TRIP! Project - 1 Outreach Worker Position

12 Month Contract (June 2010 to June 30, 2011)

Average 24 hrs/month; $11.00/hr

Position Description    

The TRIP! Project, a project of Central Toronto Community Health Centres (CTCHC), provides safer sex and safer drug use education, information, and supplies, as well as counseling and referrals, to Toronto’s diverse dance music communities.  Working closely with the TRIP! Project Coordinator, this position will be supported to provide peer-based harm reduction education onsite at dance music events (parties), and will support project volunteers to provide accurate information on harm reduction, HIV prevention and safer drug use to the dance community. This position will work within a broader Harm Reduction team, and be responsible to the Program Director or designate.

Specific Responsibilities

·       Provide an average of 24 hours/month of outreach services at dance music events in Toronto each month

·       Provide appropriately tailored and accurate information on harm reduction, HIV prevention and safer drug use to the dance music community

·       Conduct ‘Online Outreach’ on dance music community-based message forums

·       Support TRIP! volunteers to provide appropriately tailored and accurate information on harm reduction, HIV prevention and safer drug use

·       Attend monthly volunteer meetings, and meetings with the TRIP! Project Coordinator

·       Work collaboratively with the TRIP! Project Coordinator and other TRIP! Outreach Workers, and participate in the Harm Reduction team and the broader CTCHC as required.

Qualifications

·       An active participant of Toronto’s dance music community; strong knowledge of and comfort with party culture/raving, partygoers/ravers, and Toronto’s dance music communities

·       Strong knowledge of HIV, drug use, and related issues, as well as risk and harm reduction strategies

·       Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

·       Excellent ability to take initiative and work independently, while also working closely with the TRIP! Project Coordinator and other TRIP! Outreach Workers

·       Demonstrated ability to support peer volunteers in providing health promotional outreach services

·       Positive attitude towards a diverse community

·       Ability to work long night shifts on weekends

·       Ability to express and invest creativity and positive energy into an incredible youth project

We are particularly seeking applications from qualified members of the groups traditionally under-represented in the workplace and the dance music community.

Please email cover letter and resume by Monday May 19^th by noon to:

SUBJECT HEADING: Hiring Committee – Job #QW300,

EMAIL ADDRESS: hiring@ctchc.com

No phone calls please. We regret that only those we wish to interview will be contacted.

TRIP! is conducting this survey to inform the work of the Toronto Safer Nightlife Committee, which was created to prevent alcohol-related violence and other harms in the Toronto bar/club scene. TRIP! provides safer sex and safer drug use information and supplies to party people in Toronto's diverse electronic music communities. We want to hear from youth (aged 19 -29) about their views on safety issues in the club/bar scene.  Click the image above to take the survey today!

The TRIP! Project was born in 1995 out of a need for appropriate drug and sex information within the Toronto rave scene. The act of partying often meant using drugs, and for some, being promiscuous. These activities, on their own as well as together, had the potential to put people at risk for drug dependencies, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and more. That's where TRIP came in. A recruitment process began with a community picnic, organized by Kim Stanford, at the time an HIV Educator working for Toronto Public Health. From there came the volunteers from within the community, who contributed their time, energy and creativity into making TRIP! a unique and innovative drug and sex education project.

Years later the project is still alive and kicking!  Help us celebrate our 15th Anniversary by contributing to a grassroots community photobook documenting Toronto party culture.  This crowd sourced photobook will be a community historical document in order to celebrate 15 years of party culture.  Photos of the TRIP! booth are encouraged, but all photos are welcome.  From old school parties at the Better Living Centre to Om Festival, we want to see your photos of Toronto's party scene throught the ages. Send us your photos in the bottom of your shoe box, your scanned rave fliers, pictures from Connected, Destiny, Hullabaloo, Empire, Liquid Adrenalin, Citrus, New Mind Space, Goodfellaz and much more. We want to represent from the old school to the new school, so any photos are good photos. 

