Age: 39
Occupation: Founder and director of community engagement, Street Cats YYC
Somewhere in an alleyway in Calgary’s downtown is a wall covered with names. Each refers to a person who died on the streets, usually by drug poisoning, and each written by someone who misses them. The makeshift memorial often gets painted over, but new names always appear.
This is Ally Vegter’s community.
As a young person, Vegter struggled with depression and substance use and dependency. The people on the street she bought drugs from, and those she used with, kept her safe. “There’s a lot of love and care in the underworld,” Vegter says.
Once she got sober, Vegter studied nursing with the intention of supporting the same people who helped her when she most needed care.
In 2021, Vegter founded Street Cats YYC. The grassroots harm-reduction organization has contributed 1,500 hours of direct outreach to Calgary’s street community. They’ve responded to more than 300 overdoses, distributed more than 4,000 naloxone kits, and provided more than 31,000 meals. Street Cats has also tended to wounds, performed hundreds of crisis and suicide interventions, and made more than 5,000 referrals to health care, housing and social services.
Vegter also advocates for equitable, trauma-informed care for drug users. Her advocacy prompted Calgary’s 911 mental health response team to offer non-police responses to mental health crises.
Vegter and Street Cats work to uplift and liberate those who occupy Calgary’s drug user and poverty space. “We’re all community members. We’re all living in the same space. We’re all here taking care of each other, because that’s how a community should be,” Vegter says. “Whether your neighbour lives in an apartment or a tent or a house, they’re still your neighbour.”
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