Three decades after forming in Grande Prairie, HIV North has a new name. The not-for-profit organization has officially been rebranded the Northreach Society.
“Our main focus is still going to be around prevention, drug use, and with that comes harm reduction supplies. Being the organization that will come pick up needle debris on the street, that’s not changing,” says Assistant Executive Director Johnathon Fortune.
Fortune says while the organization’s initial purpose was to help those in the midst of battling the AIDS virus, time has offered them the ability to broaden both the services provided and their ever-growing client base.
“We do education on gender and sexual diversity, drug use, harm reduction, women’s health, pregnancy, we have outreach services, we have four housing contracts. So many more services than just the work that has to do with HIV.”
He adds the name change has been in the works for some time but was accelerated in 2018 when they officially changed their mission statement.
“That mission statement change really moved outside of just focusing on HIV and captured all of the work we are doing currently.”
Fortune adds they hope to have new signage on their Grande Prairie location by the end of the summer.