Upcoming Events
International Overdose Awareness Day
Join us on International Overdose Awareness Day as we come together in remembrance, healing, connection, and hope. This community gathering offers a welcoming space to honour loved ones who have died, support those who continue to grieve, and stand in solidarity with individuals, families, and communities impacted by the toxic drug crisis.
Throughout the afternoon, participants are invited to take part in a grief circle, connect with an Indigenous Elder for guidance and support, learn life-saving naloxone training, and participate in a Devil’s Club bracelet workshop that celebrates culture, healing, and resilience. The event will also feature food, music, and personal stories from survivors and families, creating opportunities for reflection, community connection, and shared understanding.
1pm - Welcome by Indigenous Elder Andy Dixon and Sito.
1:30pm - Grief Circle, Devil's Club bracelet making, Indigenous support with Elder Glenn, and naloxone training.
3pm - Blanketing Ceremony, Food and Music
Whether you have been personally affected by substance use, have lost someone you love, work in the community, or simply wish to learn more and show your support, all are welcome. Together, we can reduce stigma, foster compassion, and remind one another that no one has to carry grief alone.
Bring a friend, family member, or neighbour. Light a candle of remembrance, share a story, learn a new skill, and help build a more caring and connected Sunshine Coast.
Always remembered.
Hosted on the stolen ancestral territory of the shishalh Nation in the village of ch'atlich known colonially as Sechelt.
Grief vigil
April 2026 marks ten years since a BC public health emergency was declared due to the massive surge in opioid-related overdose deaths, largely driven by fentanyl. Since that declaration in 2016 over 17,500 people have died in BC due to toxic unregulated drugs (and over 700,000 across North America). Over 80 of those deaths we people we loved, who lived here on the Sunshine Coast.
To mark the anniversary, Arrowhead Clubhouse, working alongside the Sunshine Coast Community Action Team (CAT) and the amazing people at Sunshine Coast Hospice, will be holding a vigil and celebration of love and life for all those who have been taken too soon. We will be lighting 80 candles through out the Clubhouse to remember those we have loved and lost.
Please come and join us on April 17th – light a candle, share some yummy free food, listen to some music and support each other through these hard times.
No Fixed Address: The White Cart Memorial Film Screening
Join us for the first showing of the film on the Sunshine Coast followed by a panel discussion.
No Fixed Address: The White Cart Memorial is a powerful and intimate documentary that sheds light on a deeply overlooked aspect of the homelessness crisis: people's grief following the death of someone they care about. Through the voices and stories of individuals living with unstable housing in Kelowna, the film explores what it means to grieve without a house, and how loss echoes through a community already struggling to survive.
Centred around the creation and meaning of the White Cart Memorial—a grassroots, mobile tribute to unhoused lives lost—the film weaves together research, personal lived experience testimonies, community organization reflections, and future action plans for the city of Kelowna. This film captures the emotional and logistical challenges of grieving in public spaces.
Dedicated to the memories of all unhoused lives lost—and those who carry their grief forward—No Fixed Address: The White Cart Memorial urges us to rethink how we hold space for mourning in public, and how we can come together to build more compassionate, inclusive systems of care. Because only through community can we create safer places to grieve, to heal, and to remember.
The film screening has been funded in part by contributions from the Sunshine Coast Community Action Team, the BC Centre for Palliative Care, Kelowna Homelessness Research Centre through the University of British Columbia Okanagan Eminence Program, Community Action Initiative, Vancouver Foundation, with in-kind support from other community organization. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the funders.
Keynote Presentation
Join us for the kick off of a week long series of events, learnings and activities to honour and acknowledge 10 years since the declaration of the Toxic Drug Emergency in British Columbia. We are more than excited to welcome a dedicated and impassioned speaker to the Sunshine Coast
"Greg Hemminger is a phenomenal individual whose impact on the substance use care system can be felt across the province. Greg is seven years removed from an opioid addiction and has dedicated immense time and effort to serving and improving the system that saved his life”.
Not only does Greg work full time as the Lower Mainland’s regional coordinator for the Tailgate Toolkit Program, an innovative project that aims to provide harm reduction resources and education for people in trades, but he sits on advisory committees with multiple organizations and travels around the province as a public speaker and educator.”
"Greg’s passion for not only improving the system, but consistently speaking to the patient experience in care through a positive lens brings much needed strength and levity to an otherwise incredibly challenging space to work in"