The questions that Cavalieri (1998) asks about needle exchanges could similarly be asked of Learning Centres: How available, friendly and welcoming are they? How do the instructors view drug users? What is their attitude about drug use? Do the instructors take (or have) the time to develop empowering and supportive relationships with the people who come to the learning centre? Are the instructors themselves supported and empowered and learning about themselves — in relationship with the work and the learners? Constantly remembering to ask these questions and to check with the learners about their answers would be consistent with a Harm Reduction approach. Cavalieri’s final question (Are the workers themselves supported and empowered?) is important to ask in the context of program development, staff support and peer programs. In a similar vein, Maté makes the case for self-care among practitioners: “On days when you are tense and haven’t looked after yourself, you will never do the right thing for clients/students.” (Notes from presentation to Carnegie Staff, December, 2006)

Sarah’s response: I think it is bigger than this. This kind of work will trigger people to anger or empathy, but it is important to note that our responses are always about our own issues, our own traumas or pains or whatever. A supportive work environment is needed to help workers through this so they can also grow and “heal” and not project their issues onto learners and also not become victimized by vicarious traumatization. This is the piece that is about caring for the caregiver — and about us all being learners.

Cavalieri also argues that needle exchanges need to work with the whole person — their communities and families and hopes and dreams — and not just their veins or their problems. We are all learners and we can all experience healing and growth. Both literacy and harm reduction work involves relationships, events and stories that can trigger powerful emotional responses in practitioners (empathy, grief, fear, anger, blame, love). It is important for the workplace culture to encourage and support workers in their own personal development. Often, this starts with noticing our responses to various situations, stories or people, and with recognizing that our responses reflect our own issues. Supporting staff to reflect, learn and grow through the challenges of this work helps prevent burn-out and vicarious traumatization and helps maintain and nurture caring relationships with consistent, appropriate boundaries.

As literacy workers, we are well aware that progress can happen slowly with small steps, but the harm reduction literature reviewed above reminds us to also see it as cyclical and not necessarily linear. For example, Murray and Ferguson describe how users can move from states of “living in crisis” and depleted assets to “building stability” to “building assets”; they note that there is usually a movement both forward and backwards. So a literacy practitioner working with users or other learners who are at risk needs to be prepared (both personally and professionally) for this movement as it relates to learning. In research conducted with Literacy for Women on the Street, Alderson and Twiss found that

(W)omen rely on our evenness about their chaotic lives. They thrive on our curiosity about their roller coaster successes and failures, particularly with addictions, but they do not need one more judgement. When we continue to see women as champions of their lives and active learners in all situations, it breathes optimism into their self-concept. (Alderson & Twiss, 2003: 52)