Approaching Homelessness:
Safety, Empathy, and De-Escalation Strategies Workshops

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Are your employees saying to you: ‘I don’t feel safe going to work,’ ‘Who is responsible for dealing with this?’, and ‘What can I, or my company, do?’

Across sectors, professionals interact with people experiencing homelessness in vastly different ways. Whether through service delivery, enforcement, or public-facing roles. However, many organizations face challenges in fostering respectful, effective, and equitable engagement with unhoused individuals.

The Existence Project’s Safety, Empathy, and De-Escalation Strategies workshop provides a trauma-informed, empathy centred framework that helps teams navigate these interactions safely, with more confidence, and ultimately gaining a deeper understanding of the issues.

This workshop is designed for professional office staff, retail workers, security personnel, and community groups addressing challenges while providing practical tools to improve organizational approaches to homelessness.

Homelessness is urgent and complex. It cuts across income levels and is shaped by mental health, substance use, housing shortages, and systemic inequities. 

We all feel the impact. From storefronts to sidewalks and parks, gaps in housing, shelter, and support services place unhoused neighbours in impossible situations and put public-facing staff on the front line. Without shared tools and consistent practice, encounters can escalate, increasing risk, stress, and burnout. 

When enforcement becomes the default, people are often criminalised simply for being unsheltered, and the cycle of escalation tightens. Safety, Empathy, and De-escalation strategies offer a practical alternative: clear boundaries, respectful engagement, and skills that help staff stay calm, consistent, and confident while building greater community understanding.

Participants will develop key skills to integrate empathy and trauma-informed practices into their work, including:

✔ Empathetic Listening – Engaging in meaningful, respectful conversations with people experiencing homelessness.

✔ Trauma-Informed Engagement – Recognizing and responding compassionately to trauma in public interactions.

✔ Boundaries & Safety – De-escalation strategies for maintaining respectful interactions while ensuring personal and workplace safety.

✔ Accessibility & Equity in Spaces – Addressing barriers to inhabiting public spaces and accessing social services.

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Your company or organisation will gain:

✔ De-escalation and trauma-informed communication skills

✔ Stronger team cohesion and morale

✔ Tools to stay safe and reduce burnout

✔ Confidence in managing complex interactions

✔ A shared language to address complex social issues

✔ Better understanding of the systemic causes of homelessness

✔Clear demonstration that leadership prioritizes employee safety and well-being

How it Works – A Flexible Format Built For You:

  1. Intake Call: We discuss your needs, staff size, and learning goals
  2. Focus Group: We hear your staff's concerns and tailor your workshop (highly encouraged)
  3. Partial-Day Workshop: Typically 2.5-3 hours long, our team of trained facilitators delivers a story-based, skill-building, emotionally safe workshop catered to the needs of your staff. 
  4. Follow-Up Resources: We provide takeaway tools and ongoing support options to help maintain positive engagement.

Longer or custom workshops are also a possibility! Reach out with your questions.

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PAST WORKSHOP REFLECTIONS

  • Sharing a cup of coffee can go a long way

READY TO SETUP A WORKSHOP?

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