Recognizing the Essential Work of Community Safety Hosts
Working in a public-facing role can be heavy on both the spirit and the body. This is widely recognized across fields like support work, outreach, and healthcare. These positions require a unique combination of resilience and emotional strength, earning the common denotation of “front-line” workers. Often, frontline workers receive donations of essential provisions like sandwiches or water bottles to distribute to the community members they serve.
Vulnerable people are supported by those in these public-facing roles, who in turn receive backing from their sector and the broader community.
This circle of support functions most effectively when we understand and clearly define these vital frontline roles, allowing them to access needed resources.
The Community Safety Hosts (CSHs) initiative, led by Zoongizi Ode (formerly Fearless R2W), is an innovative approach addressing critical gaps in conventional security services. In collaboration with Persons Community Solutions (PCS), SEED Winnipeg, and the Winnipeg Public Libraries, this initiative emerged from a two-year Housing Solutions Lab. Its goal is to create an alternative professional role better suited to facilities that provide access to essential services like Employment and Income Assistance (EIA), Child and Family Services (CFS), and public libraries.
Despite their significant impact, CSHs face unique challenges.
Operating in third-party locations, the initiative is still in its pilot phase and does not yet qualify for some forms of frontline worker support, such as life-sustaining supplies like water bottles. This blog aims to advocate for their recognition as frontline workers, ensuring they receive the support they need to continue their essential work.
CSHs are employed as security guards but stand apart due to their additional 130+ hours of in-class training and three months of supported practical field experience. They play a vital role in ensuring safe and equitable access to essential services for marginalized individuals.
Unlike traditional security personnel, CSHs are trained in trauma-informed care and systemic harm reduction.
On any given day, a CSH might connect someone with a shelter, de-escalate a tense situation, support a guest with an employment application, or administer life-saving naloxone during a drug poisoning. They work in diverse and challenging situations, providing everything from practical support to emotional guidance.
As Gary McKinney, a Community Safety Host, explains, “As a Safety Host, I feel responsible for their well-being when they visit our sites and always hope they find the hope, purpose, and motivation to spark change within themselves.”
The CSH initiative emphasizes sustainable employment opportunities, especially for individuals with lived experiences in navigating barriers. Priority is given to applicants from the R2W neighborhood, Indigenous youth, and those aging out of care.
This ensures that those most familiar with community challenges are at the forefront of addressing them.
The role of a CSH goes beyond traditional security.
As Mary Burton, Executive Director of Zoongizi Ode, says,
“CSHs are the first to offer help in a good way—whether finding resources or helping to save lives. They are boots on the ground, talking [to] and helping people in a good way.”
Their work involves helping people navigate complex systems, using their personal experiences, specialized training, and trauma-informed approach.
A CSH shared one such experience:
“I met a man with early onset dementia who had been evicted after 12 years despite winning an appeal against his landlord. He thought he’d been kicked off EIA for life, but after speaking with his worker, we found out he still had three months of benefits in his account. He had given up, thinking he wouldn’t have a home or money until he was eligible for OAS. I connected him with a housing worker and helped him set up a tax appointment. He left feeling much more hopeful.”
As Jamil Mahmood, Executive Director of Main Street Project, notes, “CSHs provide a very key role, especially in facilities where there are barriers to access or entry for our community members. Millennium Library, for example, is such an important place for people who are homeless to access key city services.”
Over the period of October 2021 to March 2023 – a span of 17 months, CSHs have resolved 92% of escalated incidents without law enforcement intervention, effectively supporting individuals with mental health challenges and reducing the strain on public resources.
As another CSH shared:
“I’m very happy to announce a success story. An individual outside Millennium Library was helped in finding a home […] This is what we do, and it feels amazing!”
Through their trauma-informed, harm-reduction approach, CSHs embody the true meaning of frontline workers. Mary Burton puts it best:
“Being a frontline worker is emotionally hard, because you are always taking on the hard work […] you are helping people at their worst and trying to give them a hand up so that they can have what they need.”
To learn more about the Community Safety Host Initiative, visit PCS Community Safety Host Program.
