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Crisis Diversion workers often go beyond the basic definition of their jobs.  Jarvis Eastman, Hope Mission, Rescue Van Ministry Worker, was recently honoured by EMS for these kinds of actions. Often, people on the street will ask Crisis Diversion workers for a narcan kit, which they can’t supply because they need the ones they have for emergencies. And on this particular day, a teenager chased the Hope Mission rescue van down asking for narcan.   The Hope staff agreed to go to the location where their friend was overdosing.  “This individual told me he had just moved into a house and didn’t know the address and I could tell he had run quite a distance,” says Jarvis. “So I asked him to jump in the ambulance and take us to the scene. Once they found the house and called 911, Jarvis explained who they were with and was given permission to enter the house, which is something Crisis Diversion teams normally wouldn’t do. “Everyone there was between 17 and 19 years old,” says Jarvis. “Once I went in I saw this 17-year-old was not in good condition, his lips were very blue and he had clammy, cold skin.” He was able to check his vitals and found his oxygen was very low and his heart rate was in the 100s, so they gave him two doses of narcan and a sternal rub while waiting for EMS to arrive on the scene, when the patient started to regain consciousness. “I was able to pass my monitor readings and levels to the chief paramedic supervisor, so basically he figured this kid probably had about one minute to survive prior to us arriving,” says Jarvis. “And it took paramedics 5 minutes to get there. That kid may not have lived if we had not got into that house.” EMS took the time to honour Jarvis  with an award for his work on that day because he went beyond his basic responsibilities to help save this young man’s life. “This was singled out because it’s not something we normally would do,” he says. “We wouldn't go to closed-in places.”  It turned out there was a phone and a narcan kit in the house, but the teens were in such shock and distress over their friend they couldn’t think of anything other than running into the street to look for help.  A lot of times people get scared just because they’re not trained.” “I felt pretty calm about the whole thing,” says Jarvis. “Part of my back story is I've been in a lot of these types of houses. I’m very comfortable with going into these kinds of situations.” With his own history of addiction, Jarvis has been working with people in recovery for years, starting in Hinton and Edson before moving to Edmonton.  Since moving to Edmonton a few years ago, he made the shift in careers to focusing on this kind of work full time after losing a friend of 30 years to a relapse and overdose in December of 2020. “Through some prayer, after that, I called Roland, Hope Mission’s Crisis Diversion Supervisor, and said ‘I’m ready to come on board’,” he says.  Jarvis has been with Hope Mission full time for over a year now.  While doing this kind of work can be incredibly stressful and burnout takes its toll, knowing that the work is saving lives makes all; the difference. “A little over six months ago I was off Whyte Ave. on a side street and I saw a guy on the ground and he was overdosing so we revived him and got him in the back of the ambulance,” Jarvis recalls.  After the man was revived, he shared his story with the man and they prayed together. “Months later, I met this one individual that’s in the men’s group and some other groups, and he just got his six month chip,” he says.  ‘I know you,’ he says, and tells me he was  trying to connect with me. He was the individual I revived on Whyte Ave. We shared and prayed, not knowing he came to Christ in the back of the Hope Mission van, and since then he hasn’t used. He goes to lots of meetings and church groups with me now.” Jarvis credits interactions like these with helping him keep doing the work he’s doing.  “At that time, I was finishing my studies to be an addictions counselor and was hitting burnout. Seeing people turn their lives around after coming so close to losing them makes all the difficult work worthwhile.” “It’s a lot of work and straining but so rewarding,” he says. The rewards are far greater than everything else.” The 24/7 Crisis Diversion program is a collaborative partnership with Boyle Street Community Services, Canadian Mental Health Association (211 program), HOPE Mission, and REACH Edmonton with stakeholders from Edmonton Police Service and Alberta Health Services Emergency Medical Services. For more information about Crisis Diversion, click here.

