It's been way too long since I updated this blog!  So many things have been changing in my life lately.  For the past few years I have been working as the Coordinator of the TRIP! Project, a youth-led harm reduction initiative that serves Toronto's diverse dance music communities. It has been such an amazing opportunity to work with TRIP!, especially since I've been with the program as a volunteer since 1999.  Through being in the coordinator role I've had the opportunity to work on some super cool projects, from being apart of the Youth RISE International Working Group, to collaborating with our sister project DanceSafe in the USA. I have learned so much about what youth-led harm reduction programs can look like, and why it's imperative that youth are involved at every step in creating, shaping and maintaining them. Over the past few years we have sprouted so many new initiatives and projects that work to improve the health and lives of young people who use drugs. Many workshops, conferences and trainings later, I am so inspired by the work we've done, and excited about next steps.  

In the last month I have taken a leave of absence from TRIP! to Coordinate the Queen West Harm Reduction Program at Central Toronto Community Health Centre. I am hoping to bring the same innovation to our broader harm reduction services, including better kits, as well as finding better ways to get the word out about our harm reduction services to our target populations.  Every day I learn something new, from how to say crack and heroin in Chinese, to how to pack a pipe!  I am finding ways to integrate my media and research skills into the job already, and we are already looking to experiment with collecting data on mobile phones. We are currently piloting a new software called NEO to log our needle exchange statistics for OCHART. Before NEO we logged everything on paper, so we are saving ourselves hours of work already! The outreach workers still use paper stats, so I'm hoping that if we introduce mobile phones we may be able to save them some time too. Being in this new role is a great challenge, but already I miss working directly with youth!  Still keeping my eyes on the horizon for new opportunities for the future. 

I feel like these next steps in my career will really shape the direction I decide to go in.  I've always been passionate about harm reduction, youth and new media, but the question is what is next?  How do I channel my passions in a direction that will put me where I want to be in the future?  Before working with TRIP! I always thought that in order to make change we had to rally on the outside to transform power.  Now I am all about working from the inside, and collaborating with agencies, governments and international bodies that have the power to make change.  In the future I would love to work for the World Health Organization or UNAIDS in actually shaping some of these polcies that effect service delivery.  I want to use my grassroots experience as fuel for transforming the system itself, advocating for young people who use drugs and their human right to health.