Research & Initiatives

The Heart Tattoo Society in partnership with the DTES Emergency Supply Hub, and ______ is working with Eastside residents, organizations, and city staff to improve the delivery of extreme heat responses. This workshop asks participants to engage in discussion about surveys, information sharing, and supply distribution methods.

 

In this project, we are recruiting DTES residents to survey their neighbours and frontline workers, gathering feedback about the range of heat emergency responses available during previous heat events. We’ll share what we hear with community serving organizations and the CoV to hopefully improve the quality and accessibility of services provided. Hopefully, the combination of increased outreach and resources will significantly reduce the cases of heat-related illness and make us all generally more comfortable over the summer months. 

 

This project is part of a larger effort to channel communication between the residents of the DTES and larger institutions. This could improve shared understanding of the ongoing and acute needs of residents and the resources available to be funneled into the neighbourhood such as bottled water, clothing, furniture, and homewares. Some of these items are currently distributed for free out of the DTES Emergency Supply Hub along with recovered food, where we rely on a network of frontline workers and organized residents to distribute these resources to their neighbours and clients. Hopefully, this ongoing communication exercise will improve our stock of useful items and our ability to quickly get them to those in need.