A peer-led initiative where hepatitis C community leaders will model their skills and knowledge to inspire other BC community members to embark on leadership journeys.
The primary aim of the Hepatitis C Leadership Project is to create a pilot training program that will strengthen leadership skills by engaging the lived experience of the hepatitis C community. The training program will encourage participants to answer for themselves, “Who am I as a leader”? More voices of lived experience at the decision-making table at the policy and program level in BC to influence systemic change need to be heard.
Both the leadership project and future leadership training program will be led by the hepatitis C community for the hepatitis C community. Deeper, positive health impacts are experienced by a community when they are meaningfully involved in every step of an initiative that is intended for their benefit.
The project will hit its primary aim of creating a peer leadership program by achieving a set of desired outcomes that will arise from the overlap of three key factors:
Strategic voice of lived experience
By engaging the strategic voice of lived experience, valuable project contributions such as defining leadership, communications, curriculum, trainer development, and community engagement will be created.
Hepatitis C community leadership needs
Where in the hepatitis C community is peer leadership needed, and how is it needed? The insight that people with lived experience and community based organizations can provide about their local community landscape will shed light on barriers, gaps, and opportunities.
Community-based approach
As a project creation model, a community-based approach will focus on desired outcomes and achieve them through action by which the meaningful involvement of the hepatitis C community is central. Once the project is complete, the outcome will be shared, creating potential for improved knowledge and capacity of people with lived experience, community partners, and policy makers.
Guiding Information and Documents
- Hep C Resources in Canada: what we have – what’s missing – and next steps (Pacific Hepatitis C Network, 2018)
- HCV Manifesto (HepCBC Hepatitis C Education and Prevention Society, 2014)
- Nothing About Without Us: Greater, Meaningful Involvement of People Who Use Illegal Drugs: A Public Health, Ethical, and Human Rights Imperative (Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, 2006)
- NOhep Advocacy Toolkit, Race to 2030: accelerating action at a national level (NOhep)
- Peerology: A guide by and for people who use drugs on how to get involved (Canadian AIDS Society, 2015)
- Harm Reduction as Hepatitis C Reduction (Action Hepatitis Canada)
- Blueprint to Inform Hepatitis C Elimination Efforts in Canada (Canadian Network on Hepatitis C, 2019)
- Accelerating Our Response, Government of Canada five-year action plan on sexually transmitted and blood-borne illnesses (Government of Canada, 2019)
- Room for improvement: Knowledge exchange needs of people living with hepatitis C (CATIE, 2015)
- Hepatitis in Canada, 2017 Surveillance Data (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2017)
- Charting the Map: a reference for peer navigators (BC Hepatitis Network, 2020)
For more information about this project, please contact Stacy Leblanc, Director of Capacity Building Initiatives: stacy [@] paninbc.ca
We are grateful to the Vancouver Foundation for their support of the Hepatitis C Leadership Project.