OUR CURRENT PROJECTS
Since 1997, CAAN has been proud to serve the Indigenous people of this land with many programs and projects – marrying tradition, ceremony, and best practices into tools that can help our communities heal and thrive.
The primary focus of the Keeping our Fires project is to address the issues and needs presented to CAAN by participating members (Indigenous people, communities, service providers, IPHA/IPHC’s) through formal dialogue sessions that occur throughout the year.
The Assessing Community Readiness in Indigenous Communities Project empowers Indigenous communities, organizations, and people to make informed decisions with regards to their response to health and wellness and promotes HIV/AIDS prevention and harm reduction strategies that respects the cultural protocols of participates.
Our main goal is to establish a national community of practice for frontline health professionals and organizations offering harm reduction services to Indigenous people. Supported by monthly videoconferences, this community shares knowledge and wise practices. Meeting minutes and annual summaries will help disseminate lessons learned. A podcast series will accompany these calls for those unable to attend live sessions.
The Guiding My Spirits Training was created as a wise practice for communities and organizations to start taking a deeper look into the current ways that gender-based violence and gender-based inequities are perceived. The training was created as an in-person training but work is being done to see if it can work online.
The I’m Indigenous and I’m Ready project is an Indigenous-led initiative dedicated to uncovering the gaps and barriers in HIV testing and healthcare faced by Indigenous communities across Turtle Island.
A leadership council was established to guide this strategic visioning process. The leadership council met for the first time at a visioning retreat in Fall 2023 in Canmore, Alberta and created the following video, speaking to the value of visioning through ceremony. On December 1, 2023, CAAN launched Wapiwin Akinê to coincide with World AIDS Day and Indigenous AIDS Awareness Week. Wapiwin Akinê is supported by the Canadian Red Cross Society through the Government of Canada’s Community Services Recovery Fund.
