The Social Emergency Room
From: Beyond Shelters
$1.20
Describes how the medical emergency model is being used to treat the social emergency a homeless person faces; triaging newly homeless people and helping them reconnect to housing and services in the community. The Centre Le Havre in Trois Rivières, Quebec is recognized as a model for homelessness reduction across the province due to this successful methodology.
Contributors
Michel Simard
Michel Simard began a journey of self-discovery after being homeless for several years in the seventies. He travelled the world, studied criminology and theology at the University of Montreal and, in 1989, began working with homeless people in Trois-Rivières. He became the Executive Director of the Centre Le Havre in 1993 and transformed the shelter into a model for integrated social emergency practice in Canada. He retired from Le Havre in 2016 but continues to dedicate his life to the power of compassionate living to drive social transformation.