As refugees from Afghanistan arrive in Edmonton, play is helping families adjust to their new lives in Canada.  Every weekday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., more than 60 kids and 30 parents gather to play games, get settled and begin their healing journeys. It’s part of a new program by Free Play for Kids to give new Afghan refugees a place to go with structured games and activities during the crucial just-arrived period before they are attending school. “Right now we’re in the middle ground because they've arrived here but don't have schools or homes yet,” says Tim Adams, Executive Director of Free Play. “We’ve been running the program for about six months.”  While many recently-arrived families are living in hotels, their children are able to get on a program-run bus in the morning and head to the facility where they can participate in organised sports and begin their settlement journey.   The effect the programming has on the families is positive to say the least. “It’s amazing, seeing them become more comfortable with our staff, and seeing their communication,” says Tim . Rabie Al Taye, a youth leader and soccer coach with the program, says he’s seen firsthand the positive effects sport can have.  “I believe in this program because I used to be a refugee, and I know exactly how they feel and what they need,” says Rabie.  The program introduces the kids to many sports, including football, soccer, and hockey. “The aim is for kids to have fun and then they can develop their skills and their habits and from the other side,” says Rabie. “We know they are refugees coming from their country and need a safe space to join other people and make friends.” With regular access to the program, families attending often see drastic personal changes in a short period of time.  “At the beginning of the program, many of the boys and girls are shy and cannot express themselves and don't want to play or share,” says Rabie. “Our goal is to help them join in and after a few days they start sharing, now they are superstars and they want to play.” Encouraging the children to move from shy and closed off, to ready to play, is essential to integrating and healing from the intense experiences they have gone through.  “Youth sports like hockey, they don't have that in Afghanistan. So this gets them familiar with the sports and especially the teamwork after many years of war,” says Rabie. Even playing on mixed teams is an adjustment for the youths, who may have lived with strict gender rules before their arrival in Canada.  “ They come and play and express themselves,” he says. “We see how happy they are.” Parents see the good the program is doing for their children, who have just lived through a significant life trauma.   “We have very good feedback from the parents about the kids' behaviour changing in the home after the program,” says Rabie.  The parents were so impressed, they wanted to participate themselves, which led to a separate program for adults.  “When the women saw that their kids could go and have a space to express themselves, at the beginning, all of them asked if they could come and join this program,” says Rabie.  The program, which is funded by Jumpstart, aims to support Afghan refugees in these practical ways, while families settle into Edmonton and begin their new Canadian lives.  For more information about Free Play for Kids, visit https://freeplayforkids.com/

Substance abuse can cost people everything, including their lives, and a local traveling exhibit is hoping to bust the myths around who addictions affect. The local  project was inspired by the Opioids Don’t Discriminate project out of Strathcona County in 2018.  “A couple of  people had seen the Strathcona County exhibit and thought we should do something like this in Edmonton,” says Sofia Alani, Project Manager at REACH Edmonton.  “It was very well done. They won a ton of awards and received a lot of positive feedback.” The Edmonton project is a partnership between the City of Edmonton, University of Alberta, MAPS Alberta, and a wide array of health, education, and social serving partners.  Faced with the choices of bringing the existing exhibit to Edmonton or recreating a similar one, it was decided to create a new campaign with a wider scope.  “We decided to focus not just on opioids,” says Alani. “Substance use looks many different ways in Edmonton, with high use of meth and alcohol as well. The stories that are shared through the exhibit are based on real stories from the community, and were created in collaboration with six storytellers, making their stories the focus of the exhibit. “We wanted to focus on the narratives and peoples’ lived experience rather than the specific substance,” says Alani. “Our main focus was on developing empathy for those who use substances, to create points of connection where people reading these storytellers’ experiences could see themselves. We also wanted to include information on how substances affect the brain and how addiction is a form of mental illness with many contributing factors. It’s not a moral failing on someone’s part. We focused on stigma vs. connection and community vs. isolation. All those things that look at addiction through a holistic, community lens.” Essentially, the exhibit was co-designed with the storytellers who shared their experiences.  Over the two-year process of creating the project, one of the main goals was ensuring that those who were willing to share their stories had a sense of ownership in the exhibit.  “We wanted to make sure we told the stories in a respectful way and that the storytellers had agency and say over how their stories were shared. The co-design process was one of the most amazing parts of the exhibit for me.” she says.  Planning a public exhibit in the middle of a global pandemic, however, presented special challenges.  “Obviously Covid was the biggest challenge,” says Alani. “It delayed the exhibit for a year, and prohibited meeting with the committee and storytellers in person.” The process of creating the exhibit was also educational for the organizers.  “I learned a lot about the importance of creating connections,” says Alani. “Every storyteller had a point in their journey where connection was a deciding factor in their recovery. Through them sharing their vulnerability and strength with us, we hope that we will create more connection and more empathy for those who use drugs. We hope that this will be a good example of the importance and responsibility of community care..” After launching at the Edmonton Public Library in November, 2021, the exhibit is now headed on the road, and is available to be booked as a traveling exhibit. More than 400 people filled out evaluations after seeing the exhibit in November, and the feedback was exceptionally positive.  Alani is hopeful the exhibit will continue to build empathy across the communities it visits.  “The  biggest thing we want to build is empathy and compassion for people,” she says.  “Understanding that when you see someone with substance issues, there’s more to it. There are so many interconnected issues.” For more information about the exhibit, including how to bring it to your community, click here: https://addictionsdontdiscriminate.com/

While many Edmontonians largely spent the past two years at home, people working with vulnerable community members have been filling in gaps and acting as essential extra eyes and ears on the street.  Molly Mcguire, a Crisis Diversion Worker with Boyle Street Community Services, has been doing this work since 2019.  “We try to help the vulnerable population and we advocate on their behalf and support them in a non-judgemental way to empower them and meet them where they’re at,” says Molly.  “Many of them are suffering from addiction and don't have supports in place or housing.” The 24/7 Crisis Diversion program is a collaborative partnership with Boyle Street Community Services, Canadian Mental Health Association (211 program), HOPE Mission, and REACH Edmonton with stakeholders from Edmonton Police Service and Alberta Health Services Emergency Medical Services. Crisis Diversion teams help people experiencing non-emergency crises get to a safe place, freeing up police and emergency medical services to respond to more critical events. By doing this work, the 24/7 Crisis Diversion program contributes to addressing issues of poverty, mental health and addiction by helping people connect with the best available resources to support their needs. “We take a lot of calls away from EPS and EMS. A bridge gap between social services and emergency services,” says Molly. This is especially important during the pandemic, when emergency services are under even more extraordinary strains than normal. In addition to diverting calls from emergency services, the teams are able to be extra eyes on the street, in areas that are often overlooked.  “One day we were driving around the back alleys and we just saw to the right, cardboard boxes stacked up. It kind of looked like someone was living there so we decided to check it out,” she recalls. “We could clearly see that the client was overdosing and needed medical attention. We did administer naloxone to him three times and he came back around and was able to talk to us, but I'm sure if we didn’t pull that barricade down he probably would have died and no one would have known which would have been really sad.” After providing the client with emergency help in the moment, the team was able to leave him in the hands of EMS. During the pandemic, fewer people were out and about in the downtown core, and Molly feels sure the teams filled in the gaps as fewer concerned citizens were around to call for help in emergencies.  “He wasn’t the only person we helped in that area,” she says. “That was definitely a really crazy day.” “It’s important for them to have time to do those drive-arounds and not always be on calls,” says Claire MacDonald, Project Coordinator for 24/7 Crisis Diversion at REACH Edmonton.  “We average about 1400 calls a month, it ebbs and flows, and we see anywhere between 1,200 and 1,600 dispatches.” In addition to those specific calls, teams engage with upwards of 2,000 more people every month, above and beyond specific requests, and all these community member engagements are expected to increase as the weather gets warmer.  “I think it would be a lot harder on EPS and EMS if this program wasn't here,” says Molly. “A lot of calls we get, they would be taking because people would have no one else to call.” “I think it’s really important because we do find a lot of people who might not have been found,” she says.  While the job can have intensely challenging moments, there are joys to be found in serving others.  She recalls one client, who was a minor, had been banned from local youth shelters and had nowhere to go.  “It was pretty clear he didn’t have supports in the city, so we called Child and Family Services and really advocated for someone to find him a spot,” says Molly. “We just had to get him to wait with us. Hope Mission gave the youth a meal and Miram’s Footsteps transported him to the youth shelter in Camrose, where he was able to stay for the foreseeable future. “We’re not just going to leave him at an LRT station,” she says. “Those days, it makes me feel very accomplished because I know that person’s going to be safe. At the end of the day I know the person who was in distress is no longer in distress.”  At the end of each day, Molly and her colleagues are spreading a little more humane and compassionate care around the city, and they hope that attitude is contagious. I know a lot of people aren’t comfortable approaching the vulnerable population. But they’re the same as you and me, going to Tim’s to buy a coffee. It’s just their appearance sometimes people are responding to,” she says. “They're human too. I’m sure if you go say hello and ask if they’re ok you would see that.” If you see someone in non-emergency crisis, call 211 and press 3 to reach the Crisis Diversion Team. For more information about Crisis Diversion, click here.

