News
January 05, 2023
Street Reach
Vision: A downtown Squamish neighbourhhood where people know each other by name and feel safe.
Street reach is a community-building initiative with the aim of enhancing the health and wellness of unsheltered individuals by:
- Making connections between people
- Providing resources to unsheltered individuals such as storage and supplies
- Hosting community dialogues
- Building inter-agency collaboration
- Reducing stigma through education about the causes of homelessness
Street Reach has two components:
- Street Reach Volunteer Team
- Community Engagement
Street Reach Volunteer Team
Ambassadors for compassion: The Street Reach Volunteer Team walks the downtown neighbourhood to communicate and build relationships with residence.
- provide a visible presence in the downtown neighbourhoods
- provide friendly faces with whom folks can engage
- provide harm reduction supplies, water, food, and other supplies
- check on the well-being of under-housed individuals
- promote a sense of caring and compassion
- Provide a listening ear for all including business owners, residents, and users of public spaces.
The team has interagency support from RCMP, Vancouver Coastal Health, District of Squamish, Squamish Nation, Squamish Community Action Team, and the Squamish Public Library.
Be a Street Reach Volunteer
All community members are welcome to volunteer. Training is provided. All shifts are conducted in teams.
Street Reach Community Engagement
- Hosting conversations about community challenges and experiences with a diverse range of community members
- Community events and activities that bring people together to learn, have fun and share a passion
- Provide training opportunities that are open to all and increase understanding of trauma and harm reduction
- Open-invitation activities to engage people with lived experience, neighbours, and residents of downtown Squamish.
About the project:
This initiative is a project Squamish's Community Resilience Committee and is funded by a Strengthening Communities Grant.
The Community Resilience Committee consists of members from Squamish Helping Hands Society, Sea to Sky Community Action Team, Squamish Library, Squamish Nation, Squamish RCMP, District of Squamish, Vancouver Coastal Health, and local community members.
The Strengthening Communities’ Services program is funded by the Province of BC and Government of Canada under the Safe Restart Agreement. The grant is overseen by the District of Squamish and the project will be managed by Squamish Helping Hands Society, together with other community partners
For more information, Contact Jonathan Hand, Project Manager at jhand@shhs.ca.
