For more than 20 years  AIDS Programs South Saskatchewan (APSS)  has been helping men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS. We are a community based non-profit registered charitable organization. We strive with our partners to raise awareness about the issues that people living with HIV/AIDS deal with every day including the grassroots problems of poverty, hunger, homelessness, discrimination and stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.

Our Mandate
Is to engage the whole community to stop the spread of AIDS

Our Mission Statement
To support community health and well-being through sharing HIV/AIDS information and resources.

Our Vision
That HIV infection will be prevented through an effective educated response to HIV/AIDS in our community, through promoting behaviour change, risk reduction and creating changes that impact on society.

Our Core Values
- We believe in the power of the person - recognizing the extreme value of one and the dynamic force of a community.
- We honour voluntarism and foster the spirit to serve our community by the lives that we touch.
- We foster an environment where people are appreciated and treated with dignity, respect and fairness.
- We are committed to being an optimistic and encouraging agent of change - demonstrating compassion and integrity in all that we do.
- We believe that excellent financial performance is a must, not as an end in itself, but as a means to accomplish our broader mission in helping our community.
- We believe all people should enjoy the opportunities, rights, responsibilities, and benefits they merit.

Our Principles
APSS provides confidential, non-judgemental and knowledge-based programs and services to our clients. APSS works from a harm reduction perspective and incorporates an understanding of the determinants of health into all programs and services.
APSS provides central leadership in the fight against the AIDS epidemic, promotes sound HIV/AIDS public policy, funds HIV/AIDS care and prevention projects, and coordinates the delivery of essential HIV/AIDS services.

APSS collaborates with government and community partners to pursue comprehensive strategies against HIV/AIDS; fund and coordinate prevention, care, and advocacy projects; and champion effective, compassionate policy and human rights to bring an end to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in our community.

History
The origin of AIDS and HIV has puzzled scientists ever since the illness first came to light in the early 1980s. For over twenty years it has been the subject of fierce debate and the cause of countless arguments, with everything from a promiscuous flight attendant to a suspect vaccine program being blamed. So what is the truth? Just where did AIDS come from?

The first recognized cases of AIDS occurred in the USA in the early 1980s. A number of gay men in New York and California suddenly began to develop rare opportunistic infections and cancers that seemed stubbornly resistant to any treatment. At this time, AIDS did not yet have a name, but it quickly became obvious that all the men were suffering from a common syndrome.

The discovery of HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, was made soon after. While some were initially resistant to acknowledge the connection (and indeed some remain so today), there is now clear evidence to prove that HIV causes AIDS.

What makes HIV so dangerous is that it attacks the immune system itself - the very thing that would normally get rid of a virus

After the discovery of AIDS, AIDS Service Organizations formed to address the major trends of the disease: to help prevent the spread of HIV and to care for those dying from AIDS-related illnesses. Within a few years, a new trend emerged; more people were living longer with HIV than were living with full-blown AIDS.