Table 1: Principles and Practices in Harm Reduction, Literacy and Learning
HR approaches used by Toronto Programs (Murray & Ferguson, 2003) Principles of Literacy with Homeless People (Trumpener, 1997) Features of “Changing Paths” Program (Sochatsky & Stewart) Programs that support learning for survivors of violence (Morrish, Horsman & Hofer, 2002)
  • user-centred
  • focused on long-term relationship-building: non-judgemental, caring, inclusive
  • community-development oriented
  • integrative, holistic and asset-building
  • strategic — aimed at poverty reduction and challenging current policies and systems
  • recognize the right to comprehensive, non-judgmental medical and social services for all
  • supports a learning environment in drop-ins or shelters.
  • is inclusive and participatory.
  • values and builds on participants' knowledge, experience, and voice.
  • is critical and empowering.
  • is relevant
  • is equitable and accessible
  • emphasizes social and emotional needs as well as academic skills
  • works best with learners who have a stable living environment for at least 45 days
  • staff have experienced homeless-ness, or were active in homeless communities
  • Participatory
  • Holistic
  • Humanist
Integrated Literacy
and Lifeskills:
  • safe environment
  • group ground rules
  • being present
  • listening
  • talking about the process of creative writing,
  • women to write, speak and connect to themselves through writing.
  • name the presence of violence in many women’s lives and its impact on learning
  • create supportive conditions for learning
  • explore curriculum that invites learners to bring their whole selves to learning.
Harm Reduction: (Harm Reduction Coalition, http://www.harmreduction.org)
  • Accepts, for better and for worse that licit and illicit drug use is part of our world and chooses to work to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignore or condemn them.
  • Understands drug use as a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviours from severe abuse to total abstinence, and acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others.
  • Establishes quality of individual and community life and well-being--not necessarily cessation of all drug use--as the criteria for successful interventions and policies.
  • Calls for the non-judgmental, non-coercive provision of services and resources to people who use drugs and the communities in which they live in order to assist them in reducing attendant harm.
  • Ensures that drug users and those with a history of drug use routinely have a real voice in the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them.
  • Affirms drugs users themselves as the primary agents of reducing the harms of their drug use, and seeks to empower users to share information and support each other in strategies which meet their actual conditions of use.
  • Recognizes that the realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past trauma, sex-based discrimination and other social inequalities affect both people's vulnerability to and capacity for effectively dealing with drug-related harm.
  • Does not attempt to minimize or ignore the real and tragic harm and danger associated with licit and illicit drug use.