Frontline training in Nova Scotia

I love the east coast.

We just got back from completing a two-day comprehensive training program for staff at the Ally Centre of Cape Breton. They are a homelessness and addictions support agency with harm reduction services, doing the good work for their community. 30 wonderful individuals spent their time learning how to welcome someone home with dignity, and came away Street Certified.

What does it mean to be Street Certified?

It means understanding power: what it is, how it's used for healthy and unhealthy reasons, how it shows up in the symbols of street life. How to build circles of safety.

It means showing up with care and dignity. How to do good for community members when times are easy to earn trust for when times are hard. How to care for yourself, and build a support team to carry you through those hard times.

It means setting boundaries, and understanding when to be rigid with rules and when to bend them.

It means having radical empathy, towards substance use, hoarding, and even the neighbours and opposition trying to shut your project down. The things that frontline staff will inevitably come across in their work.

It means knowing how to build love, beauty, and hope – understanding the meaning of home, and how to welcome someone who hasn't experienced it for so long.

And it means building your legacy. On your last day in this work, what do you hope the impact of your work to be?

Thank you so much to the ACCB for your tenacity and for your commitment to this work. It was a privilege to spend a few days with your team as you prepare for the journey ahead.

Tony