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Laurier researcher to study impact of downtown outreach team

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A city-led effort to help those in the downtown battling addictions, mental-health issues and homelessness will be the focus of a Wilfrid Laurier University research project.

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Assistant professor James Popham, of Laurier’s criminology department, will be evaluating the impact of the work of the Brantford Downtown Outreach Team on marginalized people in the city’s core.

“We’re going to be listening to the voices of people connected with the program – the administration, team members and some of the individuals they’ve worked with, as well as local organizations, such as the Downtown Brantford Business Improvement Area,” Popham said. “We’re trying to build a holistic perspective of how the outreach team has impacted the community beyond strictly looking at numbers.”

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The outreach team comprises a co-ordinator, nurse practitioner, concurrent disorders counsellor and peer support worker. They began work in July as part of a year-long pilot project to help connect people to the services they need.

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Funding of $280,000 for the team was authorized by city council earlier this year.

The city has seen a dramatic increase in homelessness and growth of encampments in the past year. As well, there has been an increase in fentanyl-related overdoses and police have been responding to more social disorder calls, including public intoxication and suspicious people.

Popham’s research will include interviews with local agencies, including St. Leonard’s Community Services, Brantford police and  the Grand River Community Health Centre.

The study will use the information gathered to measure changes, such as in calls for policing and other emergency services, arrests and people using services, such as addiction recovery programs. The research also will include observing the outreach team at work, as well as running focus groups.

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“Programs of this nature are a non-aggressive way of connecting people with different services they may not be aware of, particularly if they don’t have regular access to technology,” Popham said. ‘They also reduce the use of emergency service resources in terms of cost and personnel.

In 2017, Popham, who has worked at Laurier for five years, worked with the city on a public conference about the use of big data by municipalities. Big data is a form of analytics that looks at a large amount of information to find patterns of behaviour that might not otherwise be noticeable.

As well, Popham worked with the Brant Community Foundation in 2017-18 to develop the Vital Signs Report, which provided a snapshot of the health of the community in 10 areas, including arts and culture, the economy, environment, learning, housing and public safety.

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The current research project is important for several reasons, said Aaron Wallace, Brantford’s director of corporate initiatives and community strategies.

“Supporting a safe and welcoming downtown is a priority for city staff and for (city) council,” Wallace said. “Part of this work is to connect vulnerable people to the help they need.

“Outreach teams become more effective over the long term because they need time to develop trust and relationships with disconnected individuals.”

He added that the research by Laurier is critical to assessing the outreach program’s impact and making the case for ongoing funding.

The city’s homelessness situation has become pressing problem in recent months as homeless people formed their own tent cities or encampments in various areas near the downtown and along the Grand River. The problem became worse a week-and-a-half ago when people seeking a warm place to stay at night were turned away from local emergency shelters because they were  at capacity.

The city, meanwhile, has reached out to local churches and community agencies for temporary help to provide shelter for those who need it over the winter.

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