The Kootenay Insurrection for Safe Supply (KISS) was established in the summer of 2022 for the purpose of establishing a non-medicalized, peer-led safe supply program to serve the rural & remote West Kootenay region. Hear about their challenges & some of the lessons learned on the rocky road to making that goal a reality, while also hearing from some of Nelson’s prescribed safer supply providers about the challenges and successes they’ve experienced in the course of their work.

We will then look to the future, with a discussion of how to build a collaborative continuum of safer supply options that is adaptable and responsive enough to meet the diverse and ever-evolving needs of our rural community, keeping people connected to care, and always with options other than having to access the toxic unregulated drug supply.

This is a public webinar and anyone can attend! A question and answer period will follow the presentation. Audience members may submit questions using the Q & A box. Closed captioning in English will be provided.

Our Speakers

• Amber Streukens (ANKORS/REDUN)
• Erin Thomson (ANKORS/Rise Clinic)
• Dr. Michael Vance (Interior Health-MHSU)
• Dr. Thomas Kerr (BCCSU/UBC Department of Medicine)
• Dylan Griffith (KISS) 

Our Moderator

• Phoenix Beck McGreevy (Imagine Safer Supply)

Speaker Biographies

Thomas Kerr is a professor and head of the Division of Social Medicine in the Department of Medicine at UBC. He is also the Director of Research at the BC Centre on Substance Use. Thomas has been conducting research on substance use and harm reduction for over 25 years, and is actively supporting a number of evaluation projects focused on models of safe supply.

More speaker biographies coming soon!