A program to tackle food insecurity among women living with HIV recently received funding from the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) as part of an initiative that provides grants to community organizations supporting people living with HIV and hepatitis C.
The program is run by Ribbon Community (formerly known as AIDS Vancouver), a community-based organization that offers a low-barrier access point for HIV testing, care, and treatment. Each year PHSA provides HIV/HCV funds, which the BCCDC and BC Women’s adjudicate and distribute, to community organizations supporting people with lived and living experience of HIV and hepatitis C. This initiative, which has been operating for 23 years, engages community and those with subject matter expertise and living experience of HIV/AIDS to implement effective and low-barrier programming. Over $2 million is awarded annually, and this year funding was awarded to
Ribbon Community,
Health Initiative for Men,
Central Interior Native Health Society,
Positive Living North,
PAN,
YouthCo.,
Pivot Legal Society,
Unlocking the Gates Society,
ANKORS, and
B.C. Hepatitis Network.
December 1 marks
World AIDS Day and the beginning of
Indigenous AIDS Awareness Week, a time to remember those who lost their lives to HIV/AIDS including 2SLGBTQIA+ ancestors as well as to celebrate the progress made in managing the illness. It also provides an opportunity to highlight the efforts of community organizations supporting people living with HIV/AIDS.
Ribbon Community is using their funding to support women living with HIV who experience food insecurity. According to a 2015 study of people living with HIV in B.C., 67 per cent reported food insecurity, and women and people of colour were twice as likely to be food insecure. People living with HIV are especially impacted by the rising cost of groceries as many are living on fixed incomes.
Ribbon now has a case manager who works with newcomer and immigrant women living with HIV and their families, as well as a peer navigator who provides support in English and Arabic. We are beginning to reach out to newcomer organizations across the province to develop new referral pathways and ensure women living with HIV are able to access these programs. – Sarah Chown, Executive Director, Ribbon Community
With more than 180 new cases of HIV in B.C. in 2023, and approximately 9,637 people living with HIV/AIDS in the province (as of 2020), community programs that support them are vital.
Organizations like Ribbon Community and the funding provided in support of their programs underscores the Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV and/or AIDS and Meaningful Engagement of People Living with HIV and/or AIDS (GIPA/MEPA) principles which were first formalized at the Paris AIDS Summit in 1994, recognizing the important contribution that people living with HIV/AIDS can make in the response to this epidemic.
“Real and ongoing issues such as stigma, anti-Indigenous racism, homophobia and white supremacy contribute to harms experienced by people with lived and living experience of HIV and AIDS,” says Sofia Bartlett, scientific director (interim), Clinical Prevention Services at BCCDC. By funding organizations like Ribbon Community, she says this provides an opportunity to combat the ongoing stigma, racism, and marginalization of those with lived and living experience of HIV/AIDS and reduce barriers to accessing HIV care and treatment.
We need to listen to community, create space for them to share their experiences of harm in the healthcare system, and follow their guidance on how to do better. To implement the most effective HIV prevention, testing, and care possible with the resources that are available, we must meaningfully engage community at all levels of research and care. – Sofia Bartlett, scientific director (interim), Clinical Prevention Services at BCCDC
