The Assessing Community Readiness in Indigenous Communities Project empowers Indigenous communities, organizations, and people to make informed decisions with regards to their response to health and wellness and promotes HIV/AIDS prevention and harm reduction strategies that respects the cultural protocols of participates.

Through this project CAAN assists Indigenous participants in assessing their community’s response(s) and short- and long-term visioning for wellness within their respective communities through the development and implementation of workplans that utilize wise practice approaches.

The Community Readiness Project provides a point-of-contact for Indigenous communities and organizations to access and share information and works collaboratively with the Promising Practices Coordinator and the Youth and Women’s Leadership Project Coordinators thereby addressing demographic specific issues and needs. Community Readiness also celebrates Indigenous success in their response to HIV/AIDS, STTBI’s, hepatitis C, and harm reduction initiatives by providing a platform for which demonstrated wise practices are showcased.

CAAN: Assessing Community Readiness

Keeping Our Fires Community Readiness Training

Facing a health and wellbeing challenge in our Indigenous communities can be overwhelming. Many people and the agencies they work with can be at a loss on which steps to take to address the issue, whether it be HIV, Hep C, mental health, or even the most recent COVID-19 pandemic. This can be especially challenging when combined with our deeply held beliefs and traditions or the trauma we carry with us, such as sexual health and harm reduction. Learning how to develop strategies and implement culturally appropriate interventions that address the issues in the way that works for our unique community identity and history can be challenging… and that is why we developed the Keeping Our Fires Community Readiness Training.

Keeping Our Fires is a multi-day training series that combines presentations and open discussions to help create a community and culturally specific road map to meet the challenges of health and wellness issues, such as HIV or Hep C, in our communities by looking at what next steps our communities are ready for using the Community Readiness Model, or CRM. Originally developed by the Tri-Ethnic Centre for Prevention research at Colorado State University, the CRM has been successfully used to address a wide variety of issues that affect our communities, and is designed to be applied to any community: on/off reserve, issue-based, organizational, prisons populations, in treatment, in recovery, etc.

Originally adapted by CAAN in 2007 to focus on the realities of Indigenous peoples, communities, and challenges within Canada, the training underwent a major renewal in 2020 to address the current realities and needs of our people today. The Keeping Our Fires Community Readiness Training can be delivered in person as a 2-day training seminar, or virtually in 4 sessions from any location with an internet connection.

If you are interested in booking a Keeping Our Fires Community Readiness Training for your community or agency, please contact Dylan Richards or join one of the upcoming scheduled open trainings sessions on our calendar of events.

Assessing Community Readiness Tools & Resources

Promising Practices Documentaries

Promising Practices Documentaries

These documentaries are part of an award-winning series of three stand-alone films, called Promising Practices. These films highlight how Indigenous communities in Canada are utilizing harm reduction with cultural practices and evidence-based methods enhance health outcomes.

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Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network Ribbon

Assessing Community Readiness News & Views

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Assessing Community Readiness Events & Workshops

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