Ribbon Rouge Foundation
Description
About Us
PROVIDING RESEARCH AND SUPPORT THAT ENSURE HEALTH EQUITY FOR AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN & BLACK INDIVIDUALS
The Ribbon Rouge Foundation is a grassroots organization that focuses on health equity and facilitates social justice through the Arts. The Ribbon Rouge Foundation facilitates storytelling, community-engaged arts and intentional meaningful community conversations to change perceptions, stir social conscience, educate the public and create positive social change.
We remain committed to raising the voices of people who experience poorer health outcomes as a result of racialized health disparities. In particular, we focus our service provision on issues related to gender and issues related to race. We believe in the liberating power of the arts to promote self-expression, build community and facilitate positive social change.
In 2014, the estimated new infection rate among people from African, Caribbean and Black communities was about 6 times higher than among other Canadians and that the number of new HIV infections may have increased in females since 2014. According to 2016 national HIV estimates,507 new HIV infections (23.4% of all new HIV infections) occurred in females compared to an estimated 436 new infections (22.2%) in 2014. Among females, the majority of new HIV diagnoses were among those identified as Black at 46% of new HIV diagnoses according to 2017 national surveillance data. Our foundation’s work is a response to have a meaningful impact on the health (gender & racial) disparities represented by these statistics recognizing that these statistics barely scratch the surface of very complex social-economic-political-cultural drivers of the identified problems.
