THRIVE's response to ACT Closure:

Recently there has been widespread coverage of the closure of the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT). ACT is known as Canada’s oldest and most prominent community-based HIV/AIDS organization (CBAO). ACT leadership has announced that the organization’s operations will end March 31st, 2026. ACT, like most CBAOs, was created from community activism in a period of time marked by stigma, and a tremendous loss of lives to AIDS. The advocacy and leadership demonstrated by the individuals living with HIV and AIDS, and supportive allies changed practices and services from public health and sexual health, to the design of clinical drug trials.

 

More information on ACT’s closure can be found at:
https://www.actoronto.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/ACT-Press-Release-Sept-12-2025.pdf
 

We at Thrive HIV Prevention + Support are grateful for ACT’s leadership and advocacy over several decades within our sector, and are saddened to see its tenure brought to a close. While we as an HIV-focused community organization and non-profit share the same steep revenue and fundraising pressures that our partner organizations in Ontario and across Canada face, our post COVID reality has been very different, as we have gained new participants and programs. Between 2020 and 2025, we have experienced a 96% increase in our HIV Support caseload, accompanied by a 77% percent increase in the number of individuals engaged in our services, and a staggering 212% growth in our overall service volume. Many, but not all our participants can easily access very effective HIV treatments, while access to HIV prevention medications, food security, overdose prevention supports, living wage employment opportunities, mental health services, and deeply affordable housing adversely impact their overall health.
 

In the 2025-2026 fiscal year, Thrive supported more than 8,500 individuals in over 62, 000 interactions, while delivering services to individuals and communities within Waterloo Region and Guelph-Wellington County. The people and communities we support are being deeply affected by widening inequality, worsening discrimination, and barriers to well-being that are related to the underfunding of universal healthcare, and the social determinants of health. We are proud to support our participants in living long healthy lives with HIV, and in continuing to provide effective HIV prevention programming. We remain committed to dispelling HIV stigma.

 

More information about our increasingly complex work can be found in our annual report:
https://www.thrivehiv.ca/_files/ugd/ebc5d7_d5de6d6afa5f4ac99e9cee4c9e0830aa.pdf