Getting back on your feet after years of hard times can be challenging. Often what’s needed is just for someone to give you a chance.  And that’s what the Mustard Seed’s SEEDworks program aims to do.  Eric Chiu, Employment Manager at the Mustard Seed, has been running the program with the help of three coaches since 2020.  “SEEDWorks is essentially the social enterprise branch of the Mustard Seed and the employment program specifically,” says Eric. “The main purpose is to help people transition back into the workplace.” The project gives people a fixed-term contract to do entry-level work in the community, with the support they need to help them build the skills they’ll need at a permanent position.  “What we’re doing currently is litter and needle collection in the Chinatown and McCauley area and Old Strathcona,”  says Eric. “In the past we’ve dabbled in some other elements and different ideas, but right now, during covid and slowly post-covid, our bread and butter is helping people to just get out and re-acclimate to the workplace.”  The goal is to see each employee leave the program for permanent work elsewhere.  “We help with resume-building, interview prep, job searching, and also just conversations,” says Eric. “We call ourselves coaches because we want to help empower and equip people with the skills to not only find a job, but hold onto a job.”  The challenges the program’s clients face are varied.  Some of them may not have worked for several years at a time and need to get back into a regular routine or learn new skills like conflict resolution and communication.  “In the larger world, if we don't get along with someone, we can avoid them,” says Eric. “In the workplace we can’t quit a job just because we don't like someone. So SEEDworks is a safe environment for people to learn, experience, and grow. If there’s a problem we say ‘How can we better manage the situation? You didn’t make it to work on time, so what are your bus routes? What do we need to do to get you to work on time?” By providing these contract employees with a safe place to make mistakes and learn from them, lifelong skills can be built and retained.  “Once they’re in a more long term employment, they've got the skills to manage and address any of the hardships that come up on a day-to-day basis that we all face,” says Eric.   The program wouldn’t be what it is without the support of the City of Edmonton, through Capital City Cleanup, and local community revitalization boards in McCauley, Chinatown, and Old Strathcona.  “They’re the ones who fund it,” says Eric. “It's a service agreement based on a certain number of hours on each day.”  While earning an income and practicing skills, the program employees are able to engage their passion for giving back. “We’ve seen numerous individuals that have stayed at our shelters go through this program,” says Eric. “They’ve had unstable housing, they haven’t worked for several years whether because of addictions or mental health at times, or they’ve been victims of domestic abuse and were fleeing violence.” In these complex situations, getting back on your feet can seem like an insurmountable challenge. “We had one person who hadn’t worked in over 20 years,” says Eric. “They didn’t even know where to begin. They had goals in mind but they didn't know what it’s like to be in the workplace, what kind of skills are necessary. That’s where the coaching comes in, we show them what to expect through working for SEEDworks.”   They worked with the program for about six months and eventually found secure employment elsewhere.  “We’re going to walk alongside them in going through an application, interviews, and background checks,” he explains. “How do we discuss their past with a future employer, if they ask about a record check? How do they navigate an HR onboarding process, bank accounts, SIN number? Through all these things, we’re here to walk beside them.” The program also ensures they know what their rights are.  “Sometimes with the population we serve they might not have that experience and might not be treated in a legal or fair way,” says Eric.  The program works. People adjust to the new environment and eventually find work in the community.  “Over the past two years, 14 participants had been formally part of the program,” says Eric. “Of those, 12 moved onto sustainable employment opportunities upon or shortly after graduation.” Eric emphasizes that this program works because of the partnership.  “We have really strong partners who believe in the program,” he says. “We’re performing a service that’s required, it’s not a make-work project. It’s a natural, organic fit between the business associations.”

When vulnerable people are facing a crisis, there is often a brief period of time before that crisis becomes an emergency, and that’s where 24/7 Crisis Diversion comes in. Crisis Diversion teams help people experiencing non-emergency crises get to a safe place, freeing up police and emergency medical services to respond to more critical events. This work involves a large volume of calls every day, and 211 helps navigate the journey from the initial call, to getting the client the help they need. “Here at 211, we’re the dispatch or intake part of the process,” says Holly Hardison, Community Resource Specialist with 211. “It’s an easy number to remember: 211 and press 3 and you’ll be on the line with one of us.” If you see someone in non-emergency distress and call 211, Holly and her colleagues will assess what you’re seeing and, if needed, dispatch a team. While partners such as police and emergency services can connect with Crisis Diversion directly, 211 handles all the calls that come from the public.  The service handles dispatch for Crisis Diversion, but that is just part of the work they do, acting as an information referral hub for all kinds of services for people in widely varying levels of distress. Crisis Diversion calls make up about 25% of the calls 211 receives.  “I think it’s a great fit to do dispatch and intake for Crisis Diversion because of the amount of crisis intervention training and trauma informed training we have in order to do our regular jobs, and those skills are transferable,” says Holly. “Communicating with someone in crisis is delicate at the best of times, so having someone on the line that’s trained in crisis intervention is a benefit to the service. If 211 receives a call for Crisis Diversion that doesn’t really fit the mandate of the program, they can refer to the resources that are appropriate for the situation, rather than declining help and turning them away without alternatives. “They get 2500 calls a month and only about 1600 of them are for Crisis Diversion and about 800 of those get dispatched,” says Claire MacDonald, Project Coordinator for 24/7 Crisis Diversion at REACH Edmonton.  “They do a lot of triage and navigation on their end.  Without this specialized ability to handle intake and triage, Crisis Diversion would run as smoothly.  “Without 211, I don't know that we could be as coordinated as a  program,” says Claire. “Partners would have to be more siloed to get the work done. With 211 they’re able to coordinate the efforts between the teams. There would be more people in the community lost without 211.” While often the calls for Crisis Diversion are coming from concerned community members who are witnessing someone in distress, sometimes they are talking directly to the person in crisis.  “Recently, someone had fled a violent situation, so they had popped into a church and were scared, terrified, of police,” says Holly.” Being able to have a speakerphone conversation with her and the people with her made a big difference. We told them what to expect when Crisis Diversion arrives, so they thought, actually, this doesn't sound so scary.” “It’s tough, but I think, when you’re in a crisis, having someone who’s calm and helpful to talk to is a raft in the rough seas,” she says. These days stick with Holly, as she knows that that person is being connected to the help they need. “When you’re able to turn it around and you’ve got them to accept help, it feels like you’re seeing that light at the end of the tunnel, hearing hope in people’s voices,” she says.  Holly encourages Edmontonians to take the time to call 211 if they see someone in non-emergency distress.  “I think it’s important to realize that it's a human being on their worst day, a human who has a story and matters to someone and they need dignity and respect and compassion now more than ever,” she says. “ I get that people don’t want to get involved, but if you call us you’ve done something, and it’s not nothing. We’ll sort it out.” “Just be compassionate, and remember that we’re all a part of this community” she says. “It doesn’t cost any money to pick up the phone and call.” The 24/7 Crisis Diversion program is a collaborative partnership with Boyle Street Community Services, Canadian Mental Health Association (211 program), HOPE Mission, and REACH Edmonton with stakeholders from Edmonton Police Service and Alberta Health Services Emergency Medical Services. For more information about Crisis Diversion, click here.

When someone in Alberta experiences a hate incident, where can they find support? What can bystanders do to help?  These are some of the questions the Response Model to Hate Incidents in Alberta aims to answer. The Response Model for Hate Incidents in Alberta was an initiative led by the Alberta Coalitions Creating Equity (CCE) with support provided by the Alberta Human Rights Education and Multiculturalism Fund. The five municipalities of the CCE (Wood Buffalo, Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary, and Lethbridge) and their surrounding areas worked together to develop a mechanism to provide service providers with tools and guidelines to effectively respond to incidents of hate.  “In our work with CCE, we found that a lot of people were not reporting hate incidents because they didn't know where to go for support, or they weren’t sure they were being discriminated against because they’re not aware of the law in Canada and what a hate incident looks like,” says Krystell O’Hara, who was the CCE Coordinator for Wood Buffalo during the creation of the model.  “To gather information we decided to launch a survey to identify where these incidents happen, what populations or demographics are affected, so we asked a series of questions for us to be able to develop a tool that's for the community and by the community,” she says.  “We used a human-centred design process to develop a tool that could help people do several things.” The CCE Response Model to Hate Incidents aims to be both an educational resource and an easily accessible tool for people who may be the target of a hate incident. “Safety looks different for every person, so we understood having different ways for people to seek support was important,” says Krystell.  The Response Model includes a flowchart to help victims reach out for support, and navigate the experience in the safest way possible. In addition to educating the public and victims, it contains specific guidelines for service providers that support people who have been involved in a hate incident.  “We got a lot of responses from service providers saying they didn’t know how to properly support people experiencing hate,” says Krystell. “So what was happening was, someone would report an incident, and they’re sent agency to agency, and that person has to reshare the traumatic story over and over without any help because the service providers didn’t have trauma-informed guidelines or were unaware of their own unconscious biases.” The guidelines offer direction for service providers and also peer-to-peer support in how victims of hate incidents need to be supported in a trauma-informed way.  Krystell is hopeful that the model will be used effectively in communities across Alberta.  “Now we want the local communities to utilise the resource and to develop their own more localised responses,” says Krystell. “We included recommendations for different targets based on what we’d heard from people but also what is being done by the American organisation, Not In Our Town, because they’ve been implementing a response model for a long time.”  Krystell is hopeful the Response Model will lead to different organisations and communities mobilising and responding to hate incidents in an effective way.  “I think if people were more aware of this, people in general and also service providers would be able to support people in their communities in a trauma-informed way,” says Krystell. “So we’re trying to get the word out now.” The complete CCE Response Model to Hate Incidents can be found here:  http://coalitionscreatingequity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Hate-Incident-BookJuly2020_LO.pdf

