Join Ottawa Festival Network + Ottawa Public Health to develop an event safety toolkit for Ottawa’s event industry

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In support of the Ottawa Music Strategy and a prosperous festival, fair and special event industry, we’re working to create safer outdoor and indoor events spaces in Ottawa.

In August 2019, OFN supported the “Party Safe” initiative and tested public-facing communication tools in partnership with OPH, Capital Pride and Ottawa Special Events to help festival-goers party more safely. Come hear about we’ve been working on, and help shape an event safety toolkit for the 2020 festival season.

Hear from two prominent Canadian event harm-reduction experts and advocates, who are leading the way with innovative programming and practices to ensure accepting and safe environments.

Share your input and ideas in this facilitated session about what more can be done to prevent overdoses and violence at Ottawa’s festivals, fairs and events.

There is no cost to attend this event. Refreshments will be provided.

Why Attend?

Help develop an industry toolkit to create a "made-in-Ottawa solution"

Hear about 'real world' approaches that address intoxication, overdose, violence and sexual assault prevention

Understand industry challenges and opportunities to provide safer spaces

Gain insight into volunteer engagement and safety education best practices

Bring your questions and concerns, share your insight and lessons-learned with peers

Keynote Speakers

Stacey Lock, Harm Reduction Director, Shambhala Music Festival (British Columbia)For 23 years, Shambhala Music Festival has been at the forefront of the festival scene establishing leadership in the North American health and safety festival industry. Over the past 13 years as Shambhala’s harm reduction director, Stacey Lock AKA ‘Safety’ Stacey has been responsible for developing and managing all teams that provide harm reduction services. The seven departments in this program have been progressively built to meet the needs of guests, staff, volunteers and artists. They have over 300+ skilled volunteers that continuously return to the festival to be a part of the dream team of utopic service delivery. Harm Reduction is a part of the public safety team that works collaboratively with our strong medical team, security, and production. The team is committed to creating a safe party environment. Outside of the festival world, Stacey is a Social Service Worker, and a Chemical Dependency Counsellor currently completing her last year of the Bachelor of Social Work program. Hear about her innovative barrier-free and non-judgmental guests-services approach that ensures safer partying practices by providing resources, prevention services, and safe spaces, and discuss how these innovative steps might help shape the “Ottawa festival experience”.

Kayla McGee, Executive Director, Music Gallery (Toronto) Kayla serves as the Executive Director of the Music Gallery where she supports all things new and boundary pushing in Toronto’s music scene including the organization’s development of safe(r) spaces policies and practices in collaboration with the Dandelion Initiative. She studied (Ethno)musicology at Carleton University including an adventurous year at the University of Legon in Ghana’s Music Department. A producer of over 600 concerts and festivals to date in her career, she is a multi-hat-wearing expert in live music presentation operations including financial and human resource management, private and public fundraising and strategic planning. Hear more about Kayla's collaborative approach and her experience building survivor centric, trauma-informed and anti-oppression prevention into an organization's business model.

Agenda