Partnership to help vulnerable transit riders expanded
We’ve expanded our community partnership with Alpha House Society to help Calgary’s vulnerable population connect to medical aid, housing support and addiction services.
The DOAP-Transit partnership pairs a Downtown Outreach Addictions Partnership (DOAP) outreach worker with a Calgary Transit peace officer to work as a team across transit lines.
The partnership added three DOAP outreach workers and three transit peace officers June 2021 for a total of four DOAP transit teams, who work along our transit lines to build relationships with vulnerable individuals and achieve positive, long-term solutions.
“The DOAP transit teams interact with Calgarians facing homelessness or addiction, troubled youth and people with developmental disabilities,” said Will Fossen, Calgary Transit Coordinator Public Safety and Enforcement. “The goal is to help these individuals find the resources they need.”
The City funded the expansion through its Community Safety Investment Framework (CSIF). The CSIF funding covers the DOAP-Transit partnership’s operating costs through March 2022.
The partnership started as a pilot project in 2018 and secured funding to operate in 2019 and 2020 due to its success. This partnership has resulted in a decrease in the number of Calgary Transit customer reported incidents/safety concerns, particularly a decrease in social disorder reports.
The DOAP transit team provided assistance on more than 2,500 occasions between September 2018 and April 30 2021.
DOAP transit teams build on current Transit safety initiatives such as our TransitWatch program, which enables customers to report immediate safety concerns to us using help phones and silent text service phone line. Uniformed peace officers on the system 24 hours a day, security guards at our stations, and real-time CCTV monitoring from our Operations Control Centre also help keep riders safe on transit.
For more information on the DOAP partnership visit https://alphahousecalgary.com/how-we-help/outreach/.