Street Cats YYC

04/13/2026

📝KNOW YOUR RIGHTS📝

Too often the remand and prison systems in Canada leave folks without the support and guidance they deserve and need. So many inmates are unaware of their rights and live under inhumane conditions while in custody. We need to shed light on these issues and advocate for better support for our community members behind bars.

EVERYONE deserves to know their rights and receive fair treatment regardless of their circumstances.

03/30/2026

- 2026 -
💛FIRST QUARTER💛

This year, we’re facing major policy changes in harm reduction that are actively destabilizing the systems our community relies on to stay alive. We’re already seeing increased need, reduced access to care, and growing strain on frontline workers and grassroots groups like ours.

We continue to do this work despite these barriers - filling gaps left by these decisions while navigating deep uncertainty about what comes next.
So far, in the first quarter of 2026, we’ve:

* Had 2280 engagements with homies in the streets
* Provided 63 referrals to community resources & services
* Street Cats members spent 53 hours doing outreach
* 37 Kitten shifts were filled - “Kittens” are honorary volunteers who are currently experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity and/or using substances that come out with us on outreach to support their community
* Responded to 5 hard poisonings & 8 soft poisonings w/ coaching
* Distributed 154 Naloxone kits; 65 of those kits were replacements after being used in the street
* Responded to 11 wellness checks & de-escalations, & provided grief support 6x
* Supported reconnection to family 4x
* Provided encampment support 5x
* Provided hospital support 1x
* Connected 16 folks to housing
* Connected 4 folks to detox/treatment/O.A.T/NTS
* Performed 6 wound care/dressing changes
* Completed 8 transportations
* Put together & delivered 2 personal care packages
* Intervened with 6 potentially punitive authoritative figures
* Provided institutional support in prison 2x
* Provided supplies & referrals to folks on the street with pets 5x
* Offered pre & postnatal support 2x
* Connected 8 folks to legal/lawyer support

We need your ongoing support to continue our efforts in the streets. Please keep advocating on behalf of your friends and neighbours whose voices aren’t being heard.

Stay Safe & Keep Six. 

03/23/2026

⭐️SURVIVAL IS NOT A MINIMUM GOAL ⭐️

Our SCS is at serious risk of closure effective June 30, 2026. The provincial government has consistently ignored the evidence, the expertise of frontline workers, and the voices of people most impacted.

We’re being told this decision is about “recovery” and “better care,” while hundreds of millions of dollars are being redirected toward involuntary, high-cost systems that do nothing to address the root causes of drug use and poverty.

If the goal were truly to support people, we would be expanding care - not removing one of the only places people can safely stay alive.

Sign the open letter.
Speak up.
Educate the people around you.
Carry Naloxone.

And as always,
Stay Safe & Keep Six. ⭐️

03/22/2026

On Friday, the UCP announced the official closure date for Calgary’s only Supervised Consumption Service, effective June 30th. This is our worst nightmare come true. We are scared and we are heart broken.

Harm reduction services are under attack across Canada. Pay close attention to what is happening throughout Ontario. Listen to the people working frontline. Listen to people who use drugs.

Ontario… Red Deer, Edmonton, Lethbridge.. We see you. We hear you. We stand with you.

Please sign the open letter to the Premier and Minister of Mental Health & Addictions in the ‘SCS’ highlight on our profile. Please show up to the rallies.

Please carry naloxone.

We Love You. Stay Safe & Keep Six. ❤️‍🩹

03/13/2026

Why I Won’t Quit Smoking 🚬

Repost of an all time favorite by

03/13/2026

03/02/2026

Come see us this Saturday, March 7, at the Claw & Dagger 90’s Market 🩵💙🩵💙 FREE ENTRY Y’ALL!

We’ll be selling our merch (FRESH IN STOCK!) & of course offering all of our free safer s*x and drug use supplies, zines & education materials, and Naloxone kits and trainings.

Westgate Community Centre: 11am - 5pm.

