Seed25+ Community Forum
October 26, 2022 / 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Dear Supporters, Sponsors, and Community Members,
You are cordially invited to the first ACAS Seed25+ community forum for 2022/2023 on Wednesday October 26, 2022 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. This forum will take place by Zoom, and is generously sponsored by Viiv Healthcare.
Our topic will be: Perspectives in Intercultural Exchange by People in P.O.C. Communities.
For this forum we are pleased to have 3 panelists with wide-ranging lived and professional experience in the HIV/AIDS sector, from Indigenous, Hispanic, and Asian communities. Claudette Cardinal, Ower Alexander Oberto, and Brian-Bao Ly (panelist bios available below) will speak candidly on their experiences and perspectives on how racialized people/people of color, and their organizations, can learn from, support, and practice solidarity with each other. The event will include a Q&A. Join us for a constructive, interactive—and unrehearsed—conversation!
To register please contact Alex Ma (support@acas.org) no later than Monday, October 24.
You can also register using this link.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvfuysrDIoE9b8NQzf0yyQABIhgek7LCo3
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We’re looking forward to connecting with you.
Claudette Cardinal is a Cree Indigenous woman from Treaty Six territory of Alberta who currently resides on the Unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples and gives thanks for allowing to be a longtime resident of this territory. She brings twenty eight years of Living Knowledge of HIV/AIDS and works with multiple community-based research projects and is dedicated to bridging community and researchers together in a ‘good way’.
Ower Alexander Oberto is a pansexual person living with HIV; he was born and raised in Venezuela. Prior to coming to Canada, he was involved in activism against HIV stigma and homophobia in Venezuela and Latin America. In 2008, Ower established an NGO in Venezuela called “Aprovida” to assist people living with HIV. His role was the Director of Communications; therefore, he was constantly advocating, and reporting all the issues and challenges that affected LGBTQ2+ and HIV-positive individuals in Venezuela.
He moved to Canada in January 2014, as refugee claimant, since then, he have been involved in activism, promoting human rights for people from the LGBTQ2S+ and HIV communities in Latin America and advocating for services for PLHIV who have precarious immigration status and limited access to health care coverage here in Canada.
He is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors of Latinos Positivos Toronto, an organization that provides services to Latinos living with HIV in Toronto. He also works as caseworker at Toronto People With AIDS Foundation. Besides, he has volunteered as a peer navigator among several organizations in Toronto, helping community members, especially those who are dealing with a precarious immigration status or do not have access to health care, to navigate the Canadian System, and translating from English to Spanish, Portuguese or Italian.
Brian-Bao Ly is Asian from a Chinese/Vietnamese background, a community member at ACAS. and a former member of staff and volunteer at ACAS.
Ambrose Fan 范家俊 (moderator) has worked in Toronto’s non-profit industry since 2013, including roles at AIDS Committee Toronto, Fred Victor, Volunteer Toronto, Shelter Movers, and Daily Bread Food Bank. He is a Chinese-Canadian, cisgender gay man, and immigrant and settler. Ambrose believes in the work of the non-profit industry, yet views it as a part of a larger problematic system that needs reinvention.