Harm Reduction Services
Experiential peer-to-peer support reducing the harms associated with living on the street, housing insecurity, poverty, and drug use.
Donate to SOLID
Donate to SOLID
If you are interested in supporting us please consider donating today. Every bit counts, and we’re able to do a lot with very little. We accept donations via our Canada Helps Charitable donations page (which includes a receipt) or see below to donate through our Paypal or e-transfer if that is easier.
Explore our services
The rocketing cost of living and low vacancy rates have left hundreds of people sheltering in parks and on the streets in our community. In the winter of 2023 Solid Outreach Society opened its first seasonal shelter at the corner of Quadra and Mason Street with the support of St. John the Divine.
This site sleeps 30 individuals who wouldn’t otherwise have access to food, harm reduction supports, and peer counseling. At Solid we see this as an opportunity to strengthen our community by helping individuals access healthcare, food, employment opportunities, and potentially find more suitable long-term housing solutions.
North Park is an accessible, low-barrier, one-stop location that offers refuge from the elements (hot or cold), and temporary respite for our street community from being repeatedly shuffled along throughout the day.
The drop-in offers a variety of services. Housing, health education, administrative support, harm reduction supplies, Naloxone training, and various daily drop-in groups including: Solid Chat Room, Art as Therapy, Newsletter/Magazine Group, Music Group, HEP-C/HIV Education Group, Indigenous Women’s Group, and Indigenous Wellness Circle Groups.
The Harbour and Courtenay OPSs are collaborative, multi-agency, interdisciplinary sites designed to match individuals to the right programs at exactly the right time. This approach reduces barriers to recovery and improves the quality of life for those in pursuit of their recovery goals. The fulsome continuum of services include: counseling and psychotherapy, supervised consumption, harm reduction supplies and education, intensive case management, and low-barrier access to medication-assisted treatment options and primary care.
The Harbour offers consumption and harm reduction services on a level that is likely unparalleled around the world.
Our Pandora Caretakers and Indigenous Outreach Teams bring a unique blend of skills and life experience to support marginalized members of our street community who lack access to essential health, housing, and support services.
Each day our teams provide overdose response and training; first-aid, basic wound care; harm reduction supplies and safer use education; assistance in finding shelter and filling out housing applications; accessing employment opportunities; assistance with access to disability or social assistance benefits or obtaining identification; referrals to detox, counseling, peer support, treatment and addictions services.
Access Hub At Dowler
Dowler Place is an around the clock, 25 bed, supportive recovery space for individuals seeking to connect with health and housing services as they transition out of detox and await stable housing and supports at other locations.
We provide access to ID and income supports, support groups, healthy meals, vocational training and employment opportunities, health education, and accessing and maintaining housing.
Housing Overdose Prevention Peer Services
Solid provides support for people living in housing sites by dispensing harm reduction supplies, peer to peer support, and providing overdose response if necessary.
We operate in tandem with the housing providers to bring about the most positive outcomes for the community.
Street Clean
Solid’s longest-standing service is our volunteer-run “street clean” team: a twice daily, two-person team made up of volunteers from the street community. Each shift provides an opportunity for street-involved people to support our community by distributing harm reduction and safer use supplies, and to collect any discarded syringes and drug paraphernalia from Victoria’s neighbourhoods for disposal.
Through this work, volunteers build skills, consistency, and relationships with our staff which lead to increased access to housing and other services. Many of our current staff, including core members of our leadership team, began working with Solid as volunteers through this program.
Get to
know us
We're more than just a public health organization; we're a community deeply committed to empowering individuals and building healthier lives together. Solid's purpose is to empower people who have experiences with Substance Use Disorder to design and deliver services and supports needed within our community. We have operated in Victoria BC since 2007, providing overdose prevention services, street outreach, pathways to housing and health supports, daily support groups, Indigenous-led cultural programs, and overnight sheltering.
All our services are provided by and for people with lived experience, creating a form of vocational therapy and psycho-social healing for our staff and members. We are committed to responsive, effective services that directly meet the needs of our community.
