Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Manitoba presents a unique epidemiological profile. Incident HIV rates in Manitoba are consistently higher than national averages. Women and people who identify as Aboriginal are significantly over-represented in HIV cases. Heterosexual transmission continues to be the primary mode of transmission. Late presentation to care is also an alarming reality. Rural, northern, and remote communities in Manitoba face critical challenges related to HIV prevention, support, and care: isolation, lack of services, and significant HIV rates pose barriers to an effective HIV response. Of immediate importance are recent cluster outbreaks of HIV in three remote northern communities. The 595 Prevention Team is a Manitoba-wide organization that works with Peers, network members, policy makers, community leaders, and academics to make recommendations about the development, implementation, and evaluation of prevention initiatives focused on sexually transmitted and blood borne infections. Building on recent successes in Peer-led HIV CBR, the 595 seeks to expand HIV Prevention CBR to more diverse locations in Manitoba, where community members have expressed an interest in HIV CBR, and where priority at risk populations have been identified. This planning grant is specifically requesting funding to host a two-day meeting with key stakeholders from three distinct rural, northern and remote areas of Manitoba. These stakeholders will meet in Winnipeg to network with each other, to engage in capacity building about CBR, to discuss how HIV affects their communities, and to develop the key components of what will become a collaborative CIHR operating grant proposal. Further, individuals who participate in this capacity building and planning meeting will return to their home communities to be CBR resources for others in their geographic regions, and further collaborate as a Rural, Northern and Remote HIV CBR Network.