African Diaspora Capacity Building & Health Promotion

The African Diaspora Capacity Building and Health Promotion Program plays two distinct roles. It seeks to provide capacity building for service providers, agencies and coalitions around HIV/AIDS for the African Diaspora communities within the Region of Peel. This program recognizes the inter-sectional relationships that lack access, racism, classism, homophobia, heterosexism and other oppressive factors at play for those living with/affected by HIV/AIDS.

The other role involves providing direct services to individuals and groups in the African/ Caribbean/Black Canadian communities in the Peel Region, in order to increase their knowledge regarding HIV transmission, prevention and awareness. The Program aims to build more supportive communities in response to HIV/AIDS.

Program Vision

• To improve the quality of life and dignity of African Diaspora Communities through anti-oppressive and anti-racist health promotion work.

Program Goals

Our goal is to educate service providers, agencies and coalitions around the social determinants of health and the role that they play within the lives of the African Diaspora communities. The program fulfills the dual goals of reducing the number of new HIV infections within African Diaspora Communities and decreasing stigma and discrimination for African Diaspora People living with HIV/AIDS.

Program Objectives

1. The African Diaspora Program works to increase knowledge around mitigating HIV/AIDS risk amongst African Diaspora communities, in particular youth and women.

Program Services

The African Diaspora Program conducts outreach and workshops in different community venues and events such as Peel Youth Forum, Carabram, Carassauga, Caribana, Afrofest, RUAware, and World AIDS Day events.

Community Partnerships

The Program continues to represent the African Diaspora population in advocacy, community capacity building and health Promotion. Our Program is very involved in community development. In order to adequately address the needs of the African Diaspora populations the program has partnered with the many committees and agencies in the Region of Peel and across the GTA, such as Health and Racism Working Group, Peel Poverty Action Group, Black Community Action Group in Peel, Multicultural Inter Agency Group, Building Healthy Communities, and Committee for Accessible AIDS Treatment.

The African Diaspora Program is a member of African and Carribean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario (ACCHO).

For more information please contact: