Victoria Needle Safety Toolkit
Downtown Victoria’s Clean & Safe Committee has produced a Safe Needle Disposal Toolkit, with the support of the United Way and the Downtown Victoria Business Association. It was created in order to provide businesses and residents with information about the safe disposal of needles and related drug paraphernalia.
While every effort continues to be made by AIDS Vancouver Island, Victoria AIDS Resource and Community Services Society, SOLID, the City of Victoria crews, and DVBA’s Clean Team to pick up discarded needles, it’s important that all members of the public are equipped with the proper knowledge. The toolkit covers such topics as how to properly handle and dispose of needles as well as providing emergency contact information, and includes a poster that businesses can put up in their workplaces.
The Toolkit was based on model created and distributed by SafeEdmonton (www.edmonton.ca/safeedmonton). Anyone wishing to obtain a copy of the toolkit can do so free of charge at the DVBA (20 Centennial Square), AVI (1601 Blanshard Street), or the City of Victoria (1 Centennial Square), or download it on the internet at www.avi.org/needletoolkit.
The Clean and Safe Committee is a group of organizations who collaborate to identify and pursue improvements to the health and safety of our downtown. Members include: AIDS Vancouver Island, the City of Victoria, the Downtown Residents Association, the Downtown Service Providers Committee, the Downtown Victoria Business Association, Victoria AIDS Resource and Community Services Society, the Victoria Police Department, and the Victoria Cool Aid Society.