Update from the BC Core Team of the REACH CBR Collaborative Centre in HIV/AIDS

In early December, the BC Core Team of the REACH CBR Collaborative Centre met in Vancouver to ignite the Centre’s work here in British Columbia. Funding for the REACH CBR Collaborative Centre in HIV/AIDS was announced by CIHR in June of 2012, thereby launching a vibrant national collaborative among HIV researchers, people living with HIV, community-based organizations, clinicians, and policy makerresearch priority areass.

The goal of the CBR Collaborative Centre is to foster rigorous, relevant CBR that will improve the health and well-being of people affected by HIV in communities across Canada. The Centre will provide financial and infrastructure support for Regional Core Teams, who will work with the broader CBR community in BC to foster HIV/AIDS-related CBR and capacity building activities driven by regional priorities and needs.

The BC Core Team, and the entire CBR Collaborative Centre, will work in close partnership with our sister centre – the AHA Centre, led by the Canadian Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Network –and other local partners.

At our December meeting, the group discussed expansion of the Core Team, the hiring of a staff person in the spring of 2013 to support the work of the CBR Collaborative Centre’s efforts in BC, and worked to identify research and capacity building priorities that will guide their work (see sidebar).

The Core Team will work with the broader CBR community in BC to further refine research and capacity building directions, and will host a discussion at the Pacific AIDS Network’s Knowledge to Action: Strategic Directions for Community-Based Research, in Richmond on February 27-28.

The BC Core Team Is currently comprised of co-leads Jennifer Evin Jones (Pacific AIDS Network) and Cathy Worthington (University of Victoria), and team members Marcie Summers (Positive Women’s Network), Brian Chittock (AIDS Vancouver), Katrina Jensen (AIDS Vancouver Island), Janice Duddy (Provincial Health Services Authority), and Ciro Panessa (BC Ministry of Health).

The work of the team is supported by Andrea Langlois, PAN’s CBR Manager (a position made possible by the CIHR Centre for REACH in HIV/AIDS). For more information about the BC Core Team’s work, contact her at [email protected].