About ABPO

Mission

The AIDS Bereavement Project of Ontario (ABPO) collaborates with organizations to build worker, agency and community resiliency in the face of AIDS-related multiple loss and transition.

Mandate

The AIDS Bereavement Project of Ontario responds to effectively mitigate the impact of AIDS grief and loss on organizations, staff and volunteers and community members living with HIV/AIDS. To achieve this we:

assist in assessment and enhancement of individual and agency coping strategies related to loss and transition.
develop and deliver agency interventions, educational presentations, workshops, retreats and research initiatives incorporating evidence-based knowledge and bereavement expertise.
provide innovative training to organizations, staff and people living with HIV/AIDS to increase communication skills, peer support and community resiliency strategies.
ensure excellence in our work through the development of sustaining, relevant, creative and evolving responses to the changing nature of loss within diverse AIDS-impacted communities.

Guiding Principles

We understand that with the changing nature of HIV/AIDS, agency personnel and AIDS-impacted communities are relating to an illness associated with unpredictability, uncertainty and anticipatory grief, in addition to the pre-existing legacy of multiple losses.
We believe that our work must be:

Grounded in solid theory
Shaped by the experience of the people we work with
Linked to people’s broader life experiences
Framed within a context of equity and inclusion
Trusting of everyone’s unique capacity to survive, thrive and make meaning

The AIDS Bereavement Project has a Project Team, an Advisory Committee and, of course, a story-so-far. The Team is headed by Program Director, Yvette Perreault.

The Project Team:

Yvette Perreault, Program Director
	Yvette has been a committed counsellor and community organizer for over twenty five years. She directed the AIDSupport Program at the AIDS Committee of Toronto for eight years. With a background in Psychiatric Nursing in Brandon, Manitoba, she counselled to stop violence against women. Yvette also consults on organizational development and conflict resolution.
Anna Demetrakopoulos, Support Coordinator and Regional Facilitator
	Anna has worked in community development for almost 20 years and been with ABPO for the past seven. She previously coordinated a provincial women’s organization and also has extensive training in holistic health work.

Regional Facilitators:

Sheila Berry	Wayne Fitton	Christine Leonard

and Trevor Gray (photo coming).

‘Survive and Thrive’ Project Team

(front row, L-R)
Thomas Egdorf, PHA Program Director, Ontario AIDS Network,
Wayne Fitton, ABPO
(back row L-R)
Yvette Perreault & Anna Demetrakopoulos, ABPO

ABPO’s Provincial Advisory Committee is:

John Burch - Fife House Board Nominee, Toronto
Thomas Egdorf - PHA Programs Director, Ontario AIDS Network, Toronto
Suzanne Foreman -Volunteer Coordinator, The AIDS Network, Hamilton
John Gaylord - Counsellor, AIDS Committee of Toronto
Mike Hamilton - Community Representative, Windsor
Keith Hambly - Executive Director, Fife House Foundation
Tom Hammond - Executive Director AIDS Committee of Guelph and Wellington County
Joanne Lush - Program Supervisor, AIDS Bureau, Ontario Ministry of Health
John McTavish (PAC Co-chair) - Executive Director, HIV/AIDS Regional Services, Kingston
Margaret McGovern - Project Management Consultant, Toronto
John McTavish - HIV/AIDS Regional Services, Kingston
Richard Nastor - Bruce House, Ottawa
Jag Parmar - PHA Support Coordinator, Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention, Toronto
Betty Ann Rutledge - Program Manager, Bereaved Families of Ontario
Terry Sands - Regional Outreach/Support Services, Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy, Wallaceberg
Lisa Toner - IDU Outreach Worker, ACCESS AIDS Network, Sudbury

Scribe: Jim Truax

ABPO History

A solid theoretical framework for grief and an appreciation of the complexity of the ensuring “journey of loss” can provide workers with vital competencies for better managing changes associated with HIV and with the realities of organizational life in an AIDS agency.
Statement from a 1997 ABPO evaluation conducted by Gibson & Plotnick.

The AIDS Bereavement Project of Ontario (ABPO) evolved out of the 1990 AIDS Bereavement Program originally funded by ACAP and sponsored by the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT). The basis of this 3 year ACT-specific program was the development of a structured bereavement intervention for 5 distinct groups of people affected by HIV:

caregivers (professional and volunteers)
lovers of people with AIDS
family, parents, spouses, children and siblings
friends of people with AIDS
people living with HIV/AIDS

The intervention involved the running of closed bereavement groups for 8 to 10 weeks in length. The program additionally offered formal training for group facilitators, which was conducted by professionals from Bereaved Families of Ontario.

As the final report of this project demonstrated, one of the obstacles to delivering ongoing bereavement programs to community and clients was the lack of structured supports for the staff and volunteers designated to facilitate these groups.

A needs assessment was conducted in 1993 with 80 front-line staff, 13 Executive Directors, and key managers: everyone strongly identified multiple loss as an unaddressed issue requiring a coordinated, provincial response. The lessons learned from the 1990 AIDS Bereavement Program were clear: agency personnel require their own mechanism for attending to the effects of multiple loss experienced through the course of their work. Because AIDS workers were also bereaved themselves, they required additional supports, skills and training to work with a grieving clientele. Given the overwhelming evidence of need the AIDS Bureau took up the challenge in 1994 by providing funding for this innovative resource, known as the AIDS Bereavement Project of Ontario (ABPO).