The reality is that this HIV+ community centre is really not the answer.  The real answer is to get rid of the stigma around HIV and give our community our dignity back.  Then we take this HIV+ community centre and we use it as a model to revamp the community centre’s in all of our communities thus creating  a community centre that works for all of us that are wanting a better quality of life.  It is not going to come to you; you have to go to it.  But since we all have community’s centre’s’ why not make better use of them. 

However not all of the programs are going to fit in all of the community centre’s but we use the schools to address the issues of training for life skills.  We can use stores spaces for some parts like the used clothing store.

There mission statement and some of the principals would be written differently but other wise no real difference between the HIV+ community centre and the revamped community centre’s and we call them "Positive Community Involvement Centre" 

Mission Statement to provide our community a safe space free from stigma where we can share our skills and tools with our community in order that all of us can achieve the best quality of life while improving and connecting our greater communities.

Principle #1 Aim to achieve the dual outcomes of community mobilization:  View community mobilization as a capacity-building process that empowers communities with the skills to organize, assess, plan, act, monitor and evaluate together.

Principle #2 Encourage meaningful community participation:  This means that people affected by poverty have an active and influential say in the decisions that impact on their lives.  It is especially important that those most vulnerable to poverty – first nations, seniors, youth/children, working poor, OW, ODSP, WSIB, UI, homeless community, new immigrants, ex prisoners, people who are stigmatized (e.g. people living with HIV/AIDS, mental health and additions, sex workers,) - participate meaningfully.

Principle #3 Encourage meaningful community participation at every stage of the mobilization process:  This means those most affected having an active and influential say in how they organize themselves, assess their situation, plan a response, act, monitor and evaluate.

Principle #4 Work together:  Encourage all community members affected by poverty to work together to cope with it.  This means starting, assessing, planning, and acting, monitoring, evaluating and scaling up together.  If you are from an outside agency, you should try to form an equal partnership with community members, sharing roles and responsibilities fairly.

Principle #5 Build trust and social capital:  This means spending a lot of time on building mutual trust, respect and understanding both within communities and between communities, and any other organizations (all agencies,, all levels of Governments, and public health) taking part in the process.  Everyone who is participating needs to understand each other's strengths and weaknesses.  This will encourage sharing of skills and knowledge within and between communities and organizations.

Principle #6 Communities of practice:  Are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

Three characteristics are crucial to a community of practice:

·         The Domain: A community of practice is not merely a club of friends or a network of connections between people.  It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest.  Membership therefore implies a commitment to the domain, and therefore a shared competence that distinguishes members from other people.  (You could belong to the same network as someone and never know it.)  The domain is not necessarily something recognized as “expertise” outside the community.

·         The Community:  In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information.  They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other.  A website in itself is not a community of practice.  Having the same job or the same title does not make for a community of practice unless members interact and learn together.

·         The practice:  A community of practice is not merely a community of interest—people who like certain kinds of movies, for instance.  Members of a community of practice are practitioners.  They develop a shared repertoire or resources: experiences, stories, tools, and ways of addressing recurring problems- in short a shared practice.  This takes time and sustained interaction.

It is the combination of these three elements that constitutes a community of practice.  And it is by developing these three elements in parallel that one cultivates such a community.

 Values We would aim at fulfilling the "GIPA" accord at its highest level.  

 The core values are of the GIPA accord is:

·         valuing human life

·         respecting the dignity of all people

·         respecting diversity and promoting the equality of all people without distinction of any kind, such as sex, race, colour, age, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, physical or mental disability, health status (including HIV/AIDS), sexual orientation or civil political, social or other status

·         preventing and elimination human suffering

·         supporting community values that encourage respect for other and a willingness to work together to find solutions, in the spirit of compassion and mutual support, and

·         addressing social and economic inequities and fostering social justice 

For more information about the UNAIDS GIPA Accord http://www.unaids.org/en/PolicyAndPractice/GIPA/default.asp check out this website