Women’s Shelters Canada (WSC) launched a Community of Practice (CoP) with 41 shelter workers, from 25 VAW shelters and transition houses (THs), in eleven different provinces and territories that are working to adopt a harm reduction model and reduce barriers to service at their shelter, and who want to work with and learn from other shelters on this journey.
VAW shelters and transition houses across Canada have been seeing increasing levels of complexity in their work as they support women who are not only fleeing violence, but also dealing with challenges related to substance use and mental health. From 2022-2024, Women’s Shelters Canada hosted a Community of Practice on Harm Reduction & Lowering Barriers to Service to support a group of 25 shelters as they worked to reduce barriers and adopt a harm reduction approach.
Over the course of two years, this group met regularly online and once in-person to exchange ideas and share promising practices, learn from experts, and work towards actions that they had identified.
Women’s Shelters Canada and CoP participants created the following resources to help share the lessons and practices they identified during their discussions with other shelters:
A report that summarizes lessons learned and includes helpful tips, case studies, and resources
A resource list
A brief resource with tips on preventing and responding to overdoses
A webinar on promising practices in harm reduction for VAW shelters in Canada
A webinar on preventing, preparing for, and responding to overdoses and other critical incidents
A webinar on keeping children and parents safe in the context of harm reduction
This Community of Practice was generously funded by the Shoppers Foundation for Women’s Health.