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Episode 14: Nine Circles Community Health Centre

Nine Cir­cles is a non-prof­it that pro­motes sex­u­al and per­son­al health through pri­ma­ry care, social sup­port and HIV/STI pre­ven­tion, test­ing & treat­ment. Nine Cir­cles sup­ports HIV & STI pre­ven­tion through test­ing, edu­ca­tion and treat­ment, pro­vides coor­di­nat­ed med­ical and social sup­ports for those liv­ing with HIV and pro­mote sex­u­al and per­son­al health includ­ing a harm reduc­tion model.

Nine Cir­cle Com­mu­ni­ty Health Cen­tre is an amal­ga­ma­tion of four AIDS Ser­vice Orga­ni­za­tions (ASOs), which emerged in the late 1980s to ear­ly 1990s. Our found­ing agen­cies were:

  • Vil­lage Clin­ic (1984 – 2003), which emerged as a gay men’s health cen­tre and was at the fore­front of the com­mu­ni­ty-based response to HIV test­ing, pri­ma­ry care and treat­ment. As HIV evolved in Man­i­to­ba, new agen­cies emerged to con­tribute to the response.
  • Kali Shi­va AIDS Ser­vices (1987-present), which pri­or­i­tized vol­un­teer in-home­/­com­mu­ni­ty sup­ports, peer involve­ment and empow­er­ment. Kali Shi­va would also emerge as an ear­ly leader in the advance­ment of harm reduc­tion in Manitoba.
  • AIDS Shel­ter Coali­tion of Man­i­to­ba (1991- 2004), which empha­sized advo­ca­cy and sup­port relat­ed to the social deter­mi­nants of health: hous­ing, income secu­ri­ty and social jus­tice. ASCM suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed Artemis Hous­ing Co-oper­a­tive, a res­i­dent-man­aged hous­ing co-oper­a­tive for indi­vid­u­als liv­ing with HIV.
  • Man­i­to­ba Abo­rig­i­nal AIDS Task Force (19932001), which led the response to HIV’s impact on Abo­rig­i­nal Peo­ples of Man­i­to­ba includ­ing the intro­duc­tion of indige­nous teach­ings into pre­ven­tion and care mod­els, cul­tur­al safe­ty and social jus­tice. MAATF’s Four Door­ways Project was a ground­break­ing edu­ca­tion­al tool that con­tin­ues to influ­ence HIV edu­ca­tion to this day.

Between 1998 and 2000, the found­ing agen­cies worked togeth­er to define the struc­ture, ser­vices and process­es, result­ing in the incor­po­ra­tion of
Nine Cir­cles Com­mu­ni­ty Health Cen­tre on Sep­tem­ber 262001.

Guests

  • Owen Black, Community Engagement Coordinator

    A graduate of both the University of Manitoba and Red River's Creative Communications program, Owen has been involved at Nine Circles since 2020 as the Community Engagement Coordinator, spreading the word about the amazing initiatives and opportunities that the Centre provides to the community.