Mobile Overdose Response Initiative

Frontline workers, people who use drugs, and community members are often the first to respond to overdoses, yet many have access only to basic naloxone education. The changing and increasingly toxic drug supply has complicated overdose response and there is an urgent need for low-barrier, community-based training on mixed substance use, stimulant and novel drug toxicity, and smoking/inhalation-related overdose response. With the closure of supervised consumption sites overdoses will increase in shelters, parks, encampments, transit spaces, and private residences. Building local knowledge, confidence, and response capacity will improve immediate community safety, strengthen connections to existing supports, and save lives.

This project will deliver mobile overdose response training across Toronto to expand community capacity beyond traditional service settings, especially for people displaced by supervised consumption site closures and those using drugs in private spaces. Peer-led outreach teams will provide practical, trauma-informed training on overdose recognition, breathing support, naloxone use, and post-overdose care, while also distributing specialized overdose response kits. The pilot is designed as a rapid, low-cost response to urgent gaps in Toronto’s overdose system and as a foundation for future expansion into broader outreach, wound care, street nursing support, and community-based harm reduction education.

If you’d like to support or reach out with any questions about this project, please contact:

Mskwaasin
Mobile Overdose Response Initiative
email: mskwaasinagnew@outlook.com