After one year in action, a newly-funded position is making an impact in the lives of vulnerable women trying to escape human trafficking and sexual exploitation. The position came about after the pandemic highlighted the extent of specific gaps in services for people in these dangerous situations. “In March, 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, just as everything was closing down, two separate women walked into EPS police headquarters on separate occasions and asked for help while a third woman was referred by a police officer from another city,” says Kate Quinn, Executive Director at the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE). “This is highly unusual, that women would walk into the police station asking for help because they’re being trafficked,” she says. Traditionally, detectives would call me or CEASE Project STAR victim advocates, knowing that we would mobilize quickly to find safety for women in those circumstances.  When the detectives called, the harsh reality was that it was the toughest time for domestic violence shelters as they tried to figure out how to negotiate the impact of the pandemic.  There was one bed left in one shelter for the woman at highest risk of danger.  The following week, the same shelter opened a bed for the second person.   The third person was at lower risk and so we called upon a hotel and worked with their staff to provide safety.  ”  We took on the role of supporting the first two women who were now stuck in their rooms because of Covid-19. The shelter staff were busy meeting the needs of the other women and children and some staff were away due to the pandemic.  “Our two Advocates were in quarantine, so, the detectives got her to the shelter and I went to visit, bringing in a sim card and phone charger, craft supplies, cigarettes, books, and flowers to ease the isolation” says Kate. “I could only meet them at the front door.” The sim card was to prevent the trafficker from contacting the woman in highest danger.  The pandemic made visible all the gaps and strains on our safety systems for women.  “I wanted to make it sustainable. There has to be a better way to do this,” says Kate.  “What if I was sick? Or on holiday? And these urgent calls came in? We needed a more systemic response that would allow us to integrate and coordinate more quickly.” Prior to all this, CEASE had been responding to these needs for years, so the organization was building on a very strong foundation of knowledge and experience.  “When I saw a call for proposals from the federal ministry of Public Safety, I called Jan Fox from REACH Edmonton and Pat Vargas, from Catholic Social Services, who sit on the Alberta Human Trafficking Task Force,” says Kate.  “REACH is our community safety backbone organization and I knew Pat from her years as the Executive Director of A Safe Place women’s shelter.  She had created protocols to support trafficked women in shelters and help them move from shelter to shelter if needed for safety,” she explains. “By early April, the EPS detectives had shifted to the ALERT Human Trafficking Counter Exploitation Unit and I contacted them as well and said: shall we throw our hat in the ring?”  ALERT is a specialized police team, made up of Edmonton Police Service and RCMP members, that conducts criminal investigations specific to human trafficking. While ALERT’s dedicated investigations have proven successful in targeting perpetrators, the Safety Network Coordinator provides a compassionate and fulsome response to survivor supports. A key aspect of the proposal was the integration with law enforcement and community to improve responses to victims/survivors of sex trafficking. When the funding was secured, the position of Safety Network Coordinator was created. “We know we have domestic violence shelters and homeless shelters that are almost always full and don’t have the specialized support these women need,” says Kate. “That’s why we created the Safety Network Coordinator position. We also envisioned working with community partners to strengthen and increase the safety network.  When people ask for help, it’s vital to be able to respond with a safe place.” The woman who has been filling that position for about a year now has seen first hand the impact it has on preventing vulnerable women from slipping through the cracks.  It’s not an outreach position, but a doorway to wider supports and a bridge to law enforcement.  “I’ve been in this position since April of 2021,” she says. “I’m not a member of law enforcement so if someone tells me something, anything that's' shared, we can have a discussion about where the survivor wants the info to go.” She is able to connect the survivor to either law enforcement, social services or both, giving them a stronger sense of agency and control when coming out of an exploitative situation. “I provide support throughout any investigation, but in addition, there’s no requirement that someone has an investigation or is connected to ALERT to work with me,” she says. “And that’s where the CEASE side of things comes in.”  If someone is self-referred, she can offer support and systematic navigation to them as well as talking to law enforcement or ALERT if they’d like to report their experience. But they’re not pressured or required to do so.  “We’re just trying to connect them to other organizations and appropriate services,” she says. “No one organization is able to do it all by themselves.” Her position is essentially a Connector role between social services and law enforcement.  “What we’re doing is enhancing the safety network around these vulnerable clients,” says Kate.  The new position is able to fill gaps by connecting services from law enforcement and social agencies to the people who need them, across different cities, regions and provinces. “We’ve helped people get home to other cities or other provinces, where they’re safe,” says Kate. “We want to be more sustainable, integrated, comprehensive, and coordinated.” This is the work CEASE has been doing for many years, but now is more appropriately resourced.  “She is only one person and her job, primarily, is to be that first responder,” says Kate. “The position is co-located with CEASE so she doesn’t have to do everything alone, there’s a community of expertise around her.” The position in Edmonton is funded until March 2024 and is part of the Safer Way Out project, which is guided by lived experience and Indigenous wisdom.

