Monthly Archives: June 2013

Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS) and its youth program Queer Asian Youth (QAY)are gearing up to become #SuperQueer for this year’s Pride Festival in Toronto. To celebrate the diversity and strength of the LGBTTIQQS2A communites, ACAS will once again showcase the pride of our East and Southeast Asian heritage and take part in all three marches during the Pride Festival: the Trans March on Friday, June 28; the Dyke March on Saturday, June 29, and the Pride March on Sunday, June 30. This year, ACAS is very honoured to have the recently crowned Miss Charlene Gutierez, the newly crowned winner of Miss Gay Philippines Canada, the first runner-up Miss J. Monroe, and our long time supporters the Three Queens of the Philippines march with us. Members of Queer Asian Youth (QAY) are set to once again showcase their talents, creativity, vibrancy and youth power at “The Powerpuff Queers,” QAY’s Annual Pride Stageat Paul Kane Parkette on Saturday, June 29 between 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Performers at this year’s event include the DestinAsian Dance Crew, Drag sensation Jolin Starr, Ramon Vi, Annie Sun, Dento Lam, David Tang, Marc Castillo and others. QAY aims to provide a safe and supportive social spaces for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, queer, curious, undecided, or questioning East and Southeast Asian youth and their friends in the Greater Toronto Area. As a way to reaffirm their sexuality, sexual orientation and gender expression, QAY employs a peer-driven model and aspires to empower queer Asian youths with opportunities where they can learn and apply leadership skills to become future forerunners in our community. As part of the lead up to this year’s Pride, ACAS has launched its #GoldenPiggy Challenge, a fundraising initiative for the agency to ensure our ability to provide the much needed HIV practical support services and LGBTQ programming to the East and Southeast Asian Canadian community. Those who participate in the [...]

GOLDEN PIGGY CHALLENGE ACAS has launched its first ever #GoldenPiggy Challenge fundraiser as a lead up to this year’s Pride event. The money raised from the challenge will help ensure our ability to provide the much needed HIV practical support services and LGBTQ programming to the East and Southeast Asian Canadian community in the GTA. 5 Steps to Take Part in the ACAS Piggy Challenge! It’s easy and fun! Step 1: Adopt Your Piggy Come to ACAS and pick a piggy that you want to adopt. We have piggies in various colours you can choose from. Make sure you name the piggy and give it lots of TLC. Now you are ready to start the Piggy Challenge! Step 2: Decorate Your Piggy It’s spring time and your piggy likes to be fabulous. Why not be creative and decorate your piggy? Your fundraising effort is more likely to be successful if your piggy is strutting the styles that everybody loves. Having said that, we feel a naked piggy can also be very sexy. Step 3: Feed Your Piggy This is the most important part of your Piggy Challenge. Whether your piggy is at your home, your office, or some random party, they need to be fed. Ask your friends to feed them some coins. Toonies or bills are their favorite. Make sure you feed them enough so that they are full! Step 4: Tweet Your Piggy Your piggy is a bit of an exhibitionist and loves having its pictures taken. Whenever you take your piggy out for events or you are both relaxing at home, take some lovely photos and share them with as many people as you can! Tweet about it, Instagram it, Facebook it or send pictures to us. The hashtag is #GoldenPiggy Step 5: Bring Your Piggy Back Once your [...]

Show your Asian Pride by marching with us ACAS this year at Pride! Friday, June 28 Trans March: March with ACAS Find ACAS at 7:30pm at Norman Jewison Park (Yonge St. & Isabella St.) Contact Meza (youth@acas.org / 416-963-4300 ext. 229) for more info. Saturday, June 29 Dyke March: March with ACAS Meet us at 1:30pm at TBA Contact Heywon (women@acas.org / 416-963-4300 ext. 225) for more info. Sunday, June 30 Pride Parade: March with ACAS Meet us at 1:00pm at George Hislop Park (Yonge St. & Isabella St.) Contact Daniel (mensexualhealth@acas.org / 416-963-4300 ext. 234) for more info.

INTERNAL JOB POSTING Temporary Position Women’s Outreach Program Coordinator   Internal Job Posting:  For members, volunteers, service users, and current employees Type of Contract:  Short-term, part-time (20 hours/week) Contract Duration:   August 1, 2013-March 15, 2014 Training: July 18-19, 2013 (Mandatory) Application Deadline: Friday, June 28 (midnight)   Responsibilities 1.          Plan, implement and evaluate the Asian Women-at-Risk Outreach and Education Project 2.          Recruit, train and support 8 peer educator volunteers to assist with HIV/AIDS education services for Asian women 3.          Provide 8 HIV/AIDS outreach sessions at various East and Southeast Asian ethno-cultural community events, ESL classes, church groups and settlement services 4.          Conduct 12 HIV/AIDS/STIs workshops for Asian women in the City of Toronto 5.          Organize “Pillow Talk” community learning forum 6.          Organize World AIDS Day activity in collaboration with other ACAS programs 7.          Collaborate with ACAS Men’s sexual health project to organize outreach and workshops targeting heterosexual men 8.          Attend network meetings and professional development training as required 9.          Maintain statistics, prepare reports and a funding proposal 10.      Other administrative tasks as needed Qualifications: ·         College or university education or 2-3 year work experience in social work, adult education, or health promotion ·         Familiarity with the East and Southeast Asian communities in Toronto, especially with issues faced by newcomer women and their families ·         Knowledge, and/or lived experience, and sensitivity to issues concerning HIV/AIDS/STIs, healthy sexuality, and violence against women ·         Good communication and writing skills in English ·         Basic volunteer management skills ·         Experience in workshop planning, and group facilitation, especially with women ·         Experience in conducting health outreach activities, and community development ·         Fluent in one of the East or Southeast Asian languages and able to conduct a workshop in that language ·         Ability to prioritize, delegate, and handle multiple tasks ·         Able to interact with diverse populations and use active listening skills to determine appropriate response to callers, visitors, and others during daily activities. ·         Ability to work under a trans-positive, queer-positive, [...]