QPP OPENS STATE RESOURCE CENTRE

By Toby Longhurst
Queensland Positive People have officially unveiled their newly renovated state resource centre in East Brisbane last week at an opening ceremony on Friday night and a community welcoming the following day.
The state of the art, double story premises will act as both an administrative centre and a community resource centre, offering an information library, function room and spaces for community groups to meet.
QPP General Manager Simon O’Connor told QNews that it had been a long and challenging wait for the organisation and that he was very excited that QPP could now share their facilities with the community.
“We have had rental premises in the past but this is the first time in our 20 year history that we have a permanent base from which we can work from. The whole focus of the building is for it to be a state recourse centre so that we can provide a whole range of information and support to people living with HIV no matter where they live in Queensland “, Mr O’Connor said.
“We’ve deliberately separated the building into two sections. Upstairs is very office focused, while downstairs has been deliberately been created into a community type setting so it welcomes people to come in and use the centre as much as they like. The more people the better.”
The opening of the new centre is the end of a long road for QPP in their search for a permanent home. The organisation was given a two million dollar grant for a new premises in 2006 from the State Government when their former home was declared an unfit work environment by Workplace Health & Safety because of structural problems and asbestos.
Queensland Positive People is a peer based organisation offering support and information for people living with HIV/AIDS.  They run programs specifically designed to meet the needs of HIV positive Queenslanders, as well as social events such as Planet Positive and the CWC Cabarets.
The State Recourse Centre is open to the public and is located at 21 Manilla St, East Brisbane. For more information please visit www.qpp.net.au or phone (07) 3013 5507