REACH Board Member Erum Afsar is a strong believer in the value of governance boards and the real difference they make in the community.  “I’ve been a long-time volunteer on various boards and committees,” says Erum. “I’m passionate about making communities safer for everyone, which fits with REACH's mandate and the work they do.” REACH plays a vital role in having those important conversations about community safety and wellness, she says.  “They’re bringing people and agencies together to create change.” Erum has plenty of experience serving on boards and currently sits as the municipal councilor for Kananaskis.  “I understand the interaction between safety and decision makers within the city and how that works,” she says. “I’ve dealt with different areas of community safety, like emergency services, budgets, taxation. These are intrinsic pieces of what it takes to run a municipality and I have a different lens having worked with non profits like Islamic Family Social Services Association (IFSSA) and the YWCA.  For Erum, serving the community is a lifelong commitment that was founded in childhood.  “I was raised in a family that valued comm service,” she says. “It’s a personal value of mine to always be serving or giving back to the community in a positive way.” Erum is positive that volunteer boards do make a difference. “People can have a real impact by volunteering on boards and it’s always nice to work with like-minded people,” she says, “That’s the piece that’s really motivating. One person can do some things, but many people pooling their energies together can affect a bigger change.”

When Shemine Gulamain joined REACH Edmonton’s Board in 2021, she was excited to work with an organization with long-range goals.  “I really appreciate REACH’s goal of building a safer city in over one generation,” says Shemine.” “Being an active member of the community, volunteering on the board,  is one of the best ways to engage and reach goals such as this one.” As the demographics of the Edmonton region continue to shift and change, Shemine believes that the connections and relationships REACH supports are vital to growing in a way that serves all Edmontonians.  “I really think that being able to create networks and bring people together with common goals and initiatives is critical to engage in multicultural activities and allow the community to feel safe and heard and seen,” she says.  Supporting families is an essential part of creating a wider culture of health and equality across the city, says Shemine.  “I come from a child and youth care and therapeutic recreation background and those experiences are situated in working with children,youth,families, and communities,” she says.  Shemine believes her multifaceted background and life experiences are assets that will help her serve the community on REACH’s board in an effective way.  “I am familiar with the experience of being racialized and marginalized and how that can impact how we see ourselves in the wider community,” she says. “I’m excited to support all the work of REACH, but especially engagement with Indigenous and multicultural communities as well as the neighbourhood organizing initiatives.”

When the pandemic forced schools to move to online learning in 2020, newcomer families who were already facing barriers now faced a whole new set of challenges.  “I am an educator and was working for Alberta Education when Covid started. One of my roles was as the lead for  student refugee support in the Ministry.” says Dr. Kathy Toogood, the author of a newly-released report called Invoking the Village: Enhancing Collaboration Between Schools and Community Agencies To Support Newcomers. “I’ve been involved with this work for a couple of years in the city,” says Dr. Toogood. “This work supporting refugees is the work of my heart, so after I retired from the government in 2020, I continued to attend these meetings.”  Dr. Toogood was a teacher and principal for more than 20 years, and understands the education system well. Which is why she was an asset to continue to have at the Edmonton Local Immigration Partnership (ELIP) meetings focused on education. “Most of the meetings were about emergent issues, sharing what was happening with Covid,” she says. “Sharing challenges with community groups and knowing what was happening from the school board’s perspective.” Dr. Toogood put together a proposal to study the collaboration going on between immigrant-serving agencies and schools, which was funded by Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). “What we wanted to find out was: how can we deepen this collaboration with schools?” says Dr. Toogood. “The community agency folks were eager to be involved and share their stories.” The aim was to both highlight successes and identify barriers to collaboration. “We wanted to get to the bottom of what was impeding collaboration and that remains the focus,” she says. “But we also wanted to gather stories of success because we knew in some cases collaboration was happening in a really positive way between schools and community agencies.” In Edmonton, both the school boards work with a site-based decision making model, and one of the issues identified was inconsistent collaboration across different schools.  “I had been a principal myself so I understood the advantages and challenges of that model,” says Dr. Toogood. “I think one of the real aims was uncovering the strengths and opportunities in working with community agencies.” “We wanted to be able to say: here are all the things community partners can offer to schools,” she says. “Often teachers or principals might be frustrated because they can’t communicate with the parents. There’s all these people here willing and able to help you understand each other.” One big support is interpretation, translating language and broader cultural understanding. Educating parents about school policies, how schools operate, and broader communication to build understanding so students can learn and be supported in the best way possible. Also educating schools about cultural practices, and understanding the strengths and values that newcomer families come with. This is just one example of identifying resources that a lot of people were not aware of, that schools could call on for help in supporting families.  “I think in many ways the pandemic uncovered some gaps or barriers that were there before,” says Dr. Toogood.  “We saw the challenges of access to space and technology when learning shifted online.  Emergency remote learning revealed that a lot of families didn’t have the technology required, or large families didn’t have enough laptops for their children or enough space for multiple children in different grades to attend school in an effective way.  Without the in-person contact with community partners, that supportive mechanism either broke down or it took a while to catch up with the situation. In response, many community partners partnership shifted their  focus to getting technology in the hands of families. “These are very basic things that we assume people have, so community agencies had to pivot and shift services to address that,” says Dr. Toogood.  “We recognize that there are no easy solutions. There's no one-size-fits-all. This report was meant to be an invitation for people to come together.” The report aimed to identify the services offered by community partners that could be a significant help in communicating with families and keeping the kids engaged in learning.  Dr. Toogood hopes the report will inform the wider education community about the positive potential in collaborating with community agencies.  “We’ve seen what’s possible in some schools, and want to expand that by entering into that dialogue,'' she says.  “I want educators to know there’s help out there. To relieve the pressure on schools and help them be more effective in communicating with families, and engaging students. We want to help students make progress, so that they can thrive and create a bright future for themselves and their families.”

Ethnocultural communities face many barriers and stresses at any time, but many of these challenges have intensified during the pandemic. The Multicultural Health Brokers (MCHB) have been working to bridge these gaps since 1998, and continue to rise to the challenges communities are facing in these challenging years.  “Our role is always to honour and make visible what’s happening in ethnocultural communities,” says Yvonne Chiu, Executive Director of MCHB. “That's why 90% of our staff are members of the communities.” “When Covid hit, we had to step up in several ways,” she says. “Our communities were deeply impacted economically, struggling with food and housing security.” For example, the Co-op’s existing food support program, which was previously serving about 100 families, was suddenly supporting 600 families.  MCHB also stepped in to provide support with visual education, and later on, access to information about vaccines.  “Because our community members often work essential jobs and have higher density living conditions, they have higher levels of covid infection,” says Yvonne. Both language barriers and cultural differences between newcomer and Western communication styles created unique barriers to connecting communities with reliable information about Covid-19 and vaccines.  “We were running pop-up vaccination services with partners in the community and Alberta Health Services. We’ve been really learning how to do this well,” says Yvonne.  The vaccine pop-up clinics were a resounding success, with about 160 people turning out to get the shot.  “We know our community members listen to certain people. Many communities also want to hear from faith leaders or health workers from their home communities,” she says. “We’re learning how to produce YouTube and audio clips. We're learning fast. By talking to them, we’re able to fill this gap in a critical time in the pandemic.” One of the largest challenges to the work was finding ways to do work that relies on relationship-building while social distancing.   “I think one of the key things isn’t that the needs have shifted, but the needs have just become more intense as covid has carried on,” says Joey Jalal, Managing Coordinator of Youth Programming and MCHB. “It’s been very intense work.” When it comes to something as complex as preventing family violence, an issue as simple as resolving a conflict at school is now much more complicated as both youth and parents are stressed and don’t have the same level of emotional regulation they normally do. This in addition to pre-migration trauma and language barriers that make navigating systems a challenge on the best of days.  “We do our work through that emotional connection that’s based on the understanding of their pre and post migration experience,” says Joey, “Having to create these relationships through a computer screen has been challenging.” Brokers work with a client or family through the whole spectrum of the challenges they’re facing in their life, including housing, schooling, and any other gaps that need to be bridged between the family and the systems they need to interact with.  Because Eden Askale, a Youth Broker with MCHB, is from the Eritrean community, she understands the complexities of connecting with systems as a newcomer.  She’s better able to be that bridge because the family is comfortable with her and they feel that they’re being heard.  “All these services used to be provided in person, but now we work virtually most of our time,” says Eden. “That has affected the relational work we do with our clients, especially with youth. It has been really hard to form that bond and make that relationship work virtually.”  Pre-pandemic, a homework club not only offered support with schoolwork but gave youth an opportunity to talk about any other issues they’re struggling with. These valuable side-conversations are happening less organically in group meetings on zoom.  “It’s just natural to form that relationship in person rather than virtual, but we have to be flexible,” says Eden. “We are still able to do most of our work with them, which is being that bridge for them, with different systems and different aspects of life in Canada.”  MCHB partners with REACH Edmonton on the REACH Immigrant and Refugee Initiative (RIRI).  RIRI aims to support culturally appropriate community building through the natural support model with settlement and broker service systems.  For more information about MCHB, click here .