About Us

Why, who, and how we help

Our Cause, Mission, and Values

Our Cause:

Community = Health & Social Equality for All

Our Mission:

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.

Our Values:

  1. We believe a community is diminished when people who need health and wellness are marginalized.
  2. We believe in equitable delivery and availability of health services.
  3. We believe that people who use drugs, people who are challenged with stigmatizing health conditions, people who are incarcerated and people who are insecurely housed are especially at risk for not having equal access to health & wellness and a life in our community with dignity.
  4. We believe in the power of Yukon’s cultural diversity and the richness of its First Nation, Inuit and Métis traditions and roots.

History

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: 

  • reflects our vision for a healthy community
  • moves our work into addressing the broad social determinants of health that lead to health and social vulnerabilities and inequities 
  • continues to respect our agency’s roots in HIV and Hepatitis C prevention and support

Blood Ties is primarily funded by the Federal Government’s Public Health Agency of Canada and the Yukon Government’s Community Health Programs.

Programs

Blood Ties has programs in four key strategic areas

  1. Education, Prevention and Capacity
  2. Health Navigation Support
  3. Harm Reduction (Outreach Van, Supervised Consumption Site,  and Needle and Pipe Program)
  4. Housing Support

Philosophical foundations

Blood Ties embraces a number of critical philosophical underpinnings in how we approach our work. Those include:

  • Harm Reduction
  • Social Justice
  • Social Determinants
  • Partnership & Collaboration
  • Leadership & Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and harm reduction
  • GIPA “Nothing About Us Without Us”

Staff

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.

Board

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.

Partners

Blood Ties would like to thank all of its partners and sponsors for their support.