By: Danielle Dufour
Saskatoon’s most vulnerable are no longer receiving support through the non-profit Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR) organization in Saskatoon. Due to a financial shortfall, operations ceased last Thursday.
“The most vulnerable people in our communities deserve the same level of respect and the same level of support than anyone else would get, and that has been ripped away from them completely,” said Monica Stoneham, who worked with Prairie Harm Reduction for four years and was the Director of Youth Services.
PHR was widely known for providing a supervised consumption site and drop-in centre where they would provide beverages and food donations.
“We could test them (the substances) and make sure that they were safe, we would provide clean needles and clean pipes for them to use, and we always had a paramedic on-site to reverse any overdoses that may happen,” said Stoneham.
Stoneham noted that approximately 200 people accessed the drop-in centre daily.
Case managers worked out of the centre, assisting individuals with housing applications, identification (ID), and more.
PHR had a family support apartment building that housed eight families in the city of Saskatoon in situations where the risk of involvement with child and family services created a housing barrier.
Additionally, they provided two visitation suites for supervised visits. “Family support also provided outreach services to over 400 families in the city,” said Stoneham.
Stoneham was responsible for the two youth homes and is uncertain where the youth are going to be displaced to.
“It was youth that everyone else in the province deemed too difficult to house and support, and we provided them with housing,” said Stoneham. “We had great success with those youth.”
She was the very first staff member to work a shift at Esther’s Home, a 5-bed semi-independent residence for female-identifying youth.
“It was extremely hard to see it come to an end; it’s something I never thought that the government would pull funding for housing for high-risk teenagers when they know that they don’t have anywhere else to go,” said Stoneham.
Stoneham would like to know that community members are being properly supported but hasn’t received any answers to how they will be.
“We have been carrying so much of it for so long,” said an emotional Stoneham. “If I could, I would have done this for free.”
Stoneham is one of approximately 150 staff members that have lost their jobs with the closure of PHR.