Be sure to include information on who took the photo, where it was and the year to help us make our community time capsule. 

Send us your photos today by emailing lisa@tripproject.ca !

No need to feel too out of the loop, mephedrone has only very recently been showing up in our scene and has been commonly referred to as Max Volume in Toronto. Other names for it have included meow meow, stardust, max volume, MCAT, bubbles or just plain “plant food”.  Mephedrone has been a popular drug in the UK for quite some time now and was rated the fourth 4th more popular club drug, lagging behind coke, ecstasy and cannabis.

 Mephedrone has risen sharply in popularity in the UK because of its low price and availability. The drug was not known to police until approximately three ago, when mephedrone was reportedly linked to the death of two teenagers in several newspapers. It's important to keep in mind that it was later found that these deaths were not directly linked to use of the drug. 

So what is it anyway?

Mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone) is a stimulant which is closely chemically related to amphetamines. Users have reported that mephedrone produces a similar effect to drugs like amphetamines such as ecstasy and cocaine. Mephedrone is a white, off-white or yellowish powder which is usually snorted, but can also be ingested orally. This means that mephedrone may also be showing up in pressed pills as well as in packed capsules.

Mephedrone can also be used as plant fertilizer and was up until recently widely legally sold online under that purpose. Many websites that used to sell it such as plantfood2u.com and plant-food.net are now closed due to upcoming changes in the law which is making mephedrone nearly impossible today to purchase online. Follow MephedroneMan on Twitter for current updates on the the issues surrounding mephedrone.

 What exactly does it do?

Because mephedrone is still an emerging substance, there isn't a whole load of literature and research that has been done on it up to date. Even less so on its long term effects. There are, however, a significant amount of user reports. If you have used mephedrone and would like to share your experiences, you can send them here. Other interesting anecdotal information by users can be found here. 

The onset is generally from 10-20 minutes after consumption and has a duration of 2 to 3 hours, depending on the quality of the drug as well as the user.  The comedown is said to last an hour but some users have reported not be able to sleep for some time as well as an uncomfortable heart rate hours after consuming the drug.

Similarly to other stimulants, mephedrone has an impact on the heart and some users report heart palpitations and irregular or racing heartbeat which may last for quite some time after taking the drug. Other reported effects have been blurred vision, hot flashes, muscle tension as well as nausea and vomiting. As well as suppressing appetite, some people have reported that their fingers turned blue after taking the drug which may potentially be linked to bad blood circulation. If this happening to you or a friend, discontinue use and seek help immediately. 

Those who run the greatest risk of potential harm due to the bad blood circulation are those with high blood pressure. As well, using during pregnancy may harm the fetus by restricting blood flow thus resulting in low birth weight and poor development. 

 What should I watch out for?

Like any other drug, you should be careful with what other substances you mix mephedrone with. Another concern is that people have reported compulsively (meaning over and over and over again) taking the drug during a session. Some users have reported only intending to do a bit of mephedrone but unwillingly finishing their entire supply. This can lead to insomnia and heavy use in the long run can lead to psychological dependency, just like any amphetamine! It is recommended that your space out your highs and start off with a low dose.

Legal things you should know:

Mephedrone's legality in Canada is a murky area at the moment and much of the information available about its legal status contradicts itself. To be safe, you should treat mephedrone as an illegal substance when it comes to possession. 

Remember- new drugs always have a lot of hype around them. Before you make any decisions, be sure you know your sources!

A Dangerous Substance (Levamisole) is showing up with increasing
frequency in cocaine powder and crack cocaine! Levamisole is used to
treat worm infections in animals and it can severely reduce your number
of white blood cells.

There is no way of telling if your coke or crack is bad, it will
smell, taste and look the same!

If you use coke watch out for:

 • High fever or chills

• Skin abscesses, unexplainable
bruising particularly on hands, feet or ears

• Painful anal or oral sores

• Lung infection that appears to be
developing more rapidly than usual

Seek Medical Attention Immediately!

