The Alternatives to 911 Community Skill-Building Series is back with a session on supporting people in crisis with Diana Chan McNally! 

"Incidents" do not occur as discrete events without context. When someone who is unhoused is in crisis or experiencing distress — what most "crisis management" workshops will describe as "escalation" — compassionate people must understand this as the result of both systemic and systematic oppression, and of people's personal histories of trauma (including the daily trauma of being denied one's full humanity through ongoing social exclusion).

This workshop provides an understanding of how to work compassionately with street-involved people experiencing crisis or distress in public spaces, including on transit. Emphasis is placed on avoiding criminalization, and minimizing risks and harms to the person experiencing crisis or distress. This workshop is designed for anyone who wants to be more supportive of people in crisis.

About Diana Chan McNally 

Diana Chan McNally (Dipl. CW BFA MA MEd) is a community and crisis worker in Toronto’s downtown east side. As someone with lived experience of social services and of being unhoused, Diana’s work focuses on human rights and equity issues for people who are experiencing homelessness by advocating at the political level, while still maintaining an active frontline praxis. Diana is also an instructor in George Brown College’s Community Worker program and has served on the steering committees and boards of Justice for Children and Youth and Health Providers Against Poverty. She is an alumna of Maytree Policy School, a fellow of the McNally Project for Paramedicine Research, and a Board Director of the Chinese-Canadian Intercultural Association.