PAH Capacity Building Forum to advance best practice and improved coordination

The PHA Capacity Building Forum to advance best practice and improved coordination
By Alan Li, M.D. Co-chair, CAAT

The recent CAAT Research Study on “Improving Mental Health Service Access for Immigrant & Refugee PHAs”, the Living & Serving 2 Study on PHA Engagement in the Ontario AIDS Movement, as well as the Toronto HIV/AIDS Community Planning Initiatives (TCPI) all identified and highlighted the need to enhance PHA capacity building initiatives as a key priority strategy to improve the health of people living with HIV/AIDS in Ontario.  As a result, CAAT worked closely with the education and training committee of the Toronto Community Planning Initiatives to cosponsor an important forum to share best practices and to improve planning and coordination of PHA Capacity building initiatives. The forum, supported by the AIDS Bureau Open Door Conference funding, was held on November 16th  2007 at the Marriot Courtyard Hotel in Toronto. The Forum brought together 70 PHAs, service providers, policy makers, funders and researchers and was an amazing success both in terms of frontline stakeholders and affected communities learning and sharing practical program ideas and experiences as well as advancing the agenda of working towards improved coordination and accreditation of PHA training programs.  A resource listing on current PHA capacity building initiatives in Toronto was also developed to promote awareness, access and to facilitate coordination for all stakeholders.
3 working groups were developed to share the follow up work on Coordination, Accreditation, and Promoting Best Practices. The working groups will be collaborating with the provincial Living & Serving 2 Task Force as well as local agency partners to follow through with the recommendations of the forum.

You can download the full report from the “Strengthening PHA Capacity Building Initiatives: a forum to share best practices to improve planning and coordination”,