Support Safe Consumption Services in Penticton
Hello my name is Desiree Franz and I am one of the co-founders of Penticton and Area Overdose Prevention Society (P+OPS). We are a registered non-profit organization which was created this year in response to the high rates of overdose in our community of Penticton BC. While we are a small community of 35,000 residents we are seeing extremely high rates of overdose. This year we are on track to lose the most people from toxic drug supply than we ever have before.
A group of us banded together and used our savings to purchase a bus and through community donations we were able to outfit it to offer safer consumption services for people in our community. After two months of operation and working with our Health Authority we are now an officially sanctioned Overdose Prevention Site.
Operating this bus has expenses associated with it like gas, insurance and supplies, and while we are exploring grant proposals now we are asking for help to keep this bus operational while we pursue other funding options.
Currently we are supporting 10-30 individuals per night we are out and are relying on the generosity of others to help keep us operational. We can only offer services for injection drug use however we are hoping to be able to offer inhalation services in the future.
Other services we provide: naloxone training, neighborhood cleanup, sharps/paraphernalia disposal, referrals to local agencies, advocation, first aid support and handing out water, coffee and light snacks.
BC is currently losing 5 individuals a day to overdose, we are in a public health emergency and we need services like this to even have a fighting chance.
Thank you in advance for your support. We would not be able to provide these crucial services without the contributions of amazing community members like you.
