PWN at 20: Where Do We Meet? Where You’re At

In this, our twentieth year, we’re featuring a monthly blog series, PWN at 20 that looks at PWN’s unique place in Canada. Last month we focussed on the partnership of HIV positive women and allies who were affected by HIV.

Last week was an amazing one at Positive Women’s Network. We’ve started to gather stories and memories from the people who were inspired to create the PWN community over 20 years ago. We’re working with a program called Universities without Walls, and researcher Tamara Landry was in town from Ontario to lead focus groups and interviews with numerous folks who have played their parts:

• women who founded PWN by way of a phone line and support group
• long-term members who have lived through many changes in disease, life expectancy, treatments
• health care providers
• community colleagues
• staff and volunteers

It was just the beginning of the document to capture our first twenty years: the energy, the ideas, the programs, the passages, the successes, and the inevitable challenges of creating a community of women with widely diverse identities and needs.  What has PWN created for people locally, regionally and nationally?

During the course of the week, input from participants made it obvious that the themes that inspired the founders to develop a women-specific space are still issues. Over and over the themes that came up were self-determined healthcare, pregnancy and parenting, the stigma of HIV, relationship violence, fear and disclosure, and the inconsistent availability of women-specific information about disease and treatments. 

“Are women-specific HIV services still needed?” 

“Seven hundred women think so,” was the immediate response. 

One of the themes that came up numerous times was the idea of self-determined health care. PWN “meets women where they’re at.” It’s one of our principles. We know that women make choices based on a whole host of factors. We don’t manage women’s care; we support women to do what they think is best for them under their personal circumstances and not anyone else’s. Tamara said this non-judgmental woman-centred approach of ours was mentioned by numerous people. It respects the individual realities and complexities of women’s lives and is much appreciated by those who walk through our doors.

We know that we can’t be everything to everyone- women with HIV have such diverse backgrounds and needs. They relate to HIV itself as well as economic, social, relationship, geographical, educational, and cultural situations. There are women who have received support from us for years, and have made friendships that now sustain them outside of PWN. They don’t need our support in the same way anymore. We’re glad we were there for them and that we’re here for women now. 

I’ll be writing more about our 20 year retrospective (and celebrations to come!) as the year progresses. But for now, my message is simple, and re-inspired by last week.

If you’re a positive woman who’s thinking about coming in, we’d love to see you. And that’s you just as you are, and not as any preconceived notion of “an HIV positive woman.” If you think you’d be more comfortable, call first or look around this site, get to know us a little. We want you to be comfortable. We want you to feel welcome. Judging by the feedback we’ve received so far, you will.

- Janet  

This was posted on Friday, February 4th, 2011 at 9:40 am and is filed under Education & Resources, HIV stigma, Networking, PWN at 20, sexual health, Spiritual and Emotional Health, Support . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.

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