Frontline Worker Advisory Group (FLAG)
Bobby J., Soul Space Co-Creator, Peer Support Worker
Bobby is a residential school and long-term street survivor and drug user who has reversed over 20 overdoses and trained numerous people in Naloxone.. Today he is living in recovery and is a practicing Buddhist. He is a founding member of Overdose Prevention Ottawa, which opened Ottawa’s first overdose prevention site in 2017, and was featured in the documentary Blue Roses that examines palliative care in rooming houses. Bobby J received the Raffi Balian award in 2017 recognizing his many years of volunteer work with the NESI program at Somerset West Community Health Centre, and the Transformative Change Award (on behalf of Overdose Prevention Ottawa) by the Alliance for Healthier Communities in 2018.
Bobby is a residential school and long-term street survivor and drug user who has reversed over 20 overdoses and trained numerous people in Naloxone.. Today he is living in recovery and is a practicing Buddhist. He is a founding member of Overdose Prevention Ottawa, which opened Ottawa’s first overdose prevention site in 2017, and was featured in the documentary Blue Roses that examines palliative care in rooming houses. Bobby J received the Raffi Balian award in 2017 recognizing his many years of volunteer work with the NESI program at Somerset West Community Health Centre, and the Transformative Change Award (on behalf of Overdose Prevention Ottawa) by the Alliance for Healthier Communities in 2018.
Alex Brownlee, Peer Support Worker & Soul Space Photographer
With a lifetime of lived experience with addiction, mental health, and trauma and 3 years as a Peer Support Worker entrenched at a Consumption and Treatment facility supporting the vulnerable and marginalized community of Ottawa, Alex initially connected with Soul Space as a participant in the winter of 2019. A 3 day retreat for front line workers turned into a life’s worth of changes, all of which included his newly acquired love and passion for photography. Since his initial connection with Soul Space, Alex has felt a calling to help continue their work somehow. Thus, he has since partnered up with the Soul Space team capturing the delicate and intimate moments allotted to the front line workers in desperate need of support pre and post pandemic. Through his lens he strives to show every emotion one can and will experience through Soul Space’s work. He hopes to shine a light on how important it is for organizations to protect and nurture their front line workers. He hopes his imagery inspires others to make space for themselves. Above all else, his motivation behind it all is that each person he photographs can take one step away from burnout and two steps towards healing.
With a lifetime of lived experience with addiction, mental health, and trauma and 3 years as a Peer Support Worker entrenched at a Consumption and Treatment facility supporting the vulnerable and marginalized community of Ottawa, Alex initially connected with Soul Space as a participant in the winter of 2019. A 3 day retreat for front line workers turned into a life’s worth of changes, all of which included his newly acquired love and passion for photography. Since his initial connection with Soul Space, Alex has felt a calling to help continue their work somehow. Thus, he has since partnered up with the Soul Space team capturing the delicate and intimate moments allotted to the front line workers in desperate need of support pre and post pandemic. Through his lens he strives to show every emotion one can and will experience through Soul Space’s work. He hopes to shine a light on how important it is for organizations to protect and nurture their front line workers. He hopes his imagery inspires others to make space for themselves. Above all else, his motivation behind it all is that each person he photographs can take one step away from burnout and two steps towards healing.
Patricia Descarie, Peer Support Worker
- Patricia is an Addictions and Community Service Worker and Peer Worker. Patricia has 36 years of lived experience. Over the course of the last 3 years, she has helped clients meet a range of specialized needs while working with homeless shelters, assisted living programs, safe injection sites, hospice care and residential care addictions treatment centers. Relationships are the foundation of Patricia's work: clients often personally seek her out and she has developed strong networks within the street health and harm reduction workers community. Patricia serves, supports and strongly advocates for the clients as well as for front line workers themselves.
Kara Turgeon, Reg. Practical Nurse
Kara is a frontline nurse with Ottawa Inner City Health. They float between programs such as the supervised consumption site, Targeted Emergency Diversion, COVID-19 Isolation Unit, Safer Supply program and the managed opioid program. Kara also volunteers within their own spiritual community as a leader who helps run various religious rites. Kara is a step-parent of two and rescues animals in their spare time. They continually fight against the systemic racisms and ableism within the health care setting hoping to improve care both for people struggling with the opioid epidemic, women as well as LGBTQIA+ rights to proper care.
Kara is a frontline nurse with Ottawa Inner City Health. They float between programs such as the supervised consumption site, Targeted Emergency Diversion, COVID-19 Isolation Unit, Safer Supply program and the managed opioid program. Kara also volunteers within their own spiritual community as a leader who helps run various religious rites. Kara is a step-parent of two and rescues animals in their spare time. They continually fight against the systemic racisms and ableism within the health care setting hoping to improve care both for people struggling with the opioid epidemic, women as well as LGBTQIA+ rights to proper care.
Camille Wait, Peer Support Worker
Camille Wait is a frontline worker in the field of substance use and mental health care. Camille is a case manager on several mental health and substance use teams, as well as in an overdose prevention site. She is a core organizer and a founding member of a community food security initiative. Camille's passion for community care has led her to pursue a Masters degree, specializing in harm reduction policies. She strives to integrate radical compassion and harm reduction into all her work, bringing a trauma-informed and decolonizing lens to her care. Soul Space is a natural extension of this, as frontline workers routinely experience physical, emotional, and moral pain associated with continual traumatization. For Camille, Soul Space is an opportunity to explore what caring for carers can look like. |
Past Advisory Group Members
Sandi Q, Registered Social Worker & Peer Support Worker
Sandi is a registered social worker and peer support worker who worked at Ottawa Inner City Health's supervised consumption site for several years, and specializes in harm reduction, outreach, case management, peer work and substance use counselling. Sandi works from a framework of cultural humility, and understands decolonization is not a metaphor and must be a continuous process. For Sandi, Soul Space is an opportunity for everyday actions of resistance to neo-colonialism and it's structural systems that produce burnout.
Sandi is a registered social worker and peer support worker who worked at Ottawa Inner City Health's supervised consumption site for several years, and specializes in harm reduction, outreach, case management, peer work and substance use counselling. Sandi works from a framework of cultural humility, and understands decolonization is not a metaphor and must be a continuous process. For Sandi, Soul Space is an opportunity for everyday actions of resistance to neo-colonialism and it's structural systems that produce burnout.
Kim Van Herk, Registered Nurse
Kim, is a street nurse and the Mental Health Team Lead at Ottawa Inner City Health Inc. She has over 13 years experience in providing frontline mental health care to homeless individuals living with significant concurrent disorders. She has a keen interest in helping address systemic barriers marginalized populations face in accessing appropriate mental health services and in reducing inequities in health. She is passionate about supporting frontline staff’s wellness and helping increase the awareness around vicarious trauma in staff working on the frontlines of homelessness. Kim is a wife and mom of two beautiful girls and in her spare time can be found hiking in the forest, in a book, or hanging out with her family.
Kim, is a street nurse and the Mental Health Team Lead at Ottawa Inner City Health Inc. She has over 13 years experience in providing frontline mental health care to homeless individuals living with significant concurrent disorders. She has a keen interest in helping address systemic barriers marginalized populations face in accessing appropriate mental health services and in reducing inequities in health. She is passionate about supporting frontline staff’s wellness and helping increase the awareness around vicarious trauma in staff working on the frontlines of homelessness. Kim is a wife and mom of two beautiful girls and in her spare time can be found hiking in the forest, in a book, or hanging out with her family.
