Stigma remains one of the biggest barriers to ending HIV. It affects how people access care, how services are delivered, and how communities respond. This toolkit is designed to spark change; equipping you with practical strategies to reduce HIV stigma in your work and community. By exploring these resources, you’ll discover how small shifts in mindset, communication, and collaboration can make a lasting difference in people’s lives.
Although this kit’s focus audience is peers, other harm reduction workers, other care providers, and people who access harm reduction services in BC SURR areas, we encourage the larger health equity community to utilize the resources presented. Dialogue about HIV needs to be promoted, strengthened, and more normalized in SURR areas to fight stigma and get more people connected to care.
The toolkit aims to support learning and promote dialogue about HIV and stigma in settings like:
Outreach – With the exception of downloadable resource documents, the kit is designed to be mobile phone friendly. Use it in on-the-go settings to quickly accessing HIV facts.
Support groups – Sometimes the topic of HIV and stigma comes up in group discussions and the kit could be a handy way of contributing to group discussions.
Harm reduction care delivery – Community members accessing care might have questions about HIV or want to talk about stigma.
Stigma reduction workshops – A comprehensive library of stigma workshop creation resources is provided. Community-based workshops are a great way to promote awareness and dialogue.
The toolkit offers a series of modules that provides information to support dialogue, encourages reflection, and downloadable resource documents.
This kit will be made into a course that can be accessed on PAN’s Knowledge Connect Website in 2026. In the meantime, please reach out to Jennifer Demchuk ([email protected]) and Emily Taylor-Lariviere ([email protected]) for more information.