Stories of Community Mobilization

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network collaborated with six Canadian community-based organizations in 2003-2004 for a project to help communities mobilize against HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination. A workshop was held as part of this project. In preparation for the workshop the Network identified and described already existing good examples of community mobilization, which were then used as models for the plans developed at the workshop. There are seven stories included in this document: the efforts of Gays of Ottawa (GO) to mobilize the community to work towards improved relations with the Ottawa police; the mobilization of the HIV/AIDS Community Ad Hoc Committee on the Definition of Disability which fought to maintain access to disability benefits in Ontario; the Listen Up! Women's Health Research Project initiated by Positive Women's Network in B.C, which addressed barriers that put women at risk of HIV; a project to build self-esteem and connection through the International Two-Spirit Gathering Movement; VANDU's fight for a supervised injection site in Vancouver; efforts to build a GLBT organization in Truro, Nova Scotia; and an outreach program by the Sonagachi AIDS Project aimed at improving prevention and human rights in the sex trade in Kolkata, India.