What we provide

Program Description

The AIDS Bereavement Project of Ontario (ABPO) is mandated to work with Board, Staff and Volunteers of AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) and other AIDS-serving organizations in Ontario on issues of AIDS-related loss, multiple loss and organizational change and transition.  We work with staff, board or volunteer teams and individuals to help them work through all kinds of loss and transitions and to build resiliency skills.

From January 1994 to December 2006, ABPO has:

• Facilitated 545 workshops for cumulative total of 5,978 workers;
• Developed 74 training sessions for 1,715 people;
• Presented at 188 conferences to 11,345 participants.  Conferences include 5 International AIDS Conferences, plus national and provincial events;
 
• Provided numerous consultations.

Core Services

The AIDS Bereavement Project of Ontario recognizes that each small pressure from HIV/AIDS produces big effects. Our programs help to honour loss, then strengthen everyone’s capacity to see through things and carry on. ABPO’s programs address:

• When loss occurs at work, eg. a client dies or suffers loss or trauma, a co-worker or volunteer gets ill, leaves or dies.
• When grief comes to your workplace, e.g. a co-worker develops cancer or gets divorced, a family member dies or is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
• When the workplace dies, e.g. with restructuring, downsizing, program termination or change, expansion or merger.

ABPO workshops and training sessions:

ABPO’s sessions upgrade professional skills and facilitate learning. We have published a practical, detailed guide to grief and loss, “The Basics of Grief and Multiple Loss: a Training Manual for Workers in AIDS Service Organizations.”

Choose the most suitable ABPO program from the following examples or ask the Project to design a unique program that exactly fits your organizations needs.

ABPO programs include:

1. Education: how to recognize and intervene when experiencing the effects of Grief, Loss and Trauma; education is an essential component of all of our programs.
2. Training: project staff partner with workers to co-create a training to maximally respond to their stated needs.
3. Grief/Loss/Multiple Loss Processing: recognizing the manifestations of a loss response in the worker, sensitization to loss responses of community members and enhancing coping strategies for workers.
4. Development of Peer Support Systems: through team building, facilitating the ongoing peer support modeled in the trainings/workshops.
5. Development of Resource Materials: working collaboratively with agencies to develop relevant materials for local activities.

Session Outlines
• 1 to 3-hour Presentations to Boards of Directors and/or designated staff and resource persons to increase awareness about the impact of change and loss on agency personnel and community members. Presentation topic include grief theory, impact of loss, multiple loss, use of ritual, organizational transition, change theory, building sustainable capacity, enhancing individual coping strategies and organizational responsiveness.
• 1-day Basic Training About Grief and Loss for Support Workers, Volunteer Coordinators and other frontline staff.
• Half-day Workshop for Supervisors on “Caring for the Caregivers.” Goals: To build resilience, clarify best practices and pass knowledge from experienced to new. Sample topics: how to support front-line staff; coaching to engage volunteers from the community; setting boundaries; demystifying common grief responses.
• 1 or 2-day ‘Survive and Thrive’ Workshop for long-term HIV/AIDS survivors who have experienced multiple losses. ABPO is collaborating with Ontario AIDS Network PHA programs to deliver 8 retreats in 2004-2005.
• 1 or 2-day Workshop for Staff,Volunteers or Board Members to strengthen professional skills and build “Community Resiliency”.  Follow-up referrals and support are available.
• Extended Program of Consultation for front-line workers on topics they identify and for a duration they designate, e.g. to fine tune an agency bereavement program or help set up a procedure to debrief after a sudden death.