Source: Your Neighbourhood Needle Network
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES AHEAD
“75% of what we’re finding is all clean, unused material.”
Brad Jones, or ‘Mr. Jones’, founded Your Neighbourhood Needle Network out of St. Thomas, Ont., in mid-September of 2018. After quitting his job as a pool and hot tub technician, he stopped his bike behind the Elgin County Railway Museum, when he looked down to see a pile of used needles lying in between the blades of grass.
“[That was] the first time in my entire life that I ever found needles in my city,” Jones explains. “I didn’t know what to do… But that put me in a position that forever changed my life from that point.”
Wanting to help his community, Jones looked to the St. Thomas Health Unit and took it upon himself to acquire the proper training for safe needle disposal. He began walking around the streets of downtown, not only cleaning up various areas within the city, but documenting the sites in hopes of showing that this issue stretches beyond downtown Talbot Street. He caught the public’s interest with his first video in a matter of hours.
“What I did on September 18th, 2018, was put one video up. I captured that moment with my initial expressions and feelings towards what I happened to stumble upon and that video went viral within about an hour.”
Jones has since posted about 1,800 videos to Facebook and six ‘full-length’ to YouTube, still showing the various areas where he has found and cleaned up needles and other related paraphernalia. But Mr. Jones is not the only individual out there doing this line of work.
“Fred Bowering has been doing this out of St. Cathrines for over five years,” says Jones. “There’s also Needle Dogs Moncton running out of Moncton, New Brunswick. They train dogs to scent needles and have been cleaning up their streets for over seven years.”
Inspired by these people, Jones continues to provide information on the needle cleanup all while tidying up in and around the backyards of St. Thomas. But one of the real dangers he faces in this job is the stress of trying to find a steady source of funding.
Source: Your Neighbourhood Needle Network
“There’s no funding for what we do as individuals.. Myself, I run right now from 10:00am to 7:00pm, Monday to Saturday, and Sunday 12:00pm until 4:00pm. That’s me voluntarily going out on a daily basis.”
He shares what everyday challenges arise both for himself and his volunteers due to this lack of funding. Not having the extra expenses to own a vehicle for easy transportation being an example.
Jones however, being so passionate about this work, continues to find ways around these struggles. Saying that this shortage of financial support is not held up to the immense amount of support from the community.
“I feel like a celebrity, I can’t go down the street without someone recognizing me. Then you see people walking with my logo on their shirts… I wouldn’t have gotten to this point had it not been for the citizens of St. Thomas.”
VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES: VEIWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED
But the calls are getting more and more frequent. He explains how the amount of discarded needles has seemed to increase, compared to when he started almost three years ago.
What shocks him the most is the amount of unused needles they’re called to clean up.
“I find it unbelievable that I sit here on a daily basis, wait for a call, and I go pick up a needle [or] pick up 200 units and a half to three quarters of them are clean. I could see if they’re used and they’re just discarded, but it’s in clean packages. If the people aren’t using what they’re getting, why give it to them?”
He highlights that all of these unopened needles, while they may still be packaged, are not available to be used for health and safety reasons and due to COVID-19.
In light of this, Jones is a part of organizations, like Risk Tackers, that help people recover from serious addictions. Whether that be with dangerous substances or not, Mr. Jones not only wishes to deal with the present state of their city streets, but ensure that everyone can have a safe and healthy future.
Source: Your Neighbourhood Needle Network
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