Teaching life-saving lessons to Cape Bretoners
SYDNEY — An AIDS Coalition of Nova Scotia program is now being offered outside of Halifax and for eligible participants it pays a modest honorarium.
Called Street Smarts, the free program teaches important harm reduction strategies for overdose prevention, safer drug use and safer sex practices.
The three modules of the program — which cover HIV, hepatitis C and drug overdose prevention — are being delivered solely online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and participants can finish at their own pace.
Mitch Hill works for the AIDS Coalition of Nova Scotia in Cape Breton and is coordinator of the Street Smarts program here.
Hill said some people finish the program in one sitting, others over a few days or weeks. After the course is finished, there is an exit interview and a followup call in three to six months.
"The goal of the program is to get vital information into folks' hands that would prevent them from doing unnecessary harm onto themselves," Hill said.
"We hope folks take this information into the community, with their friends and their family, use it in their own lives and keep themselves safe and hope we can do some good."
Street Smarts is being delivered online through Teachable and along with text uses video and slides as educational tools.
Hill said there is "a bit of monitoring" to insure participants complete and watch each section.
"It's anything and everything that's going to keep a person or a group of people as safe as possible in a situation where there is going to be some sense of risk," said Hill.
The primary age group Street Smarts is targeting is 18-29, however, Hill said people wanting to participate who are outside of this range aren't being turned away.
Hill said they hope to attract half of the provincial goal of 40-50 people to complete the program and there is help for those who don't have access to technology or internet services. A $50 honorarium is paid to approved participants who complete the program.
For more information call email gmhc@acns.ns.ca.