Technology for Good: How Vancouver’s Brave is Helping Canadian Communities Prevent Overdose Deaths

In Canada, the overdose crisis continues to claim lives at an alarming rate, leaving families and communities searching for solutions. In many cases, those experiencing an overdose are alone, without access to timely intervention. While harm reduction strategies have evolved, public spaces remain vulnerable to medical emergencies, and many institutions are now looking for proactive ways to address the crisis.

Libraries, which serve as open and inclusive community spaces, are among the places where these challenges are becoming increasingly visible. Recognizing this, the Guelph Public Library partnered with Brave Co-op to install overdose detection sensors in its public washrooms, ensuring that help can be dispatched when someone is in distress.

The Brave Sensor, one of Brave’s flagship innovations, monitors motion and stall occupancy. If a person remains motionless for over two minutes or stays in a stall for more than 15 minutes, the sensor automatically alerts library staff and city security via text message. This simple yet powerful intervention ensures that staff can quickly respond, providing aid before it’s too late.

“We want to ensure that everyone who visits our library has a safe space,” says Samantha Wellhauser-Bells, Branch Supervisor at Guelph’s Main Library. “The Brave Sensors have given our staff the confidence to respond quickly and effectively in potential overdose situations. It’s a critical tool in making our library a safer place for all.”

Brave’s harm reduction tools are designed to get help to people wherever they use drugs. In addition to the Brave Sensors, the organization has developed Brave Buttons, small, discreet panic buttons that can be installed in washrooms, shelters, or workplaces to request immediate help.

Anne-Marie Hopkins, Director of Operations at Ottawa Inner City Health, has seen firsthand how community-driven solutions like Brave’s technology can make a meaningful difference.“The best answers are flexible, innovative, and inclusive,” says Hopkins. “Brave’s overdose detection tools are a perfect example of how technology can be used to meet people where they are—without stigma, without judgment, and with real, life-saving impact.”

To date, Brave’s innovations have connected more than 20,000 people to care, created over 2,000 safer spaces, and detected and reversed more than 450 overdoses.

For Gordon Casey, CEO of Brave Co-op, the mission is clear: no one should die from an overdose simply because they were alone.

“This crisis demands solutions that work in real time, in real places,” says Casey. “We’re building technology that doesn’t just monitor—it activates help, saves lives, and gives communities the tools they need to respond.”

With cities across Canada and beyond adopting Brave’s technology, this homegrown innovation is proving that harm reduction isn’t just about policy—it’s about action. Because when Canadian businesses support one another, communities thrive—and lives are saved.

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