Facilitated by Corey Ranger, Chris Livingstone will speak about his experiences as a founding member of Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society (WAHRS) and establishing a drop-in centre in response to COVID-19, highlighting his work to provide an Indigenous lens to the practice of harm reduction. 

Christopher Livingstone is a Mental Health Worker conducting outreach with Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre and founding member of the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society (WAHRS), and a Director of the Aboriginal Front Door Society. Christopher Livingstone is his colonial name. His traditional name is Ukws Kots’a, that is his traditional hereditary Nisga’a’ name. His work has included doing harm reduction, cultural safety and other supports to Indigenous Peoples living in tent cities, including at Oppenheimer park. He is also seasoned tent city resident, having lived at the Woodsquat in 2002, Victory Square in 2003, CRAB Park in 2003 and Anita Place in 2019.

Corey Ranger

Corey Ranger is a registered nurse with experience working in harm reduction across Alberta-he has facilitated blood-borne pathogens programming for street-entrenched individuals in Edmonton's inner-city core; worked on the harm reduction team in Calgary; started HIV programming in Brooks, and most recently been responsible for implementing naloxone programming and supervised consumption services (SCS) in Medicine Hat. Corey has been a post-secondary instructor for community and mental health nursing at Medicine Hat College and is an advocate for evidence-informed, pragmatic public policy. Corey is currently a project manager for BCcampus, responsible for the development, implementation, and evaluation of a provincial peer training curriculum and standards of practice (SOP). Corey is now a project consultant for the provincial peer training project and the main role is Clinical Nurse Coordinator for AVI/SOLID Safe Supply project on Vancouver Island.