Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users

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. This report describes events leading up to a workshop involving all stakeholders, such as exchanges between participants on a listserv. It goes on to describe the workshop design and process, which involved activities on Day 1 to Understand Stigma; activities for identifying how to make change on Day 2; and developing plans for action by participants on Day 3. Appendices include a list of participants; examples of what participants wrote in the listserv exchanges; a detailed account of the workshop process; and the activities and plans developed by the participants.

This document contains a summary of welcoming remarks, opening and closing plenaries, and edited texts of presentations given at the 2002 Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network Annual General Meeting. Libby Davies, Thomas Kerr and representatives of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) gave presentations about VANDU during the ceremony for the first Award for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights (given to VANDU). Joanne Csete of Human Rights Watch, Peter Leuprecht of McGill's Faculty of Law, and Su Zhaosheng (wife of Dr. Wan Yanhai) gave presentations about Dr. Wan Yanhai, a Chinese AIDS activist who received the International Award for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights. Other presentations contained in this document include the Keynote Address by David Hoe on continuing human and legal rights challenges for people living with HIV/AIDS and closing presentations by Ralf Jurgens, Director of the Legal Network, and Joane Csete, on the politics of HIV/AIDS and the need for continued activism.

Report in English and French that describes the experience of MIELS-Quebec (a community AIDS organization) in closing its housing and palliative care program and implementing new programs in the area of independent community living. These changes occurred as a strategic response to shifts in the epidemic in the 1990s, such as a more diverse clientele and clientele living longer lives. This document discusses the process of change in AIDS service organizations, and how MIELS managed to integrate and transform its services in a way that responded well to changing community needs.

A research report based on a participatory study with high-risk crack/cocaine users in Nova Scotia. The goal of the study was to develop a profile of this population and explore strategies to enhance and develop appropriate services. Recommendations from the study include the need for more harm-reduction programs; the enhancement of drug treatment services to include mental health components; the need for additional programming to allow users in recovery opportunities for education, skill development, and job searching; and the need for linkages and partnerships to be forged between addictions and mental health treatment services.