We are a small but tenacious team of Indigenous people supporting the Indigenous Street Community in Burrough Plateau in Montreal.
ISWP began in 2019. ISWP was a six-month pilot project developed within The Homelessness Working Group of the Montreal Indigenous Community NETWORK and funded by the City of Montreal. Led by Indigenous voices, the Homelessness Working Group coordinated multiple community organizations in the Plateau. With the support of the City of Montreal Commissioner of Indigenous Relations, ISWP renewed its funding and continued into the 2022 Covid19 pandemic.
We had a very small crew with a part-time supervisor and two street workers. Our mandate was to "provide emotional listening to Indigenous people experiencing homelessness on the weekends and after hours in the Plateau." At that time, there were no services for Indigenous unhoused neighbours in the Plateau, and no homelessness services on the weekends.
In 2025 we have expanded to 7 days a week and run a few different innovative programs: Weekend Clean-up Crew, Sunday Brunch Inuit Social, Overdose Prevention Team, Indigenous Health Navigator & Street Nurse, Peer Membership Committee, Gender Expansive Safer Services, and our ongoing efforts towards Indigenous harm reduction as Substance User Rights Advocacy.
During the pandemic, many services faced a system-wide crisis and breakdown. Despite this, ISWP continued to work directly in the streets while coordinating with local and provincial emergency responses. Because of staffing shortages and constantly changing conditions, we turned to the street community members to provide services and support for each other.
It seemed like the first time that public health and community organizations had truly worked directly with Indigenous people experiencing homelessness. In the midst of the crisis, we all had to work together to ensure everyone remained healthy and safe. Through this flurry of activity, the strengths, knowledge, and wisdom within the Indigenous unhoused community were finally recognized after being long overlooked in Montreal.
Once this paradigm shifted, we needed to carry the momentum forward. Indigenous people who are experiencing homelessness and using substances must be meaningfully included in decision-making and leadership for program design and delivery.
ISWP is the first peer-led Indigenous Street Community organization in Montreal. ISWP incorporated as a non-profit organization in May 2022. We are grounded in Indigenous harm reduction practices "by and for" our community.
The mandate of ISWP is to center and support the well-being of Indigenous people with lived experiences of homelessness through decolonial advocacy and revitalization practices. ISWP is committed to providing wrap-around care and fostering relationships of trust based in wholistic healing and skills development to support our community members’ transition to an autonomous and empowered life free from homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and other forms of structural violence.
This is accomplished by providing:
You can find us where the land meets the sky. Where the eagle and the raven fly free. Under the sun and the moon.
Also, if there's seal and hangover soup, we'll be there!