Outreach
Outreach: Safer Communities, Healthier Lives
Our Outreach Team is committed to promoting safer substance use, sex, and lifestyles by providing the following supports:
- Safer Substance Use Supplies: We offer supplies for safer injection, inhalation, and other forms of substance use to reduce the risk of overdose, infection, and other harms.
- Safer Sex Supplies: We provide free condoms, lube, and other safer sex supplies to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs).
- STBBI Testing and Treatment Support: We offer confidential and accessible testing for HIV, hepatitis C, and other STBBIs, as well as referrals for treatment and care.
- Naloxone Kits: We provide free naloxone kits and training on how to use them to reverse opioid overdoses and save lives.
- Basic Food and Hygiene Supplies: We offer non-perishable food, hygiene kits, and other essentials to improve the health and well-being of our clients.
- Information and Referrals: We provide up-to-date and evidence-based information on substance use, related issues, and referrals to other health and social services.
Our Outreach Team is part of the Calgary Outreach Collective, a group of agencies dedicated to providing street-based outreach support to vulnerable individuals in the downtown core.
To connect with our Outreach Team, please email us at [email protected].
Community Outreach: Bringing Health Education and Support to You
Our Community Outreach Team is dedicated to providing in-person outreach and support to key populations, particularly the 2SGBTQ+ community, in various settings, including:
- Partner Agencies
- Bars and Clubs
- Post-Secondary Institutions
- Community Events
Our Community Outreach Team offers the following services:
- HIV/HCV/STI Information: We provide accurate and accessible information on HIV, hepatitis C, and other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections.
- Accessible STBBI Testing and Treatment: We offer free and confidential testing for HIV, hepatitis C, and other STBBIs, as well as referrals for treatment and care.
- Supplies: We provide free supplies, such as condoms, lube, and naloxone kits, to reduce the risk of harm associated with substance use and sex.
Our Community Outreach Team has attended various events, including Pride Week Events, Telus Spark After Dark, and the Calgary Kinky Flea Market. We also participate in International Overdose Awareness Day events and other community engagement days.
To coordinate attendance of our Community Outreach Team at your event, please email [email protected].
Safelink Alberta's Evidence-Based Model Promotes Health, Dignity, and Community Well-Being
We work with individuals and their communities to minimize any negative health or social outcomes associated with sexual activity or substance use to improve their overall quality of life.
We use evidence-based public health approaches to prevent HIV, hepatitis C, and other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections.
- We recognize that complex social structures, such as poverty, classism, racism, white supremacy, colonization, trauma, social isolation, health inequities, sex-based discrimination, and other social inequalities, influence health outcomes for individuals. These forces affect people’s vulnerability to, and capacity for, navigating the risks that may be associated with their experiences.
- The foundation of our work is rooted in dignity and human rights for everyone. We recognize that choice and autonomy are basic human rights
- We encourage self-empowerment by meeting people where they are at, sharing education and resources, building relationships, and promoting autonomy so people make informed decisions and lessen potential harms to self and the broader community.
- Supply distribution, including sterile syringes and pipes, naloxone kits, and safer sex supplies, combined with accessible education focused on safer ways to use these items, is proven to be an effective strategy to reduce STBBI transmission.
- Our work includes the active engagement of people with lived and/or living experience to advise our practices and programs. We believe that people are experts in their own lives and their own experiences and that, when offered meaningful engagement opportunities, that expertise can be used to create impactful change within their community.
- We acknowledge that individual change is not a linear process, but a dynamic, incremental evolution of self-discovery and transition. Therefore, an adaptive and innovative response from service providers must be continually practiced to effectively meet community members where they are at during each stage of their journey.