CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Courtney Crosby doesn’t always feel people are listening when she raises issues of poverty, addictions and mental health.
However, she certainly felt like her appeal for help was heard on the weekend.
Spurred by the City of Charlottetown's decision to close over a culvert used as a shelter by unhoused people, she raised money and collected items this week.
Saturday, she and fellow volunteers set up near the site in Charlottetown, raising over $5,000 for clients of the Community Outreach Centre.
“It was a beautiful feeling all around, like, being on the giving end of it and the receiving end of it and just seeing the joy on people’s faces.”
Crosby is in recovery and advocates for people struggling with mental illness and addictions issues. She says she sometimes wonders if her message is failing to land.
“Sometimes I use my voice and I feel ignored by the people who I feel that I need to be heard by.”
This time, things were different, she said.
Crosby announced the initiative last week on her social media, and people contacted her immediately about helping.
“By the end of the week I was no longer shocked by how much people were willing to donate,. It’s definitely an attribute of the Island – a willingness to give.”
- Courtney Crosby
Jennifer Platts-Fanning was one of them. In past years, she and her children gave out things like socks and gloves in December, she said. But she wasn’t aware of the culvert.
“It was in the news that it had been sealed up by the city. And that’s when I knew that I had to do something more substantial,” Platts-Fanning said. “It was enough to keep me up at night.”
She posted about collecting donations on social media. About 50 people responded right away.
“I was surprised at how many people reached out to me, especially that the vast majority of these people were strangers.”
While still working full time, she spent what extra time she had gathering items, she said.
“I drove around collecting curbside donations from generous Islanders.”
By Tuesday, her car was full and had to be unloaded at the Community Outreach Centre in Charlottetown.
Thursday, she did it all over again.
Saturday, at the culvert, it was filled again. Twice.
It took 30 minutes for an assembly line of 15 volunteers to finally get everything unloaded at the Outreach Centre.
“By the end of the week I was no longer shocked by how much people were willing to donate,” she said. “It’s definitely an attribute of the Island – a willingness to give.”
Next steps
Another resource needed for addictions and housing issues is a safe injection site, said Carah Ross, another of the campaign’s volunteers.
“It provides people a space where, if they are going to use, they are not by themselves,” she said.
Ross is in recovery, too, having spent five years on the streets in Alberta and B.C. Now back on her feet, she was one of this week’s biggest donors.
Safe injection sites provide things like clean needles, condoms, access to health professionals and resources for those looking to get clean, she said.
They also help prevent and treat overdoses, according to the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.
“People can’t get clean if they’re dead,” Ross said. “I am only alive because of Narcan. I was Narcanned twice. One of them was in a safe injection site.”
Narcan (nasal spray Naloxone) is a temporary antidote for opioid overdoses that allows patients time to be taken to a hospital.
Platts-Fanning also supports safe injection resources, noting the tools they offer for harm reduction.
“There’s also social workers there, so if somebody wants to talk about trying to deal with their addiction issues, there’s somebody on site,” she said.
Crosby agrees with her fellow volunteers, though she sees obstacles to safe injection sites happening.
“There’s a lot of stigma around that,” she said. “People think it enables and supports drug use. But if people could get educated enough and read the research and see the facts on what other provinces have went ahead and done this, they would quickly learn that that is the opposite of what it does.”
P.E.I. has had 12 reported opioid overdoses since January. Nine involved fentanyl. Four people died.
