Comox Valley Community Action Team

Encouraging insights, encouraging ideas

CAT AT-A-GLANCE
Formed in:  2018
Number of members:  25
Communities served:  

Name of Town: Comox Valley,  

Unique features:

Peer lead initiatives and effective street outreach program

A Q&A with Shari Dunnet, Patti Alvarado, Kim Cummings, and David Clarke of the Comox Valley CAT.

“There needs to be a focus on learning what it means to create a friendly space – encouraging insight and ideas,” – Shari Dunnet, Project Coordinator

Members of the Community Action Initiative team sat down with Shari Dunnet, Project Coordinator; Patti Alvarado, Outreach Coordinator; Kim Cummings, Peer Advisor; and David Clarke, Steering Committee Member to discuss the evolution, learnings, and proud moments experienced while working with the Comox Valley CAT. Here’s what they had to say.

CAI: Can you tell us how people with lived or living experience with substance use (PWLLE) are involved in your CAT?
David Clarke (DC): I'm a peer on the Steering Committee for the CAT and it’s great to see peers being encouraged to share ideas. I put forth my idea of the Comox Valley Street Outreach and got $5,000 to launch the program from CAT micro-granting. We have six peers working three two-hour shifts a week connecting with people in the community who need clothes, food, and feminine hygiene products. We have a Facebook group of over 200 members and people are constantly offering donations and asking what the community needs.
Patti Alvarado (PA):
    I brought on a lot of peers from Unbroken Chain, an Indigenized Harm Reduction program, with Indigenous Women’s Sharing Society that I have been running since 2019. It has been a strong and growing partnership that has been collaborative in the sense that it has enabled the CAT to build more connections with peers, specifically Indigenous peers in the community and host International Overdose Awareness Day.
The first process we looked at improving was the inclusion of peers on our working group and the second process was dedicated to bringing on Indigenous peers. That was a gap that was identified after we brought on our first group of peers. There was also a lack of Indigenous representation on our CAT in general. One of the things we focused on when we started was getting PWLLE ready for their interview to be a part of the CAT. There were two interviews held virtually by a panel, which can be extremely intimidating. After the first round of interviews with peers, we worked hard to produce a lower barrier interview process, being mindful that Indigenous peers also experience unique barriers that can prevent them from being able to participate as well as the understanding that our initial process of including peers was high barrier in general. This included advocating for lower barriers like being flexible with interview times, supporting people by practicing, and getting familiar with Zoom. We worked hard to deescalate the interview and we’re still learning how to be peer friendly.
Kim Cummings (KC):
    As peers, many of us grow up experiencing traumatizing events. We developed personality disorders, PTSD, and even, in some cases, brain injuries from physical abuse and all of this goes undiagnosed. This trauma is all wrapped up with the gifts and talents people have. So, when working with peers, it comes with the total package and includes acceptance. It’s not easy bringing peers on board – there’s a lot to consider and this CAT has really worked to develop that safety. There’s a sense of belonging that comes from the gentleness and the gentle ways of Shari and Patti have of working with people and facilitating discussion. A part of me has really been reborn, since I’ve started to feel like I belong.
CAI: Can you tell us about some successful projects that your CAT has celebrated?
PA: Through my peer connections, we were able to unpack what the community needs in terms of safety. The CAT was able to fund an eight-week, pilot project using the Brave App – similar to the Lifeguard App – where you’re able to input your own safety plan and are also able to talk to a live person while using. The unique feature of this app is that the safety plan is highly personalized and offers the option of including emergency services or not, as well as including family, friends, and other contacts to respond in the event of an overdose. The app development is exclusively directed by the input of PWLLE and was successfully piloted with six peers participating. The pilot went really well and soon peers were sharing it with their friends, emphasizing the privacy and personalization of it.
KC:
    I am a PWLLE and I had an idea, proposed it, and the CAT was really supportive and made it happen. I proposed distributing take-home drug testing kits – fentanyl and benzos kits. The plan initially was to only do fentanyl testing, but it became evident that benzos are a huge problem in this area, so I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback. I have given out hundreds of kits, targeting hidden users and recreational users. I pitched the project to my former probation officer, and she thought it was a great idea and brought a sample kit package to her supervisor who also liked it. It’s an easy sell because the numbers speak for themselves.
CAI: What advice would you pass on to another CAT?
Shari Dunnet (SD): Your number one job is to get all the education you can on working with peers. Community meetings are all valuable, but community organizations and government are used to a certain structure, and polite language, expecting everything to be packed up into little boxes. Bringing that expectation to this work can be really damaging, creating trauma, and further stigmatization. This kind of silencing is very subtle, and most people may not even see how it’s traumatizing. There needs to be a focus on learning what it means to create a friendly space – encouraging insight and ideas. This is something we’re struggling through and is always a work in progress.
PA:
    We facilitate a sharing circle at our meetings, to try and shift the power dynamics to give people the space to share. Now we’re using liberating structures to level out power sharing, learning to equalize and deescalate language that is so attached to authoritative structures.

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2020.10.23

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