HIV Australia | Vol. 13 No. 3 | December 2015
By Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy (CAHMA)
The Connection – a program of the Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy (CAHMA) – is a peer-based service that represents the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who use illicit and injecting drugs (PWID) in the ACT.
The Connection promotes improved health and reduction of harms associated with illicit/injecting drug use through a range of services, including peer support, representation and advocacy, referrals, information and education.
This article takes a brief look at the history of this unique service, and outlines some of its main achievements.
Breaking new ground
From 2003 to early 2004, AIVL (Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League) ran a two-hour weekly workshop with local Aboriginal1 PWID in the ACT.
The workshops were designed to educate and inform this community on topics such as hepatitis C, harm reduction and safer drug use.
The Aboriginal PWID involved in the workshop (most under 25 years old) also worked with AIVL on developing a training program to be run with Aboriginal health workers.
In 2004, a group of these young people travelled overnight to Sydney to stage a cultural performance and run the training workshop at the Social Research Conference on HIV, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases (HHARD).
The performance and workshop – and the discussion that followed – was truly ground-breaking. For many in the room, this was the first time that many of the issues affecting the lives of Aboriginal1 PWID had been discussed so publicly.
The discussion was lively and emotional, and highlighted just how much work was needed to ensure that the needs of Aboriginal people who use drugs were not only heard, but actually addressed by the health sector.
A number of the young people subsequently approached AIVL for support, with the aim of continuing this work by building a bigger and broader project.
During this time, the Youth Coalition of the ACT (YCA) also became involved and the young people, together with AIVL, set up a partnership to develop a DVD to promote the work being done by young Indigenous people who use drugs.
The DVD, titled Hang’in Not Hang’in Out, was launched with a major party at the YCA office in August 2004. It featured all the participants from the original workshops discussing the issues they faced on a daily basis including drug use, housing issues, police harassment, family problems, racism and more.
The launch was attended by local services, young people and politicians, and was a fantastic way to gain recognition for the amazing work being done by these young Aboriginal people, and to publicly ask for support from the ACT community to keep this work going.
AIVL assisted the young people to look for funding to help them to set up a drop-in space, so they could continue to meet and have a safe space where they could support each other.
While looking for funding, the young people continued to meet each week through support from AIVL, and it was at this time that the relationship with CAHMA began.
The Connection is born
A proposal for a three-year project was submitted to the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) in September 2004. This proposal outlined plans for a peer-based Indigenous youth drop-in centre and peer education and support service run by and for Aboriginal users and ex-users under 25.
It also came up with a name for the proposed service: ‘The Connection’ – symbolising the connections young people had with each other and the connections they hoped to make with other young people and services and the community.
In late 2004, AIVL and the young people received the news that the proposal had been successful! Out of eight Stage 1 grants awarded nationally, only four would go on to receive a Stage 2 grant for the next three years. The Connection was born!
Around this time, Booker prize-winning novelist Arundhati Roy was visiting Australia to accept the Sydney Peace Prize. She had heard about the work of The Connection and decided to donate money from the prize towards the organisation.
Taking root and growing
In 2006, John Van Den Dungen became The Connection coordinator. He remained in this role for five years.
During this time, John was a runner-up for Young Australian of the Year Award. From its humble beginnings, opening for a few hours a week in one very small room in the Griffin Centre in the heart of Canberra, the Connection went on to be auspiced by AIVL, becoming a strong and active voice for Indigenous youth in the ACT.
Building on the base funding from the FYA, the Connection then received funding from ACT Healthpact for the Healthy, Mobile Mothers and Babies Project (funded by the Department of Family Services and the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health [OATSIH]).
Because of these developments, in June 2006, the Connection employed five permanent paid peer workers (all under 25 years old, and two under 20), and engaged numerous volunteers and many participants.
The service moved into bigger premises in the newly built Griffin Centre and expanded its opening hours to four days per week.
The Connection ran a peer drop-in centre which offered peer education, support, advocacy, referral and information. The drop-in centre provided a safe space for youth in Canberra where they could get a free meal and relax.
The Connection also ran a number of other programs at this time and received enough funding to hold regular outings and social events for participants of these programs.
Major achievements
The Connection continues to be funded by the Commonwealth and is now a program of CAHMA. The service receives around $86,000 per year.
This money covers wages, rent, admin costs, phone, electricity and computer bills, insurance, printing and training and education.
The service has had many major achievements to date, including:
- input in to the Third National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Blood Borne Virus and Sexually Transmissible Infections Strategy 2010–2013
- along with CAHMA, the establishment of Australia’s first take-home naloxone program
- input into the ACT Opioid Treatment guidelines
- participation in the ACT Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Minimum Qualification Strategy (MQS)
- participation in the ACT Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Minimum Qualification Strategy (MQS)
- receiving a YOGIE Award from the Youth Coalition of the ACT; an ACT Workers Group Award; and a National Crime and Prevention Award.
Of particular importance was the Connection’s input into the Third National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Blood Borne Virus and Sexually Transmissible Infections Strategy 2010– 2013.
In formulating this input, we held consultations with peers from our community to ensure that our voices were heard.
This work has meant that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who use drugs are not only named as a priority population within the Strategy, but are highlighted as individuals who should be providing education and information on blood borne viruses.2
Another important achievement was the establishment of Australia’s first peer-administered take-home naloxone program, which was started by CAHMA and the Connection in 2011.
This program allows opioid users, their family and friends ready access to this lifesaving opioid overdose reversal drug.
Experts in the alcohol and other drugs field, including researchers, doctors – and of, course peer organisations – have been lobbying for this approach to be introduced for over 20 years through publishing papers outlining international evidence and other lobbying efforts.
The ACT program has been a huge success, and following its commencement, a few other states have since begun takehome naloxone programs.
The Connection was also an integral part of the lobbying efforts calling for a needle and syringe (NSP) in the ACT prison, the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
The ACT government has given in principle support for this program but unions representing prison staff are highly resistant to the idea. Our advocacy in this area continues.
References
1 For the purposes of this article, use of the term Aboriginal is inclusive of Torres Strait Islander peoples.
2 Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. (2010). Third National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Blood Borne Virus and Sexually Transmissible Infections Strategy 2010–2013. Commonwealth of Australia. See: chapter 6, p. 32. (‘Priority action areas’). Retrieved from: www.health.gov.au