HIM formally adopted its current strategic plan in 2019. This ambitious plan has four strategic priorities, one of which focuses on HIM’s work in the equity, diversity and inclusion realm. Our goal, over the duration of the strategic plan and beyond, is to strengthen HIM’s capacity to ensure it reflects the communities it engages in ways that promote inclusion.
As a result of this goal, we are committed to ensuring that the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion are not only evident, but practiced, at all levels of the organization. This includes: building relationships with Indigenous and Two-Spirit communities, offering support, and demonstrating reconciliation and decolonizing; centering the needs and voices of BIPOC communities; and working to make HIM more welcoming and safe for diverse gender community members.
One of the progress benchmarks for this strategic priority is to ensure that practices, programs and policies at HIM have incorporated recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. We recognize that our path to reconciliation with Indigenous communities is multifaceted and necessitates structural change. This path includes recognizing that HIM was founded on principles that contribute to colonization, and that we are committing to actively engage in the work of decolonization.
HIM Code of Conduct
We have created this code of conduct as part of our strategy to protect all our diverse participants from violence, exclusion, and unfair treatment. These are the behaviours we are asking all participants to avoid when participating in any HIM program, or in any HIM space.
Read Full Code of Conduct Statement
HIM Apologizes to Indigenous Communities
We work as peers to GBQ men and gender diverse people in local communities because we understand how it feels to be excluded from healthcare. However, in the case of our activities related to raising awareness of and increasing access to PrEP for all GBQ men and gender diverse people, we have failed Indigenous (inclusive of First Nations, Inuit and Métis) people who are also members of these communities.
Provincewide Resource Launched for GBQ men and gender diverse people
More Than Sex prioritizes language and content that is more inclusive and speaks to the experiences of community members who are too often excluded from sexual health resources aimed at cis gay men. More than any other resource HIM has released in the past, More Than Sex speaks to the diversity of experiences and needs of community members.
