THUNDER BAY -- A new community organization hopes to lead Thunder Bay to a world of safe and responsible partying.
In order to connect young adults with the resources, tools and education for safer partying Ashley Brimmell and her boyfriend, Marcus Agombar, started delivering harm reduction services to the community.
“We just want people to gain some knowledge about harm reduction,” Brimmell said.
“If they are going to be engaging in risky behaviours they should have information, so they can make a choice based on knowledge they’ve acquired.”
BaySafe will be stationed at local festivals and venues to distribute pamphlets and encourage safe partying.
The educational booth offers a wide range of harm reduction services such as drug information cards, earplugs to reduce the likelihood of hearing loss, water to reduce the risk of dehydration and condoms.
“We have a lot of services here in Thunder Bay that are catered to people who have higher needs,” Brimmell said.
“We have noticed that there’s a little bit of a service gap for the general young adult population who goes out on the weekends to party, and we felt like there should be some kind of harm reduction services for these people.”
The original startup for BaySafe was in January at the Google Startup Weekend, Brimmell said it was well received right from the start.
“Every single agency here in Thunder Bay has been super cooperative and supportive, and everyone is giving us really great feedback and suggestions on how to move forward.”
Agombar said the harm reduction crew at the Shambhala Music Festival was a huge inspiration for BaySafe.
For more than a decade, Ankors harm reduction crew has been an important part of Shambhala providing free harm reduction supplies, services and information.
“They are very innovative,” Agombar said.
“They’ve been recognized north America-wide for the work they do at festivals, they make it such a friendly and comfortable place to go party and have fun.”
Agombar believes BaySafe will help make Thunder Bay a friendly and comfortable place to party.
“It’s not a big service, but it is the little things that can make a big difference.”
