FUR-EVER LEARNING
Ongoing learning and educational opportunities are incredibly important to us. We recognize that information, language, and research is continuously evolving and we are dedicated to engaging with the most current resources and educational opportunities. This page has been created to share the ongoing learning we found helpful to our growth.
NALOXONE TRAINING
Online visual course for Opioid poisonings assessment and Naloxone administration presented by Towards the Heart.
DEESCELATION TRAINING
De-escalation training to help laypeople recognize and respond to common community crises, and offered some background on the functioning of CAHOOTS as well.
SAFER
SUBSTANCES
Safer substance use and hepatitis C prevention. Guide created by CATIE
HARM REDUX
FUNDAMENTALS
CATIE video series of Harm Reduction Fundamentals
RESOURCES TO BUILD STRONGER COMMUNITIES
Amazing community work is being done across the country and around the world. Much of this learning is found in various spaces. We wanted to create a page of collective ideologies and learning to ease the search of finding some of the best Harm Reduction resources. This page will be updated with various resources as we find them. If you have alternative resources that you felt were helpful and effective in your learning please share through the contact page.
Harm Redux Gear
Quick links to safer techniques of how to use Harm Reduction supplies, prep and tips.
Online Free Courses & tools
Creative Interventions
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO STOP INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE: Creative Interventions was founded to shift education and resources back to families and communities. Established in 2004, the project aimed to place knowledge and power among those most impacted by violence. Creative Interventions sought to make support and safety more accessible, stop violence at early stages of abuse, and create possibilities for once abusive individuals and communities to evolve towards healthy change and transformation.
Harm Reduction Fundamentals
This toolkit provides foundational information on harm reduction for service providers working with people who use drugs (including support workers, outreach workers, nurses and workers with lived and living experience). The toolkit is free to access and is available to anyone to use or share for personal learning, organizational trainings and/or other capacity-building efforts.
Trauma Informed Care (TIC)
The purpose of the Trauma Informed Care (TIC) eLearning series is to provide a foundational understanding of the principles of trauma informed care, and the role it plays in supporting the health and recovery of individuals who have experienced traumatic events.
Theories & Lit
Indigenous Harm Reduction = Reducing the Harms of Colonialism
Mainstream harm reduction practices, such as naloxone distribution and opioid substitution therapies, have been proven to save lives; however, they are narrowly focused on substance using behaviours and do not address the broader social and system-wide issues that contribute to and intersect with substance use for Indigenous peoples in the first place. For Indigenous communities, harm reduction = reducing the harms of colonization.
Moving beyond Four Pillars
With staggering rates of HIV, Hepatitis C, and injection-drug use amongst Indigenous peoples, it is clear that current mainstream models of harm reduction and public health may not be meeting Indigenous peoples where we’re at, or meeting our needs. What could harm reduction look like outside of urban centres in rural, northern and remote communities?
The Revolution will not be Sober
The problem with notions of “radical sobriety” & “intoxication culture”
Authors: Alexander McClelland, Zoë Dodd Date: July 15, 2016
Sober Saviorism Is Killing Drug Users
Like White saviorism, sober saviorism is based on coercion and control. It’s also inherently violent. How can we do better?
Nicole M. Luongo Nov 11, 2020
Principles of Healing-Centered Harm Reduction
Harm reduction is a both a belief in and uplifting of the basic human rights of people who use drugs, which includes practical strategies that address poor public health outcomes associated with drug use. These principles and practices are also applied towards sex work and responses to violence. Harm reduction is a necessary and effective part of the drug use, sex work, and anti-violence care continuum which recognizes and helps accelerate a person’s survival.
Taking Risks is a Path to Survival
Title: Taking Risks is A Path to Survival
Authors: Alexander McClelland, Zoë Dodd Date: October 8, 2017
VIDEO LEARNING
Harm Reduction, Abolition, & Social Work
Shira Hassan is a lifelong harm reductionist and prison abolitionist, Shira has been working on community accountability for nearly 25 years and has helped young people of color start their own organizing projects across the country. Join Shira Hassan for a conversation about Harm Reduction, Abolition and Social Work: Reflections on 25 Years of Resistance and Cooptation. Hosted by Haymarket Books
Zone Of Fabulousness
Vikki Reynolds, who’s an activist and therapist who works to bridge the worlds of social justice with community work and therapy. An adjunct professor, she’s written and presented internationally on her work, responding to the opioid catastrophe, refugees and survivors of torture, and supporting violence, mental health, substance abuse, housing, and shelter counselors in gender and sexually diverse communities. Explore how to find our zone of fabulousness and the power of collective accountability in the face of work experiences that can lead to “burnout”. Look to the additional videos by Vikki Reynolds on this page.
Harm Reduction 101
Experts from several areas of harm reduction discussed the benefits and challenges associated with harm reduction approaches, policies that can advance harm reduction, their personal experiences with harm reduction services and the importance of providing a range of harm reduction services to the public. Panelists spoke to the importance of harm reduction for illegal drug use, sexual health, tobacco use and more.