VAC/GMHC: Where to from here?

The Victorian AIDS Council/Gay Men's Health Centre had a big year in 2012 as we went through a major strategic planning process in order to decide on our direction for the next five years. Our hardworking board completed an extensive consultation process along with members, volunteers, clients, staff, partner organisations and community groups. If you would like to see the strategic plan, please see the link below.

Our aim for the coming years is to maintain our strong focus on addressing HIV by embracing new prevention approaches and biomedical technologies. These will complement the behavioural approaches that still serve us well (such as reinforcing the use of condoms and water based lube). At the same time, we will strengthen our current range of services that we already offer to people living with HIV and to sexually and gender diverse communities.

We are extremely excited about the prospect of greater involvement with the LGBTI community. We have been working with – and in – this community for many years, providing meeting spaces and other support for a vast array of community groups, including Greek and Gay, freedom2b, Helem Melbourne, Minus 18 and of course our great friends, Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives.

In our consultations during our strategic planning process we asked what people in the community saw as our future role. You may know that the AIDS Councils in both Queensland and New South Wales decided some years ago to become lead health organisations for the LGBTI community in those states. We heard very clearly through our consultations that our Victorian communities see VAC/GMHC as having a greater role to play beyond HIV and gay men's health, but that this should be through partnerships with existing organisations. It was also clear that community groups are looking for support and assistance with building for the future, so this is a strong focus of our strategic plan, until 2017.

If you're involved in one of our community groups, you might like to have a discussion about how we could work together. I'd love to hear from you.

Have a look at our strategic plan in this issue. It’s short and we hope you think it's sweet. vicaids.asn.au/strategic-plan

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