Why, who, and how we help
Community = Health & Social Equality for All
Our mission is to eliminate barriers and create opportunities for people to have equal access to health & wellness and to live in our community with dignity.
How Blood Ties began
Blood Ties’ membership, the board of directors, and volunteers are drawn from members of the HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C communities, people with lived experiences, and committed, caring members of the general public.
Formerly AIDS Yukon Alliance, we have been providing HIV education and support since 1993. In 2001, we started also providing Hepatitis C education and support along with our HIV services. To reflect this new purpose, a naming competition was held among people who access the agency. The name Blood Ties Four Directions Centre was chosen as well as the current logo.
In 2013, the board and staff met to discuss future directions for the organization and to identify and focus our cause and mission for the next 10 years. We created a vision for our community including a new mission and statement of values.
This new mission:
Blood Ties is primarily funded by the Federal Government’s Public Health Agency of Canada and the Yukon Government’s Community Health Programs.
Blood Ties has programs in four key strategic areas
Blood Ties embraces a number of critical philosophical underpinnings in how we approach our work. Those include:
Blood Ties has various full-time, part-time, and casual staff members trained in harm reduction and committed to serving our clients. In partnership with Kwanlin Dün Health Centre and FASSY, the outreach van is staffed seven nights a week with local harm reduction workers.
Blood Ties is administered through a volunteer Board of Directors. This Board is an administrative Policy Board, operating as a resource and support to staff and volunteers for the provision of client service. The Board: offers strategic direction, supports staff to implement direction, has an administrative or policy focus, has the services of an Executive Director to coordinate service delivery policies, are provided with information on service delivery by the Executive Director, creates their own vision and mission statement, interprets community needs and interests, makes policy decisions and reflects these to the organization they are accountable to (i.e. funders).
Dan Bader, Laura Gohl, Grace Dalgarno, Laura Beattie, Ashley Hope, Tyler Gerbert, Patti Flather, and Jolene Campbell.
Blood Ties would like to thank all of its partners and sponsors for their support.
