Community Voices
Community Outreach and Harm Reduction (COHR) initiative brings real, raw narratives straight from our community, presenting lived experiences that resonate with courage, resilience, and hope. Journey through perspectives that echo the trials, triumphs, and insights of our community members:
The Breaking Barriers program embodies this step-by-step philosophy, creating pathways to stable housing and employment through a series of training opportunities and community connections.
In the words of our community members:
“Making a difference—by taking one step at a time. Getting a job is one thing. Once you get a job and earn enough money. From there, if there are any houses open then you can move in. Step-by-step change.”
Our participants have expressed the deep sense of pride and purpose that comes with finding employment:
“A job gives me a sense of purpose and pride.”
We leverage the strength of lived experiences, turning them into a powerful tool for connection and empowerment. By offering skill development, resume building, and facilitating connections to job opportunities, we work to see everyone achieve their goals.
Our program focuses on nurturing this innate sense of community by training individuals as peer health workers who help in promoting health, preventing the spread of diseases, and sharing crucial health information in the community.
The love for community and the passion to make a difference shine through in the voices of our participants:
“We’re already doing this kind of work. I love talking to the community, I love talking to people. I love when you can make somebody understand something they’re afraid of.”
Breaking Barriers
Step-by-Step Change
Empowerment Through Employment
Community Connection and Support
We understand the critical role of compassionate employers:
“[I want] an employer to understand that I’m homeless and work with me until something changes.”
Through our ongoing monthly meetings, we are creating a support system where individual barriers to employment are addressed with tailored strategies, fostering a supportive and understanding network.
From January to July 2023, we are humbled to have spoken with 77 unique participants
“It makes you feel good - you’ve done something, accomplished something, and changed things.”
The Breaking Barriers program is fostering a space where individuals can not only envision a brighter future but actively work towards it, one step at a time.
A Compassionate Understanding
The Journey So Far
Moving Forward Together
We invite you to make meaningful connections and to become a part of a community that believes in the transformative power of solidarity, learning, and growth.
“[The program can] make you feel good - you’ve done something, accomplished something, and changed things.”
Through the Breaking Barriers program, we are more than individuals; we are a community moving forward together, one step, one story at a time.
"I don’t have to worry about being judged in any way. They’re very welcoming, very kind to everybody that walks through that door. You feel comfortable when you walk through the door. There’s nothing to worry about."
A Space Without Judgment
"It is helpful to know that there’s people in my corner that are willin’ to have my back no matter what and actually be there... The smallest thing can change the world.. It’s actually holdin’ up to its name, Breaking Barriers."
The Power of Peer Support
"Breaking Barriers has instilled so much confidence in me. Now when I get up in the morning I’m going ‘Okay, what am I gonna get accomplished today?’ When we started this, I didn’t even want to get out of bed... I love who I am today."
"We started out here, we basically set ourself some goals... It just kept me active, motivated, always uplifted. It may not go as fast as you want it to, but you're still getting somewhere, you're still succeeding in something."
Building Confidence and Setting Goals
"I think that Breaking Barriers not only gave me a sense of purpose and worth, it took me to self, and it kept me focused on positivity. Even if that positivity was just helping someone access services or understand how to do the take-home rapid result COVID testing."
Health Access as Purpose
"Having people there in a group setting, socializing, visiting, talking... Just being heard can change a person's day from being really, really crappy and gloomy, and maybe even thinking about killing themselves... Five minutes can change somebody's complete mood, attitude, demeanor, all of it."
Being Heard Can Save Lives
Planting the Seed
"That's really what this program is designed to do, I believe, is take us, sit us down, and go, 'We believe in you. There's a start.' Then it plants that seed, and then the seed grows into a flower, and then a flower grows into a field of flowers... I literally now, when I get up in the morning, I'm going, okay, what am I gonna get accomplished today, versus like when we started this, I didn't even want to get out of bed."
5C Model of Vaccine Decision Making
Vaccine Considerations: A Spectrum of Perspectives
01
Confidence
Our community has different levels of trust towards the health initiatives around vaccination, with some individuals expressing skepticism:
"…the vaccine is a government tool to 'take out the weak and the old and the homeless'" (Unvaccinated person, age 52).
02
Convenience
Making vaccines easily available in familiar places is comforting, a testimony to the efforts to bring resources closer to where people can access them:
"They’ve got the vaccine right there. So that’s helpful, they come to you" (Unvaccinated person, age 57).
03
Communication
The role of dependable information hubs like the HIV Alliance ensures people have access to the facts and information they need to make informed decisions:
"If people want information, [HIV Alliance] has tons of information about [COVID-19] too" (Vaccinated person, age 43).
04
Community
Many have chosen to receive the vaccine out of a sense of responsibility towards their community and to protect their health:
"I think it was socially responsible. I also have some health issues, and some people in my community that have compromised immune systems" (Vaccinated person, age 47).
05
Concern
For others, the pressing matters of daily survival and ensuring basic needs are met take priority over the decision to get vaccinated:
"Just trying to stay alive is a full-time job. Especially when they make you move locations every 3-7 days" (Unvaccinated person, age 46).