Harm Reduction 3.0: Liberatory Harm Reduction in Practice

This is a 3 day in person training. Harm Reduction is a best practice model for providing services in health care and social service programming for people who are impacted by structural violence including the War On People Who Use Drugs. Rather than focus on individual behaviour, our approach to harm reduction focuses on how systems create and exacerbate harms to people who use drugs and other oppressed groups, often by design and with intent. We will look at how racism and colonialism are built into our institutions, our own roles in these systems, and how to best serve people today while working for systemic change. We know that it is not enough to be non-racist, but that we must actively be anti-racist every day.

Workshop Objectives:
● Introduce The Manitoba Harm Reduction Network, a model of a harm reduction organization
● Increase our knowledge of the role of anti-racism and anti-oppression in harm reduction
● Increase our knowledge of how social structures, systems, policies and practices make substance use harmful including prohibition and colonization
● Increase our knowledge of how social structures impact our substance use decisions
● Challenge our understanding of substance use and “addiction”
● Increase our knowledge of Harm Reduction: definition, examples, principles
● Challenge the concept of ‘non-judgmental care’ & how values and beliefs contextualize our work
● Increase our knowledge of risk-taking & why we engage in behaviours that we know could harm us
● Review the CARES model (Person Centred Care, Advocacy, Referrals, Education, Supply Distribution)

Who should attend:
Community members interested in improving their capacity to work with people impacted by substance use , People who use drugs and other substances , Service providers who work with people who use drugs including: Physicians, EMS, Primary Health Care Staff, Public Health Staff, Acute Care Staff, Mental Health Workers, Home Care Staff, Community Outreach Workers, Addictions Workers, Social Workers, Corrections & Probations, Government & community service workers, outside of health, that work with people who use drugs including: EIA workers, CFS workers, Town employees, Educators, etc.

Registration Info:
This session is 100% Free! Snacks and lunch each day. Please email education@mhrn.ca or tristan@mhrn.ca if you have questions or need additional information.