Messagers de Rue / (Street outreach worker)

I started in early January 2013 as a messager. We work in teams of 2, sometimes 3 if an ‘intervanants’ joins us. The ‘intervanants’ do not have the same mandate as us. The messagers’ mandate is mainly to reduce transmission of Hep C and HIV by giving new syringes and Pyrexes, and other material to use such as water, stéricups and alcohol tampons for syringes; Screens, rubber ends and push stick for Pyrexes. We give ‘Bacs’ to our users to dispose of their syringes properly, and also to commerce to keep their premises clean. With the ‘Bac’ we give a pamphlet of how to pick up syringes with care. We also give other information such as our health care provider, whom treats people without a medicare cards. We do patrols of three hours always starting and finishing at Berri Park and Metro. Different days we have pre made routes. Every route we go to Viger Park, mostly to recuperate syringes. Our territory goes west to Atwater, east to DeLormier, south to Saint Antoine, north to Sherbrooke. After a patrol we are responsible to clean the alley at Cactus and note what we find for the record. we then fill out sheets of everything we gave out, if it was a female or male and an approximate age, if they knew of us at Cactus or not. This is for our statistics for ‘Santé Canada’. We have weekly meetings to discuss events that may have happened during the week on patrol, dead spots, new spots, police presence at certain places. It also happens we get warnings to stays away from certain people. Our safety always primordial. We always stay in view of each other , we don’t go to places that are not well lit or seem dangerous. It is a job I enjoy a lot and am glad to be part of the team. Karen.