Aaron Purdie Mc Rcc Email and Phone Number

As the Associate Director of programs and interventions at HIM (Health Initiative for Men) I am honoured to support and directs a dynamic team of young gay, bi, trans, two-spirit, and queer (GBT2Q) people who design programs and interventions guided by our mission and vision which is: Gay men building healthier lives together. - Program design, delivery, and reporting- Locating funding sources, and completing funding applications, and required reporting- Workplace health and well-ness- Program, and organization policy and procedure- Budgeting, and financial reporting- Formal program evaluation- Staff performance management, and evaluation - Staff support, direction and management- Community engagement and consultation - Emotional, and peer-based support- Project management- Intervention mapping, design, and execution- Social marketing campaign direction, and execution- Participant, recruiter, knowledge user, and investigator involved in multiple scientific research projects relating to queer health

As a Program Coordinator, my role is to support a group of volunteers to create and deliver programming to their communities. As peers, these volunteers bring unique perspectives and voices to their communities, and at HIM we work to host, promote and support those programs. HIM also hosts programs that are created, executed and evaluated by the program coordinators. Some groups and activities designed during this time were: Rainbow Soup Social, Trauma therapy group, Flex Fit Fitness group, Learn to Run 8-week program and many more. I also coordinate the volunteers for the organization, and tend to volunteer HR matters.

As a Narrative Therapist, I believe that the person is not the problem, but rather the problems in our lives are the accumulation of thousands of factors (small and large) which have been woven together to trap us, threaten us, and affect our mood and relationships. Working with clients, I will work to help people externalize the problem, and manage their relationship with it. I am informed by social constructionist philosophy, systems theory, and queer theory. As a queer male therapist, I have experienced the ways that society, history, violence, language, race and culture have shaped my experience. As a practitioner, I work to decolonize my practice (working 1-1 with people) by ensuring that I do not conspire with forces of colonization such as: psychology, the "mental health system", the DSM, or any other formalized methods of assessment or diagnosis. These practices have stripped indigenous people of their identities, traditions, gifts and language - and I commit to de-centering and abolishing them from my practice with clients.