THUNDER BAY – Holly Gauvin says the greatest joy in her work, which involves supporting some of Thunder Bay’s most vulnerable with health and housing, is seeing people become empowered to help themselves and their community.
Gauvin, the executive director of Elevate NWO, a harm reduction agency serving people including those affected by HIV and Hepatitis C and who are experiencing homelessness, has championed a peer-led model at the agency designed to put those most affected by the issues at the forefront.
It’s an approach that’s paid off, connecting dozens of people living in encampments with housing and other services.
Gauvin said Elevate, which traditionally focused more on its HIV and Hep C programming, was compelled to step in to do more on homelessness last year.
“We’ve always had really great relationships with people who are living unsheltered or in encampments throughout the city,” she said. “So last summer, when it became really apparent how much the community was struggling to respond to the homeless encampments, we staged an intervention.”
That led Elevate to develop a harm reduction housing program, launch a warming centre, and expand its outreach work to provide significant supports to those living in encampments, as other services like the SOS Van were pulling back.
While fundraising for a van to support that work, Gauvin has made use of her personal vehicle so staff can check in on those in several encampments five days a week, offering food, laundry service, and supporting access to social and health services.
The organization secured two cluster housing units with assistance from the Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board, providing transitional housing for 25 to 40 people at a time.
More than 50 people have been connected with housing through the encampment outreach program so far, Gauvin reported.
The organization’s work on the project was recognized with a Mayor’s Community Safety Award earlier this year.
While it required taking a step beyond the agency’s traditional mandate, Gauvin says it’s all about finding the approach that works best.
“For us, the win is that we also get a chance then to engage them in health care,” she said. “When you prioritize somebody’s basic needs like food and shelter, they then have the time to listen to you, to talk with you, to work with you on other health care issues.”
The emphasis on peer-led programs is a crucial development, she said.
For Elevate, that means involving those with lived experience in decision-making like designing programs, not just helping to run them – an approach she said has been inspired in part by the success of People Advocating for Change through Empowerment (PACE).
“All of our community intervention strategies should include people with lived experience, and not in that check-a-box way, but… helping to lead and guide and support the work, if we ever expect these interventions to be successful and help turn around some of the challenges we’re seeing in our community.”
In health and social services since 1996, Gauvin previously worked with other organizations including the Elizabeth Fry Society and Shelter House.
Some of her own experiences led her to do the work she does today, she said. A single mom at 21, she struggled, at times relying on welfare and food banks and spending a few months at a shelter.
“It’s a hard way to live and at each turn I was just another statistic,” she said of her experience. “These are the things that I keep in mind as I work alongside people with current lived experience and when I work with people who are deep in the struggle.”
A number of people who were formerly or currently homeless were hired as peer outreach workers for Elevate’s program, and Gauvin reports several have since been able to find employment and apartments.
Working with those individuals and seeing them find success is what keeps her fired up to come into work every day, Gauvin said.
“How can you not absolutely love your job when you get up in the morning and you get to go work with this really great group of young people, all of whom were homeless either last year or this year, and still got up every morning and went out and served people who were living in encampments, to show them that things can change, just stay with it, keep working with us?”
