Women living with HIV have often been excluded from the research process and are now demanding a more active part in setting the research agenda(see the Women and HIV Blueprint). The Women and HIV Research Program at WCRI is committed to working with community organizations and with women living with HIV to understand and address their research priorities. "Women with HIV have been continuously under-represented in the decision-making around HIV research," says Dr. Mona Loutfy of the Women and HIV Research Program. "For our program to make a difference, we need to change that and to focus on the issues that HIV-positive women believe are the most critical."

To accomplish this goal, the Women and HIV Program has partnered with Ms. Wangari Tharao from the Women's Health in Women's Hands Community Health Centre and with a number of other researchers and community advocates. Together, the team has developed a plan for a series of focus groups, interviews and a survey to talk to women and their service providers about their HIV research priorities. This project has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

"We want to create a research agenda founded in the practical needs of the community," says Mona Loutfy, head of the Women and HIV Program. "At the same time, we hope to create the structures for dialogue." The plan includes the creation of an ongoing community advisory board to comment on the work of the research program.

Program researchers are also involved in other community collaborations. WCRI researcher Dr. Julie Maggi is part of the research team of the Committee for Accessible AIDS Treatment(CAAT). CAAT is a coalition of more than 30 Ontario-based organizations from the legal, health, settlement and HIV/AIDS sectors working to improving treatment and service access for marginalized people with HIV/AIDS. Research initiatives, involving Dr. Maggi and led by Dr. Alan Li, include a study and knowledge exchange effort aimed at improving access to mental health services for immigrants and refugees with HIV/AIDS.