The WA AIDS Council (WAAC) have secured almost $20 million in funding over the next five years to continue supporting people living with HIV and LGBTQIA+ communities.

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Awarded through the Department of Health’s Sexual Health and Blood-borne Virus Program Communicable Disease Control Directorate, WAAC will be enabled to continue delivering a range of services across Western Australia.

These include counselling and health promotion services, its Needle and Syringe Exchange Program (NSEP) and Perth’s M Clinic, a nurse-led sexual health clinic which provides confidential advice and services for men who have sex with men, trans people and non-binary people.

CEO of WAAC, Lisa Dobrin, says the organisation is thrilled to have received the Department of Health funding, which directly supports any individual and all communities throughout the state seeking assistance to optimise their sexual health and wellbeing.

“We are absolutely delighted to be awarded this vital funding to support some of the most vulnerable people within our community,” Dobrin said.

“We know our services dramatically change lives, and they are only possible as a result of funding from the Department of Health, so we are enormously grateful for our continued partnership.”

Dobrin says the funding will also allow the organisation to continue to progress it’s advocacy role within the community, namely addressing the ongoing impacts and challenges of stigma and discrimination on people living with HIV and other marginalised communities throughout WA, as well as general case management, peer support, and workforce and capacity building for corporate, government and non-profit organisations.

In addition, the organisation has gained a further $150,000 grant from the Department of Health for a Syphilis Health Promotion pilot program, which will focus on combatting the growing outbreak of Syphilis in WA and will see a new health promotion role created and based at the M Clinic.

OIP Staff

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