ACAS Spring Update

Following Lunar New Year, ACAS had a busy month in which we had put up many wonderful programs and activities. Here is a recap:
As a community-based organization, ACAS has always relied on the support of many of its volunteers who generously donate their time and skills to various programs. Volunteers range from assuming the administrative role at our front desk as the first point of contact, to providing the invaluable human connection to HIV+ service users as support program buddies, to reaching out to the East and Southeast Asian community to reduce the transmission of HIV/STIs and raising awareness about LGBTQ issues as peer educators for the Men’s, Women’s and Youth programs. To thank and honour our volunteers, ACAS held its annual Volunteer Appreciation Party on February 20 in which over 25 volunteers attended. We would like to congratulate the following outstanding volunteers from the various programs:
YOUTH PROGRAM / QUEER ASIAN YOUTH: Euan Hwang, Bing Li
WOMEN’S PROGRAM: Jin Choi,  Aurora Rodulfa
ACAS HIV TREATMENT INFORMATION (Website): Amelia Cheng, Aruna Hewapathirane, Steven Han
MEN’S PROGRAM: Rudi Budiarto
SUPPORT PROGRAM: Rommel PeBenito,  Joseph Tse
ADMINISTRATION:  Amelia Cheng, Philip Ha,  Shok Muinao
You can watch the wonderful video from our Volunteer Appreciation Party here (Thanks our volunteer Milan for putting this wonderful video collage together):http://youtu.be/sVCHDc5RqEw

 
The Queer Asian Youth certainly had a lot fun this past month: First, there was the monthly movie night on February 25. Following last month’s gourmet chocolate workshop, the youths will be making delicious pizza this month at it cooking workshop on March 13. To celebrate March break, ACAS will be hosting a Games night on March 14 its QAY members. Lastly, our Youth Program coordinator, Meza, also held a sexual health workshop in Japanese for Brand New Way, an international student agency.

 
For the men’s program, the research team members from the Asian MSM Pathways to Resiliency Study are happy to announce that all four of our abstracts have been accepted at three different upcoming conferences: the American Men’s Studies Association 2013 Conference in Ann Arbour, Michigan; the Canadian Associationi for HIV Research Conference 2013 in Vancouver, and the IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion2013 in Pattaya, Thailand.
On another note, the men’s program also hosted a Syphilis workshop for Asian gay, bi and men-who-have-sex-with-men program at our last Asian Bathhouse Night. We are also excited about our upcoming collaboration with Hassle Free Clinic to provide anonymous, rapid point-of-care HIV testing at our next Asian Bathhouse Night at Spa SX on March 21.

 
To celebrate International Women’s Day, the ACAS Women Outreach Team hosted a Thai massage workshop on March 8. The workshop focused on the topic of self-care and was taught by three wonderful facilitators. As evidenced by the picture taken at the evening, those who attended had great fun learning and discussing about how to take better care of themselves.

 
The Support Program issued its March edition of the Health Promotion Newsletter with a special article on the benefits of deep breathing exercises. You can view the health promotion newsletter here: http://acassupport.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/health-promotion-newsletter-issue-no-14/. On Thursday March 14, the support program will also be holding an aromatherapy workshop for the support program clients to showcase the benefits of utilizing essential oils to improve emotional health.

 
The Volunteer Program is pleased to an upcoming training on Language Interpretation (Introduction) on Wednesday, March 27. The goal of this workshop is to prepare volunteers to provide invaluable assistance to ACAS clients seeking services (medical, legal, social services, and immigration). The following are the requirements to register for the workshop: 1) Language fluency (reading, writing, speaking and understanding) in one of Asian languages, as well as in English, and 2) Can make a time commitment to volunteer 2-4 hours per month for the Support Program. Prior experience in interpreting (formal or informal) would be an asset. To register, please contact Trisha at volunteer@acas.org no later than March 22, 2013.

 
Last but not least, ACAS is featured on Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) Positive Space Initiative as the agency of the week! You can check out the feature at: http://positivespaces.ca/feature-agency-week-asian-community-aids-services
We here at ACAS wishes everyone a very wonderful Spring!