Photo: Curtis Galbraith

By Shaun Penner/Curtis Galbraith

Northreach Society

Northreach Society moving to new location, no consumption site planned

Jul 9, 2019 | 1:37 PM

The Northreach Society is moving their services to a new location, after the non-profit organization secured committee approval for a development permit for the old Rising Above Furniture store at the Infrastructure and Protective Services Committee meeting today.

The non-profit organization, formerly known as HIV North, which focuses on promoting awareness and delivering HIV prevention and harm reduction programs to the community, will be moving their operations from their location on 102 Street to the other side of downtown on 97 Avenue and 98 Street.

“Our outreach team will be working out of the office, we have a Health Care Navigator, we have Sexual Health Nurses, we have educators,” said Executive Director Melissa Byers. “Our Indigenous Opioid Response Coordinator will be housed in the new space, as well as our overdose prevention programs. Our Intensive Case Management team, our Housing First program, our permanent supportive housing team and then administrative staff.”

This is a location that the organization had originally been looking at alongside the currently displaced Saint Lawrence Centre, in an effort for the two to work together and share the space.

Part of that effort in working together would have meant setting up a permanent supervised consumption site at the location. However, after much pushback from surrounding businesses and residents about the concern of increased crime, loitering and safety concerns if that service were to be operated through that location, Northreach decided to go after the location by themselves, without either of the consumption site or Saint Lawrence Centre.

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“Initially, we were thinking of potentially putting the Supervised Consumption Site there, should the Saint Lawrence Centre be in the space,” said Byers. “However, looking deeper into it, we realized it wasn’t the best spot for it.”

Byers says now that they will not be going in with the Saint Lawrence Centre, the organization will continue it’s work on educating the public about the Opioid Crisis and vulnerable populations.

“Our services are naturally moving towards… training and development and consultancy roles,” said Byers. “This space provides us opportunities to inform and educate community in greater ways and hold workshops and educational sessions.”

Byers says they plan on sprucing the place up by giving it a new paint job and planting some trees.