PLEASE HAVE YOUR DOCTOR NOTIFY YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH UNIT!

Levamicoke. Anything but the real thing.

For more info:

www.levamicoke.info

Erowid Cocaine Vaults : Cocaine Adulterated with Levamisole on the Rise

Throughout the year we keep on getting messages from people across Canada telling us that they wish they had the TRIP! Project in their community.  While we usually send out small care packages to communities outside of Toronto, there are a few TRIP! resources which are available for free across Canada, including shipping!  The CATIE (Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange) Ordering Centre is a national resource for free HIV/AIDS and Hep C resources. CATIE will ship you any information you want right to your door step or community centre! It's now easier than ever to start your own harm reduction project, as it doesn't matter if you're a grassroots youth collective in Nunavut or an established social services agency-- it's all free!

For a few years CATIE has been including our Safer Snorting resource both in French and English .  This month they've added two TRIP! resources to their roster, including both our Boyz on Boyz and Grrlz on Grrlz Sexual Health Postcards! We are so incredibly excited to be contributing to this national database and we hope that our materials will reach out across the country empowering youth to make health desicions about how they party.  On our new postcards we've included room for you to personalize the resource and put in your own contact information.  We are so pleased to be collaborating with CATIE again, and we hope to have more of our resources available in the future.

On January 30th 2010 at 9pm, the big purple building on the corner that was once referred to by some as "Crack and Pizza", will open it's doors one last time for Nocturnal Commission's and Embedded's Good to The Last Bop. For the past three decades, The Big Bop has been host to a variety of events catering to youth of all subcultures from punk, ska and goth to being Toronto's most notorious rave venue. To many, the close of the complex comes as sad news. As one of the few well known all-ages event spaces in city some argue that there will certainly be a decrease in the already limited number of all-ages parties. However many such as myself have seen the close as a kind of blessing and as the possibility of a re renewal in the search for new, cleaner, more positive feeling spaces for parties. There is nothing like the feeling that freshness brings. Instead of a loss to the nightlife community the close should be seen as a new era. The scene has changed over they years and it should be expected that change should take place in all areas.

We all have our favorite Big Bop memories. From talking for hours with our friends in the washroom, telling our moms we were sleeping at friends house while trying not to fall off of the fire escape, drinking until the sun came up and even having sex for some of us (See: i had sex at big bop Facebook group). Some of us made friends or got to know the friends we had even better. Others, for the first time, were able to express themselves in a way that they weren't comfortable doing in another environment. Hearts were broken and mended and cell phones were lost and found.  So as we gather there for one last time on January 30th we should be reminded that the parties made it the place it was, and not the place that made the parties what they were.

We will miss the Big Bop!

<3Sara.

The most useful plant on earth! The devil weed! Cannabis (a.k.a. pot, marijuana, weed, herb, bhang, ganja, grass, dagga, keif, kanabosm, asa, reefer, tai-ma or its innumerable other names) is one of the most charged words in our language for it represents what is arguably the most controversial plant of modern times. The very utterance of its name can arouse a full range of emotion and passion from hate to love, fear to bliss and all points in between. Indeed a visitor to our world might be very confused as to all the fuss over this seemingly benign, spindly and unassuming herb. Yet its physical humbleness masks the great influence this plant has had on human psyche and society - to such a degree that people have even pledged their lives to its propagation or eradication.

Check out our new interactive online exploration of cannabis! 

Found from DanceSafe
E-News Issue No. 4

February 1-7, 2001
Interview by Jane Tseng, DanceSafe

The Toronto Raver Info Project (TRIP) is a community based peer education and harm reduction group in Toronto, Canada. TRIP was founded approximately five years ago and works out of Queen West Health Center. They have established themselves as experts in health issues surrounding the late night dance music scene in Toronto through their community forums and booth outreach services at events. In light of recent events in New Orleans, E-News talked with Erin Lewis, Project Director of TRIP about how they worked with city officials and the rave community a year and a half ago when the city of Toronto placed a ban on raves.

