Prevent. Act. Support. We're doing it online.

AIDS Vancouver is pleased to launch our newest website. It is a great tool for us to do our important work and fulfill our mission to prevent, act and support.

1. We prevent the spread of HIV by connecting visitors with the power of information in an instant.
2. We act with online campaigns and get others to join in the action too.
3. We support people living with HIV/AIDS by directing them to our many client services.

We want our website visitors to find what they want fast, anytime day or night. Have a question about how HIV is transmitted? The answer is a click away. Want to join our amazing force of volunteers? An application is at your fingertips. We want visitors to keep coming back to find the most current, engaging and accessible information about the challenges of responding to HIV/AIDS in Vancouver—and in the world.

Some of the features you'll find on our website:

• A page for people recently diagnosed as HIV positive: When someone is first diagnosed, their doctor will suggest they come to AIDS Vancouver. Our Library and support staff are here to help. But do questions crop up after hours? Of course they do. Our website can help answer questions day or night.

• Up-to-date listings by subject area of journal articles, books, weblinks and other resources. Our PARC Library boasts the largest collection of HIV/AIDS resources in Western Canada, and our staff and volunteers want to put our excellent resources in your hands. You’ll find up to date information on our website, and often links to PDF versions of articles that make your research much easier.

• Programs, Events & News highlighted on the homepage. Find out about AIDS Vancouver programs, upcoming events and campaigns. The latest news comes from a syndicated news feed that updates with international and local HIV/AIDS news on the hour.

• Web tools. Visitors to our website can comment on blog entries and stories like this (see bottom of page), email information to friends and family with one click, and subscribe to our RSS Feed (what's an RSS Feed?). Look for more user tools in the coming year. We want our website to be vibrant and interactive.

Why a new website?
We've been gathering ideas for a while. In planning the new website, we conducted user testing by sitting down with all different kinds of people, watching them use the site. We asked what they liked and what they didn’t like. They told us that the priorities for the new site were:

• improved site navigation
• improved site design
• regularly updated content

Some of the guiding principles for the redesign were:

• a site focused on the user
• opportunities for interactivity and engagement
• appealing visual design
• easy navigation with intuitive organization and labels
• simplified updating for staff

What’s under the hood?
Our website is driven by an Open-Source Content Management System (what a mouthful!), called Drupal. In plain English, Drupal is a free software package that allows us to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on our website.

Open-source systems are in keeping with AIDS Vancouver’s own principles of sharing knowledge and supporting each other.

Did we do it alone?
No. We were lucky to collaborate with the talents at Koumbit, a non profit organization whose mission is to promote the appropriation of free/libre and open source software by social groups. Koumbit mentored us in the ways of Drupal, and coded their little hearts out to help get our site off the ground and into cyberspace. We also had outside help for the programming, design and content of the site from local volunteers and contractors over the course of this lengthy project.

We value your feedback
Our website is a work in progress that we'll continue to refine and expand upon. Write a comment below to tell us what you like. And what you don't. We’re open to feedback.

With your continued help and support, we can make this website a powerful tool to respond to HIV/AIDS. Let's prevent, act and support together -- on the web and all over the world.

Rachel Thompson
Website Coordinator
webmaster@aidsvancouver.org