Asian Community AIDS Services
Toronto Ontario 43° 39' 12.53" N, 79° 23' 2.16" W Group
Overview[edit]
Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS) is a charitable, non-profit, community-based organization located in Toronto, Canada.
Mission Statement[edit]
We provide HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and support services to the East and Southeast Asian Canadian communities. Our programs are based on a pro-active and holistic approach to HIV/AIDS and are provided in a collaborative, empowering, and non-discriminatory manner.
Our Objectives[edit]
- to reduce the infection of HIV/AIDS by promoting public awareness on HIV/AIDS prevention and safer sex in the Asian communities.
- to provide comprehensive and culturally appropriate support, education, and outreach services to Asians and Asians infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in a non-discriminatory and non-judgmental manner.
- to enhance the well-being of Asians infected and affected by HIV/AIDS by providing direct services, increasing their control over their own health, and by promoting a supportive environment in the larger community
- to promote a supportive environment to Asians infected and affected by HIV/AIDS by increasing access to services and by reducing racism, homophobia and AIDS-phobia to increase networking and collaboration among the Asian communities and HIV/AIDS services in Canadian society
Our History[edit]
On World AIDS Day, December 1, 1994, three of the AIDS groups serving the Southeast Asian communities in Metro Toronto joined forces to form a new coalition agency. Gay Asians Toronto’s Gay Asian AIDS Project, Southeast Asian Service Centre’s Vietnamese AIDS Project and the Toronto Chinese Health Education Committee’s AIDS Alert Project amalgamated to form the new coalition agency: Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS).