Boasting a pair of powerhouse public speakers and promising a solutions-focused conversation that seeks to foster connectivity, enhance knowledge, and inspire collaboration to address shared challenges, ANKORS and the Nelson Fentanyl Task Force are excited to present a free community forum focused on public safety, harm reduction, mental health, and homelessness.
Dubbed Safety First: Restoring Safety, Reducing Harm and Renewing Hope, this extended-lunch and learn-style event will take place on Wednesday, May 28 from noon until 3 p.m. at the UBC Rural Teacher Education Program campus located at 266 Baker St.
The Safety First forum will kick off with two not-to-miss keynote presentations, the first by Corey Ranger, President of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association, Clinical Director of AVI Health and Community Services, current director on the board of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, and a former regional director with Moms Stop the Harm.
Following Ranger will be Guy Felicella, who spent 30 years in the grips of addiction and crime in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside before he was able to make recovery stick. Sober for over 12 years, Felicella now spends his time educating youth and consulting with policymakers on the importance of alcohol and drug prevention and sharing his personal story as a means of championing resilience, advocating for those impacted by addiction, and celebrating the transformative power of human connection.
Turning its attention to the specific challenges Nelson is facing, the second half of the forum will feature a panel of local front-line workers and service providers in a frank discussion of what's working and what’s not working in our current approaches to these issues. Bringing diverse perspectives to this discussion, panellists will explore the goals and outcomes of their programs, reflect on the evolution of their work, and share what they feel is needed now in order to enhance safety and well being for us all. The final half hour of this session will be reserved for questions and comments from community member in attendance.
“We all want the same outcome,” says Cheryl Dowden, executive director at ANKORS, “which is to live in a community that’s safe, and healthy, and where we feel some sense of belonging. And I think we may have lost sight of the common ground we share with that goal, to some degree, which is understandable, as these are complex challenges we face, with the highest possible stakes, so of course emotions sometimes run high. Our hope with this event is that we turn down the temperature a bit so we can find our way back to that common ground and get to work on creating solutions that we all have a hand in and can live with.”
The Safety First forum is a free community event organized by the Nelson Fentanyl Task Force and ANKORS, in collaboration with an array of local stakeholders, business owners, service providers, and people with lived and living experience of substance use, mental health challenges, poverty and/or homelessness.
All are welcome to attend. A soup, salad and sandwich lunch buffet from Waits on Nelson will be provided at no charge. For more information and optional (but strongly encouraged!) registration, please visit https://tinyurl.com/3xwdfpbs or email peer.ankors@gmail.com.
