COMMUNITY TIES: WHY PEER-BASED PROGRAMS WORK
None of us are in denial – festivals and underground music events can be dangerous places. Following the widely-publicised deaths at music festivals over 2018-19 festival season, it has become clear that these spaces need to be safer for everyone involved. No one knows this better than DanceWize NSW co-ordinator Georgina Bell, who has seen first-hand the difference that harm reduction services make on the ground at festivals, raves and bush doofs.
UN: I’m sitting here with Georgina, long-time doofer and one of the three coordinators of NUAA’s DanceWize NSW program. To begin with, for those who don’t about the service, what is DanceWize NSW and how does it work?
G: DanceWize NSW is a peer-led harm reduction service. It operates in NSW and is funded by NSW Health to provide a range of harm reduction services.
DanceWize NSW has three key services, all run by our amazing team of volunteers; education, roving, and care. What this means is that we distribute evidence-based information and peer information about drug use broadly, as well as for specific substances. We also have a roving team, who keep an eye out for people who might be experiencing harm or distress while at the party, and assist them as needed. We also provide care for people who are stressed, experiencing mental health problems, or have been harassed or assaulted.
UN: So you said that DWNSW is a peer-led service. What does that mean?
G: 'Peer-led' basically means that the whole program is operated and run by people who are in the festival community themselves. There’s a strong emphasis on elevating the expertise which comes with lived experience, whether it’s people’s personal experiences of drug use, or their community or their friends.
Because we’re peer-led, everyone on our team has insider knowledge about the community, how to run things and what’s going to be best for the everyone. Our team currently has 250 volunteers and staff, and everyone’s got that lived experience.
UN: Why is important that DanceWize NSW is at these sorts of events?
G: Care services, specifically peer-based ones, have been identified as being really important at these events, especially for people who choose to use drugs. Unfortunately, no one receives any sort of formal education on how to use substances safely, or around how to look out for our mates. But when things do go wrong, the options for support can feel pretty intimidating and scary for people – no one wants to ask the medical team or police for care.
Because the DanceWize NSW volunteers are part of the scene, people are much more comfortable in asking for and accessing help when they need it. It also gives people the opportunity to have in-depth conversations about their drug use, which is something that a lot of young people have never had the opportunity to do before.
I think that most of us have gone through the ‘Just Say No’ education at schools and from society more broadly, and so DanceWize NSW is filling this massive gap, by providing education and non-judgemental support which is something that everyone should be able to access easily.
UN: We’re starting to see DanceWize NSW at a lot more festivals and underground events lately, as well as similar services that aren’t ‘peer-based’. Why is it that there's so much more focus on harm reduction in these spaces today than there was 5 years ago?
G: That’s a good question. I think that harm reduction is something that’s had a growing evidence base for quite some time, and a growing level of support in all aspects of drug use. Specifically, at music festivals, globally there’s been a big focus on harm reduction in music scenes, and the government of Australia is quite behind on it. Thankfully, we’re finally catching up and receiving quite a lot of support from the NSW Health, which is awesome.
Following the festival season last summer, where we saw a lot of widely-publicised harms and deaths occurring, I think that harm reduction is really being given more of an opportunity to demonstrate that it works and that it can help. From my perspective, it’s both what the community is wanting and asking for, and there’s a growing amount of evidence that says it works.
UN: Having volunteered for the program in its early days, I can definitely agree with all of that. How do people get involved and learn more?
G: The best way to get involved is to follow us Instagram and Facebook to keep up to date with our recruiting, as well as fun little competitions, giveaways, and other opportunities. We go through rounds of recruiting, so keep an eye out as to when we open up applications.
If you want to learn more about drug use or harm reduction in general, you can check out our website at www.dancewizensw.org.au. Resources are available from the website to download for free, and you can order them as hard copies too.
UN: Cool stuff, was there anything else you wanted to say to the masses? It’s now or never!
G: The main thing to get across is that if DanceWize NSW is at an event, look out for our volunteers wearing the purple shirts that say ‘CROWD CARE’. We’re there to support you, not judge you.
In saying that, we aren’t going to be at every event all the time, which is why it’s important to get informed and learn about how you can party while looking after yourself. You don‘t have to be volunteering with DanceWize NSW to be a harm reduction advocate - you can learn yourself and teach your friends about harm reduction. Being an ambassador for harm reduction means safety and peace of mind for yourself and your friends!
This festival season, catch DanceWize NSW at:
Lost Paradise • NYE in the Park • Lunar Electric • EPIK • FOMO • Grow Your Own • Rolling Loud • Summer Gathering • The Drop Manly • The Drop Newcastle • Ultra • Bad Friday • Wine Machine (Hunter Valley).
Plus a few unregulated events that we can’t tell you about! Those in the loop might find us at a ~Secret Inner West Location~ or deep in the bush sometime soon.