Achieving meaningful participation of people who use drugs and their peer organizations in a strategic research partnership

Table 1 The W3 collaboration

W3 Project: understanding what works and why in peer-based and peer-led programs in HIV and hepatitis C Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations (the national peak body for the community-based response to HIV), Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (the national peak body for people who use drugs peer organizations), Harm Reduction Victoria (people who use drugs peer organization), Western Australian Substance Users Association (people who use drugs peer organization), Victorian AIDS Council (community and peer-based organization with services for gay and bisexual men, people who inject drugs, and people with HIV), Scarlet Alliance–Australian Sex Workers Association (national peer-based sex worker organization), National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (national people with HIV peer organization), Living Positive Victoria (people with HIV peer organization), Positive Life New South Wales (people with HIV peer organization), Queensland Positive People (people with HIV peer organization)

In Australia, “community-based” and “peer-based” are the dominant organizational descriptors. These organizations were established by the communities most affected by HIV (and later HCV) from the mid-1980s, and their governance is based within their communities. Most of their limited funding comes from national and state governments with varying contracting conditions and caveats. Community-based organizations at a policy level are considered part of the “HIV partnership” alongside clinical services, research, and government. As with most countries, these relationships have waxed and waned over the past three decades [2, 30].

ISSN: 1477-7517