ACAS wishes every one had a very prosperous and joyful lunar new year. While we continue to work on developing and redesigning a new website, here are some of the highlights to keep you updated on what we have been doing this new year:
Have you seen the pretty pink printed bags at the ACAS office lately? It is the new beautifully designed brochure about “Undetectable Viral Loads and HIV Transmission” from the Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance which ACAS is part of. What’s even more exciting about this brochure series is that it features a lot of sexy Asian men. Come pick it up from the ACAS Men’s Program staff or outreach volunteers on Asian Bathhouse Night.
The research team members from the Asian MSM Pathways to Resiliency Study and the Asian Migrant Farmworker Study have been working hard and completed a series of its focus groups in the past two months. The teams are moving ahead to the data-analysis phase very soon. Stay tuned for more updates on these ground-breaking community-based research studies.
In collaboration with ASAAP, Heywon of ACAS had a successful HIV/STI 101 workshop to over 100 LGBTQ refugee newcomers at the 519 Church Street Community Centre drop-in on January 23rd. Christian, our Community Engagement Worker, followed up with the same presentation to a group of 20 newcomer permanent residents and convention refugees at the Next Steps drop-in at the 519 on February 13th.
On January 16th, Heywon Kim, Women’s Outreach and Education Coordinator, and a speaker talked about LGBTQ parenting with talk show host, Jenny Hong on Fairchild Radio AM 1430 as part of Toronto Chinese Health Education Committee’s Media Promotion Series featuring various Chinese service agencies and its services. The Locker Room Project for straight Asian men had its first ever rock-climbing event on January 20th. Both programs collaborated on a fun-filled Asian Singles Mixer event on February 10th.
Love is in the air! The Support Program had its annual Valentine’s Day dinner on February 11th to share love and happiness to our service users, while the Youth Program had its Speed Dating event on February 9th and Gourmet Cooking with Dark Chocolate on February 13th.
All active ACAS Volunteers! You are cordially invited to our Volunteer Appreciation Party. Without all the awesome volunteers’ contribution, ACAS will not be able to provide what we have today. Please join us and mingle with ACAS volunteers from other programs. We will have great food, fun, games and an award ceremony to thank those who have dedicated their time and efforts to helping our various programs and services. To attend, please RSVP to Trisha no later than Friday, February 15th. Please email confirmation to volunteer@acas.org.
