Monthly Archives: May 2014

Dear Community Members, Partners, Volunteers, Donors and Allies: With Less than 1 week away from CelebrAsian, have you purchased your tickets to this meaningful fundraising gala that promises to be both fun and celebratory in honour of ACAS' 20 years in community activism serving the East and Southeast Asian LGBTQ and HIV communities? Tickets for the ACAS #CelebrAsian 20th Anniversary Fundraising Gala Dinner are available for purchase online here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/celebrasian-acas-20th-anniversary-gala-dinner-tickets-1415749545 The #CelebrAsian Gala Dinner will take place on Friday, May 30, 2014 at the Old Mill (21 Old Mill Road, Toronto ON M8X 1G5 ). Reception for CelebrAsian starts at 6:00 p.m. The evening will see the presentation of two special awards to individuals who espouse the core values and visions of ACAS and have contributed to our organization’s success.The Patrick Truong Award, named after our late Support Program staff and AIDS activist, is to honor a person living with HIV/AIDS who has made significant contributions in the areas of HIV/AIDS in Canada or internationally. This year’s Patrick Truong Award recipient is Derek Yee, a fearless community leader and a past board member of ACAS. “Through my involvement with ACAS, I have learnt resiliency in life and have grown as an individual with my community,” says Derek Yee. The 20th Anniversary Community Building Award honours an individual who has demonstrated long-term commitment, dedication, and accomplishments in community organizing or advocacy work related to HIV/AIDS, LGBT, human rights or social justice. Dr. Alan Li is the recipient of the 20th Anniversary Community Building Award. Alan is a primary care physician at Regent Park Community Health Centre. At the highest peak of AIDS epidemic in Ontario in the early 1990s, Alan and members of Gay Asians Toronto (GAT) started the Gay Asian AIDS project (GAAP) and subsequently ACAS. His activism and community building have spanned more than 3 decades, [...]

With less than 2 weeks away, please consider either placing an ad in the ACAS #CelebrAsian Souvenir Booklet or to become a VIP  Platinum or Platinum Sponsor at the fundraising gala by sponsoring one or more tables --- all for a great cause and to celebrate ACAS' activism and legacy of work for the local East and Southeast HIV and LGBTQ communities. Anniversary Book Advertisement You can place an advertisement or congratulatory message in our 20th Anniversary Book which will be distributed to 400 guests at the gala dinner. The book will also be posted online. q  1    Full Page (8.5”x 8.5”)   $500 q  ½   Page (8.5” x 4.25”)     $300 q  ¼   Page (4.25”x4.25”)      $200 Send us your logo and message to ed@acas.org by 2 p.m., FRIDAY, MAY 23. Patron Sponsor – Per Table of 10 *  $5000        VIP Platinum : includes a VIP banquet table for 10 guests with preferred seating, four bottles of wine, patron acknowledgement in our event program, and 3 months banner advertisement on our website. Partial charity receipt will be issued. *  $3000        Platinum Sponsor: includes a VIP banquet table for 10 guests with preferred seating, two bottles of wine and patron acknowledgement in our event program. Partial charity receipt will be issued. Or support us by purchasing a regular table: *  $750          Regular table. Partial charity receipt will be issued. To become a sponsor or place an ad in the ACAS #CelebrAsian booklet, please download and complete the sponsorship form here: ACAS 20th Anniversary Sponsor form May15,14. Thanks for all your support, and see you on May 30! ankara escort

  To commemorate our 20th Anniversary, ACAS has created two special awards to honor individuals who espouse the core values and visions of ACAS and have contributed to our organization's success. The Patrick Truong Award, named after our late Support Program staff, AIDS activist, and a community member, is to honor a person living with HIV/AIDS of East & Southeast Asian cultural heritage who has made significant contributions in the areas of HIV/AIDS, human rights and/or related social justice issues in Canada or internationally. This year’s Patrick Truong Award recipient is Derek Yee. Derek is a fearless community leader who is supportive towards inclusion of people living with HIV in treatment literacy and peer counselling through his work with the Ethno-racial Treatment Support Network (ETSN). He has been involved with ACAS as a volunteer and a board member in the past, and with various AIDS service organizations including Fife House, AIDS Bereavement and Resiliency Program of Ontario (ABRPO), Black-CAP, CAAT, ASAAP in different capacities. The 20th Anniversary Community Building Award honors an individual of East & Southeast Asian cultural heritage who has demonstrated long-term commitment, dedication, and accomplishments in community organizing or advocacy work related to HIV/AIDS, LGBT, human rights or social justice. Dr. Alan Li is the recipient of the 20th Anniversary Community Building Award. Alan is a primary care physician at Regent Park Community Health Centre. In early 1990s, at the highest peak of AIDS epidemic in Ontario, Alan and members of the Gay Asians Toronto (GAT) started the Gay Asian AIDS project (GAAP) and subsequently, Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS) to provide support and education for Asians infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. His activism and community building have spanned more than 3 decades and extended beyond ACAS. To mention a few of his community contributions: He was the [...]

Happy Songkran & Thingyan Water Festival! The ACAS Support and Women’s Programs held a joint celebration of the Thai and Burmese New Year with lots of good food and traditional dancing. A huge thanks to Tdot Tdat , the Toronto Thai Dramatic Arts Troupe for providing attendees a mesmerizing performance of traditional Thai Dance!  Volunteers, Volunteers! ACAS would love to welcome its 18 new volunteers who completed the Core Skills Training on April 12, 2014! All new volunteers got a chance to learned about various topics including HIV and Hepatitis C 101, queer identities and gender expression, healthy sexuality, Trans 101, and anti-oppression. Aside from the core skills training, the Men’s and Women’s Programs also made a very successful outreach at the 519 Volunteer Fair on the same day during National Volunteer Week!   Engaging LGBTQ Newcomers Our Community Enagement Worker, Christian Hui and Youth Program Coordinator, Meza Daulet were invited to speak to a group of LGBTQ newcomers at Access Alliance’s Accesspoint on Danforth on topics such as substance use, family pressure growing up as Asian queers, and finding acceptance. Thank you Ranjith Kutilatilake for inviting us to the LGBTQ newcomers drop-in group!   AMP2R goes to AIDS2014! A big congratulations to our Asian MSM Pathways to Resiliency Team Dr. Alan Li for having a poster on Asian MSM cross-cutting resilience factors and co-Principle Investigator and ACAS Men’s Sexual Health Coordinator for having his workshop abstract on resilience for racialized MSMs getting accepted at the AIDS 2014 Conference in Melbourne, Australia in July! While the AMP2R team has completed its data analysis for the community-based research study, they have shared some of their findings with community partners and held a cross-cultural dialogue on MSM resilience pathways with ASAAP, APAA, CSSP and GMSH.   ACAS goes Rotary!  ACAS was very [...]