In episode two of the Woodstein Media Podcast, Raymond “Wendego” King speaks of using Hip Hop as an outlet for sobriety, #fuckfentanyl, and losing friends to overdoses.
Category: Social Well-being
Woodstein Media Podcast episode one: Joe Amero talks harm reduction
Joe Amero, a social worker in the Toronto shelter system, discusses his history of drug use and harm reduction. Joe discusses how his brother Harry’s overdose affected his family and how he dealt with his feeling through a one-person show he wrote titled Blood, the Drug User Liberation Front’s compassion club actions where they distribute a clean supply of drugs to help stop overdoses due to drugs contaminated with Fentanyl, Drugs! The Musical, the Telethon! and songs by Hobo Banditos, the Hip Hop band he and Harry were in.
Roller derby will bounce back, skates are already hitting the track: Hogtown edition
As pandemic-related restrictions loosen, many people across Ontario and beyond hope to lace up their roller skates and hit the roller derby track again. This series of articles will check in with teams as they prepare for some action in 2022-23. This time, Hogtown Roller Derby’s Emily Fowler, whom some people in the derby community might know better as Holly de Havilland, shares an update on the rebound of roller derby in Toronto, or if you prefer, Hogtown.
Stratford 2SLGBTQIA+ community discuss actions to counter rise in hate-related crimes & incidents: acculturation
After homophobic vandalism was discovered at Sirkel Foods in Stratford on the morning of Nov. 1, a meeting was planned at the Stratford Pride Community Centre (SPCC) to allow the community to discuss their feelings, thoughts and fears with representatives from Stratford Police Services, City of Stratford council and the Stratford City Centre Business Improvement Area (BIA).
This is the final installment in a series of articles documenting the discussion of how police investigate hate-motivated incidents and what the city and the public can do to help make the community more welcoming and inclusive for all people.
Stratford 2SLGBTQIA+ community discuss actions to counter rise in hate-related crimes & incidents: education
After homophobic vandalism was discovered at Sirkel Foods in Stratford on the morning of Nov. 1, a meeting was planned at the Stratford Pride Community Centre (SPCC) to allow the community to discuss their feelings, thoughts and fears with representatives from Stratford Police Services, the City of Stratford council and the Stratford Downtown Business Improvement Agency.
This is the second in a three-part series of articles which discuss how police investigate hate-motivated incidents and what the city and the public can do to help make the community more welcoming and inclusive for all people.
Stratford 2SLGBTQIA+ community discuss actions to counter rise in hate-related crimes & incidents: investigation
After homophobic vandalism was discovered at Sirkel Foods in Stratford on the morning of Nov. 1, a meeting was planned at the Stratford Pride Community Centre (SPCC) to allow the community to discuss their feelings, thoughts and fears with representatives from Stratford Police Services, the City of Stratford council and the Stratford Downtown Business Improvement Agency.
This is the first in a three-part series of articles which discuss how police investigate hate-motivated incidents and what the city and the public can do to help make the community more welcoming and inclusive for all people.
Wordofa ready to dive deeper into community dedication with seat on Stratford City Council
The community work Multicultural Association of Perth-Huron founder Gezaghn Wordofa has been doing for over ten years has led to an opportunity to serve the City of Stratford as a councillor following a narrow election victory on Oct. 24.
Roller derby will bounce back, skates are already hitting the track: Guelph edition
As pandemic-related restrictions loosen, many people across Ontario and beyond are hoping they can lace up their roller skates and hit the roller derby track again. This series of articles will check in with teams as they prepare for some action in 2022-23. This time, Royal City Roller Derby’s Steph Ziegler, whom some people in the derby community might know better as Sleeping Brutey, shares an update on the rebound of roller derby in Guelph.
Roller derby will bounce back, skates are already hitting the track: Durham Region edition
As pandemic-related restrictions loosen, many people across Ontario and beyond are hoping they can lace up their roller skates and hit the roller derby track again. This series of articles will check in with teams as they prepare for some action in 2022. This time, sharing the progress of their league is Durham Region Roller Derby’s Angela Kinghan, who some people in the derby community might know as AK 47.
Joe Amero brings depth of lived experience to harm reduction in Toronto shelter system
This is the final feature in a three-part series diving into aspects of the opioid pandemic, the overdose crisis, whatever you wish to call it. It is a public health crisis which became exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Canada’s Public Health database, there was a 95 percent increase in apparent opioid toxicity deaths from April 2020 to March 2021, with a total of 7,224 deaths, compared to 3,711 deaths from April 2019 to March 2020. Since then, deaths have remained high.
These statistics were published in March 2022 and only went as far as September 2021, but by that point, 5,368 apparent opioid toxicity deaths had occurred. This is approximately 20 deaths per day. For a similar timeframe in the years before the pandemic, there were between 7 in 2016 and 12 in 2018 deaths per day.
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