MEDIA INQUIRIES
Please contact:
Craig Dales, Executive Director
101 – 1139 Yates Street
Victoria, BC V8V 3N2
t: 250.382.7927
f: 250.382.3232
tf: 877.382.7927
Press Releases
Victoria, BC (September 16, 2014) – Scotiabank AIDS Walk for Life 2014: You Don’t Have To Do Much To Help Over 71,000 Canadians Who Need Your Support
On Sunday, September 21, 2014, we invite all Victoria residents to participate in the 2014 Scotiabank AIDS Walk for Life, Victoria BC, to raise funds that directly benefit AIDS service organizations within our community.
When you have HIV/AIDS, life gets a lot harder. Despite advances in treatment, there still remains no cure or vaccines to prevent new infections. (PDF)
Victoria, BC (July 25, 2014) – WORLD HEPATITIS DAY TO BE MARKED AT VICTORIA LEGISLATURE MONDAY JULY 28
Know Your Status, Get Tested! Victoria’s World Hepatitis Day 2014 Planning Committee announces a free public event July 28th from 4:00pm – 5:00pm in front of the BC Legislature Building. The goal of the event is to raise awareness about Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C and the burden of these diseases in BC. (PDF)
Victoria BC (March 27, 2014) – Local AIDS group adopts program for gay men living with HIV
With the closure of Victoria AIDS Resource & Community Resource Society (VARCS), the Vancouver Island Persons Living with HIV/AIDS Society (VPWAS) has adopted one of its programs to ensure its valuable work continues.
POZitively Connected is a social and support group for gay and bisexual men living with HIV. In the past two years of the program, a slow but steady increase in membership has occurred, primarily among men over 40 and many over 60 years old. (PDF)
Victoria BC (April 18, 2013) – Busting Stigma through Storytelling for World AIDS Day
“We Are Here” Project sheds light on the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS in Victoria
While this year’s UNAIDS World AIDS Day theme, ‘Getting to Zero’, aims to achieve zero new HIV infections and zero AIDS deaths— it is the goal of getting to zero stigma that is often hardest to attain. Advancements in treatment and broader access to testing have made the first two ‘zero’ goals within reach on Vancouver Island. However, for a coalition of storytellers who are living with HIV in the capital region, stigma remains a harmful and dominant force. (PDF)
Victoria BC (April 18, 2013) – CROSS CANADA COCKTAIL TOUR – ‘TOAST TO TOAST’
Local artist, advocate and activist, Peggy Frank is set to leave on a cross-country cocktail party themed tour with a giant sculpture of a cocktail glass. Starting off from Victoria on the 1st of May, Peggy and her cocktail glass will visit approximately 30 cities and communities throughout the country before reaching her final destination of St. Andrews, New Brunswick on May 31st. Peggy is one of 16 finalists in the 2013 Canadian Sculpture Competition to be held at Kingsbrae Garden (PDF)
Victoria BC (January 11, 2012) – VPWAS Rob Greenwood Memorial Fund Peer Educator Award
In order to highlight the importance of HIV positive Peer Educators, the Vancouver Island Persons Living with HIV/AIDS Society (VPWAS) has initiated a peer educator award though the Positive Living Peer Support Program and generous donations to the Rob Greenwood Memorial Fund. (PDF)
Victoria BC (November 21, 2012) – a day without art
This World AIDS Day, December 1st, local galleries and artists will symbolically black drape art work to recognize the loss of artists and art due to HIV/AIDS. The event “a day without art” is a revival of an annual event that took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a period in Victoria when the gay community was devastated by AIDS.
Victoria, BC (June 26th, 2012) – Victoria’s AIDS organizers Unite to Highlight Community Heroism
‘Super Queeros’ poised to celebrate and demonstrate at Pride 2012 Read (PDF)
Victoria, BC (June 20, 2012) – HIV Positive and Proud
“Positively Beautiful!”
VPWAS in the Media
No art, but a lot of heart; Monday Magazine, Victoria; Published: November 28, 2012
Art around the city will look a little darker this weekend, as local galleries symbolically black drape canvasses to recognize the loss of artists and art in the community due to HIV/AIDS.
Read more: http://www.mondaymag.com/news/181272611.html
No-art Day for HIV awareness; Times Colonist, Victoria; November 29, 2012
Artworks around Victoria will be draped in black Saturday as a symbolic reminder of the cost of HIV/AIDS to the creative community.
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/health/awareness/7626451/story.html#ixzz2Dvm2UrAw
Living with HIV: ‘We are not criminals’; Monday Magazine, Victoria, Published: October 17, 2012 2:00 PM
VPWAS members talk to Monday Magazine,about recent SCC ruling on HIV (non) Disclosure, and what that means to people living with HIV/AIDS
Read more: http://www.mondaymag.com/news/174651941.html
Not all superheroes come in spandex; Monday Magazine, Victoria; Published: July 04, 2012
Read more: http://www.mondaymag.com/news/161362945.html