E-News: How would you compare the recent events surrounding raves in the United States to the government crackdown on
raves in Toronto last year?

Lewis: There are a lot of things that are very familiar, they sound very much like what was going on here in Toronto last year. The city was saying that raves are warehouses of sin. There was story in the newspaper wherethey took pictures of ecstasy pills and put them next to a table full of guns, saying that all of these drugs and these guns were confiscated at raves, when the reality is that there has never been a gun found out a rave in Toronto. They really sort of played up on the hazards of the environment saying that there weren't any washrooms and people were filling their water bottles up out of toilets and things like that. In response, what they did was ban raves off of the city's property, because the city doesn't support this kind of behavior. They said "You can't have anything there, because your parties are too dangerous". The problem was that the city property, the exhibition grounds in Toronto, is the most safe environment for large gatherings of people, because that is what it was built for. It is adequately zoned, it has exits, hundreds of toilets, running water, and its own security.

E-News: How did the ban on raves and the negative public attention on the rave scene affect the harm reduction work that TRIP does?

Lewis: Trip actually had to sit through this inquest into the death of a guy who died on ecstasy a year and a half ago at a party. We went through having our information out there on trial...having all of these powerful people from the city pulling apart everything in our information, telling us, "You're promoting drug use." They were saying that information like ours contributed to his death, and that we were making people want to use drugs. That was absolute hell. But we're still kicking, right?

E-News: What steps did TRIP and the community take to react to the government crackdown?

Lewis: We did a lot as TRIP and the Toronto Dance Safety Committee, whose chair was the project manager of TRIP at that time. The Party People Project, which is a community activism project that started out of one of TRIP's community forums, is a group of about 150 people from the rave community in Toronto that also happened to be politically active. They were also very loud and very political. They took every measure to fight the government in the crackdown and really worked to mobilize themselves. When the city government was deciding whether or not to keep the ban in place, the Party People Project and the Toronto Dance Safety Committee put together a huge information package and an accompanying video that really went in depth to dispel all of these myths about the community. They did a lot of political lobbying. One of the things that we did was to organize a large rally at city hall and we were able to pull together about 20,000 people for
that. We had say "Hey, we're here, and we dance, and its not just ravers that you would be shutting down through this crackdown".

E-News: Did the rave community enlist the support of any other organizations?

Lewis: The way that everything was worded in this government crackdown meant that if they were going to be banning raves, they would be banning a number of large exhibitions through the city, a number of multi-cultural festivals, the gay pride ball, and things like that. It really alarmed a number of other communities as well. We really worked to get their support, and to help to fight this.

E-News: When the city lifted the ban on raves, did the govornment create more regulations on how parties would be thrown?

Lewis: The protocols for safer dance events was initially carried out by the Toronto Dance Safety Committee, which is affiliated with TRIP. We were very closely involved in writing that protocols and working with the city to find some room for agreement. The police force, and the city of Toronto, and the media were really working together on this to shut down the scene and there are a lot of residual affects from that. There are a lot of protocals in place that make it really hard for people to throw parties in Toronto. It has caused a lot of division among the rave community. People started finger-pointing. Who wants to work with the city on something as sacred as your dance floor? We shouldn't be in this situation anyway. But unfortunately, we had no choice. All of these promoters in the city and all of the party kids in the city could get busted if we hadn't worked with the city to find some common ground. The biggest fight around that was to define what constitutes a rave, and what constitutes a raver. That was a really tough one to define. We had to be very choosy with our words, and very careful as to how we would define a rave, so that other groups that throw events that aren't necessarily raves, wouldn't fall into the same sort of situation.

E-News: What experience or advice can you give on how to deal with a situation where your community is being unfairly targeted?

Lewis: You have to be really proactive. You have to say, "we're going to fight this, we're going to win."