ALL PROCEEDS OF OUR MERCH GO DIRECTLY BACK TO THE STREET!!!!!!!🩵💙🩵

02/05/2026

❇️ DISCOMFORT VS. DANGER ❇️

A lot of folks mistakenly equate discomfort with danger, especially regarding unhoused folks, people who use drugs and s*x workers. The media doesn’t help with this issue. Media portrayals are constantly linking social disorder with houselessness and substance use, which creates a perception that these folks are inherently unsafe.

We must sit with our feelings of discomfort and unfamiliarity, and recognize them as a catalyst for change and deeper understanding. Feeling uncomfortable when we’re confronted with issues of social justice forces us to challenge our preconceived biases. It inspires communication and unconditional support, and opens up the window for showing humility and kindness to one another.

01/22/2026

Today the Feds and BC NDP government are abandoning the decriminalization pilot project that has been operating for 3 years. Lisa Lapointe the former BC chief coroner believes it to be a success.

BC Decriminalization Pilot should be heralded as a success– BC had a reduction in deaths – significant reduction in people arrested, reduction in drugs being confiscated, reduction in ambulances being called, and no increase in people with opioid use disorder, especially among youths (as were the concerns).

It’s not a failure. The housing crisis is constantly being conflated with decriminalization and harm reduction. Open drug use is not because of decrim but because of the housing and poverty crisis.

The evaluations and research has been demonstrating what a success it has been and could be more of , if it were to keep going and is expanded. The Feds have been cutting exemptions for supervised consumption services caving to political rhetoric and choosing drug war tactics that lead us here to where we have been for 10 years.

Decrim removed police and criminalization from people’s live and we can’t stop fighting for an end to carceral systems and policies. Don’t give up and don’t buy the coward politicians propaganda.

- Z.D.

01/08/2026

✅ OUTREACH PREP ✅

For the past 4 ½ years, we’ve dedicated ourselves to customizing our outreach backpacks to ensure we have the necessary supplies for our community. In September, after the Safeworks Satellite Program lost funding for harm reduction supply distribution, we found ourselves in a challenging situation, relying on our remaining supplies while actively seeking alternatives to avoid running out.

As a grassroots group, we operate without any funding and depend entirely on donation and support from the community, which includes the sales from our merch. We’re currently figuring out how to access essential supplies without compromising our budget for food and other basic needs. 

This is a basic rundown of how we prepare our outreach backpacks. Please note that moving forward, we might not have all of these items until we secure new sources for supplies.

We need your continued support! If you know of any resources that could assist us, please share them! 

Stay Safe & Keep Six! 💚

01/04/2026

💚 2025 YEAR IN REVIEW 💚

Reading over the last few year-in-review posts, we notice we’re often naming the same truths: chronic grief, systemic burnout, and a level of exhaustion that never fully lifts. We wish this year were different.

This has been the most systemically traumatizing year we’ve navigated so far, marked by constant cuts to community funding and services across the city and country. But here we are, despite the ongoing struggle we face every day. And still, since 2021, we have never missed a single night of outreach.

Over the last YEAR, we have:
* Engaged with a total of 12,146 folks!
* Provided 1067 referrals to community resources & services
* Visited 72 encampments
* Supported 306 folks while they were in prison or hospital, & provided resources, basic needs, case management and other unique supports to 52 folks upon release from prison
* Offered grief support 102 times, 56 dressing changes/wound care, pre/post-natal support 13 times, and connected folks to legal supports 76 times
* Provided transportation 44 times
* Curated and delivered 49 personalized care packages
* Supported folks before, during and/or after detox/treatment 70 times

Over the last YEAR, we have responded to:
* 18 hard overdoses
* 61 soft overdoses
* Spotted 122 times
* 77 wellness checks/de-escalations
* 31 interventions with potentially punitive authorities

109 Kitten shifts were filled in 2025!
* “Kittens” are honorary volunteers currently experiencing houselessness or housing insecurity and/or using substances that come out with us on outreach to support their community.

Unfortunately, this year our team lost 44 valued community members and 1 very loved volunteer. 

Thank you for supporting us. We love you.

#2025