boards facilitated by a CATIE educator, and an interactive online meeting with our educators and fellow students. In addition to discussing HIV prevention strategies, the online meeting to conclude the course will feature a brief presentation on the updated Ontario guidelines for providers offering HIV Testing.

More information about this training 

Audience  

Are you a service provider who works with people who could benefit from having a better understanding of HIV transmission and prevention? Then this course is for you!

Weekly topic breakdown  

HIV Prevention includes four online modules that include a variety of learning activities such as e-learning units, readings, discussion board assignments, and videos. Each module takes up to one hour to complete and you can work through them at your own pace.

An online meeting is held in the fifth week to conclude the course. 

Week 1: The biology of HIV transmission 

Week 2: Understanding and communicating HIV risk  

Week 3: HIV treatment and an undetectable viral load

Week 4: Highly effective HIV prevention strategies   

Week 5: Interactive online meeting, HIV Prevention: Implications for frontline service providers February 8th, 1-3p.m. EST.

In addition to discussing HIV prevention strategies, the online meeting to conclude the course will feature a brief presentation on the updated Ontario guidelines for providers offering HIV Testing.

Timing  

The online modules are available from Jan 8th, allowing four weeks for online learning to be completed before our Feb 8th meeting. 

You may register for this course here.

For more information about this course or CATIE’s educational offerings, please contact Shriya at shari@catie.ca . For more information about THN’s work, please connect with Brian Dopson at brian@torontohivaidsnetwork.org

We are thrilled to congratulate Kay Roesslein on her upcoming retirement on January 31, 2024! As the Co-Chair of THN and Director of Loft Community Services, Kay Kay has dedicated an incredible 30 years of her life to serving her community. Her hard work and commitment have left a lasting impact on the lives of countless individuals. We are grateful for her service and wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement. Congratulations, Kay!

AIDS ACTION NOW! Disbanding

THN Thanks AIDS Action Now for their many years of outstanding contributions to our community

After 35 years of fierce activism, AIDS ACTION NOW!, the HIV treatment activist group, is shutting down.

AIDS ACTION NOW! was formed in Toronto in 1988 as a community-based response to the lack of institutional leadership regarding treatment and healthcare for people living with HIV/AIDS. Its strategy was to combine confrontational public demonstrations with strategic documents and “behind the scenes” meetings with government and institutional leaders. These meetings pushed decision-makers to respond more forcefully to HIV health care at a time when it was highly stigmatized and few treatment options were available.

Guided by a steering committee composed of a majority of people living with HIV, AIDS ACTION NOW! refused government and pharmaceutical funding in order to retain its critical independence. Nonetheless, the unpaid work of its volunteer members transformed the Canadian HIV landscape. Brightly coloured stickers, pamphlets, banners and posters ridiculing governmental silence and ineptitude, and “die-ins” organized in major Toronto intersections created widespread awareness of the catastrophe that was unfolding among gay men and other marginalized communities such as injection drug users, racialized communities, sex workers and hemophiliacs.

Among its significant victories were the activation of the federal government’s Emergency Drug Release Program and the creation of the Ontario government’s Trillium Drug Program, which made costly HIV drugs accessible to people with low incomes. AIDS ACTION NOW! conceived of the idea of a comprehensive information system for HIV treatments. Its Treatment Information Exchange culminated in the creation of CATIE, Canada’s HIV and hepatitis C information source. Its prison subcommittee became PASAN, and its legal committee established HALCO, the HIV and AIDS Legal Clinic of Ontario. In more recent years, AIDS ACTION NOW! coordinated poster/Virus, a provocative partnership with local artists aimed at fighting ongoing HIV discrimination. This collection was acquired recently by the National Institutes of Health. But perhaps most importantly, AIDS ACTION NOW! provided a voice for people with HIV and championed the idea that HIV could become the chronic, manageable illness that it is today for most people in Canada.

AIDS ACTION NOW! had been largely inactive over the past years and the decision to disband was made by the current steering committee. The remaining funds in the AIDS ACTION NOW! account have been donated to food programming at the Toronto PWA Foundation.

Pride Toronto.

This year's Pride will run from June 28th to June 30th.

Artist Application

Performance Application

Deadline | January 7th 2024

Deadline for entry for the street fair is May 3rd

City Budget Watch

 A Deeper Dive into Revenue Tools. Date: Thursday, November 9, 2023, Time: 12:00 - 1:30PM

Toronto City Council has passed a new long term financial plan, which includes the adoption of, or commitment to review, a host of new revenue tools. With a focus on equity for communities in need, this panel will do a deeper dive into revenue tools and progressive tax options for municipalities. What are some benefits and disadvantages to using these tools? Which tools are the most viable options now, particularly for low-income communities? What challenges do municipalities face in introducing them? How can we work with other levels of government for new revenue tools to be supported?

Register Now

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Registered Psychotherapist / Registered Social Worker

Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention is seeking a Registered Psychotherapist / Registered Social Worker. Applications accepted until the position is filled.

Harm Reduction Outreach Worker

AIDS Committee of Durham Region is seeking a Harm Reduction Outreach Worker. Applications must be submitted by January 7, 2024

Project Coordinator

Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples (CSSP) is seeking a Project Coordinator. Applications accepted until the position is filled.

Our team (Carrie Martin, PhD Candidate under the supervision of Dr. Mark Watson, and Jasmine Cotnam, Community Research Coordinator) have been working on a new research study and we need your help. 

 Our goal of this new study is to understand if and how we can adapt and operationalize a Women-Centered HIV Care Model to better fit the needs of Indigenous women living with HIV in Canada. 

 We hope that by making changes to this Model that are aligned with the identified needs and concerns of Indigenous women living with HIV, that we can help to improve HIV care experiences and health outcomes.  

Adapting and operationalizing the Women-Centered HIV Care Model for Indigenous Women Living with HIV in Canada

Who Can Participate? 

• You self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and/or Metis) 

• You self-identify as a woman (inclusive of cis women, trans women, two-spirit, femme/feminine-identifying genderqueer, and non-binary 

• You have been diagnosed with HIV 

• You are 18 years of age or older 

• You live in British Columbia, Ontario, or Quebec 

• You can communicate in English (or French for Quebec site)

How to Participate
If you meet these requirements and are interested in helping, sign up for the study by contacting either Carrie Martin at carri_ma@live.concordia.ca or Jasmine Cotnam at Jasminecotnam@mail.com.