Community Safety Host Initiative - CSHI

10/13/2026

We’re hiring Community Safety Hosts!

The Community Safety Host Initiative (CSHI) is a Winnipeg-developed, community-led alternative to conventional security, co-developed by Zoongizi Ode (formerly Fearless R2W) and Persons Community Solutions Ltd. (PCS).

In 2026, CSHI received the International Downtown Association’s Pinnacle Award in Public Space Management and Operations, recognizing its relationship-based approach to creating safer public spaces.

CSHs are employed by PCS as licensed Security Guards, but this is not a conventional security role. Hosts focus on connection, de-escalation, harm reduction, practical support, and helping people access public spaces and services safely.

You may work in libraries, social service offices, Access Centres, and other community spaces. A typical shift can include welcoming visitors, connecting people with resources, de-escalating conflict, responding to mental health crises, administering naloxone during an opioid poisoning, supporting staff, and building relationships with people experiencing homelessness, substance use, poverty, and other barriers.

Personal lived experience is strongly valued. Experience with EIA, CFS or the child welfare system, poverty, housing instability, systemic barriers, or Winnipeg’s North End and inner-city communities can be an asset. Indigenous applicants, youth who have aged out of care, and applicants connected to the R2W/North End community are especially encouraged to apply.

Successful candidates receive 40 hours of Security Guard training, 130+ hours of additional CSH training, and 3 months of supported field experience.
Hosts usually work 35–40 hours per week and are paid a minnimum of a living wage as determined by the CCPA: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/manitoba-living-wage-update-2025/

Currently receiving EIA? We encourage you to apply. We have employment opportunities specifically designed to create pathways from EIA into meaningful, long-term work.

If you care about people, know your community, and want to help build a different approach to safety, we want to hear from you.

To apply, go to https://bit.ly/45CQ4RM

10/08/2026

We’re proud to share more about the Community Safety Host Initiative’s recent IDA Pinnacle Award recognition.

Read the latest on the award, the work behind it, and the Hosts who bring the initiative to life every day

Each year, IDA recognizes outstanding projects as winners of the Downtown Achievement Awards, which identify advances to urban centers by organizations

10/08/2026

10/07/2026

We’re hiring Community Safety Hosts!

The Community Safety Host Initiative (CSHI) is a Winnipeg-developed, community-led alternative to conventional security, co-developed by Zoongizi Ode - Strong Heart (formerly Fearless R2W) and Persons Community Solutions Ltd. (PCS).

In 2026, CSHI received the International Downtown Association’s Pinnacle Award in Public Space Management and Operations, recognizing its relationship-based approach to creating safer public spaces.

CSHs are employed by PCS as licensed Security Guards, but this is not a conventional security role. Hosts focus on connection, de-escalation, harm reduction, practical support, and helping people access public spaces and services safely.

You may work in libraries, social service offices, Access Centres, and other community spaces. A typical shift can include welcoming visitors, connecting people with resources, de-escalating conflict, responding to mental health crises, administering naloxone during an opioid poisoning, supporting staff, and building relationships with people experiencing homelessness, substance use, poverty, and other barriers.

Personal lived experience is strongly valued. Experience with EIA, CFS or the child welfare system, poverty, housing instability, systemic barriers, or Winnipeg’s North End and inner-city communities can be an asset. Indigenous applicants, youth who have aged out of care, and applicants connected to the R2W/North End community are especially encouraged to apply.

Successful candidates receive 40 hours of Security Guard training, 130+ hours of additional CSH training, and 3 months of supported field experience.
Hosts usually work 35–40 hours per week and are paid a minnimum of a living wage as determined by the CCPA: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/manitoba-living-wage-update-2025/

Currently receiving EIA? We encourage you to apply. We have employment opportunities specifically designed to create pathways from EIA into meaningful, long-term work.

If you care about people, know your community, and want to help build a different approach to safety, we want to hear from you.

To apply, go to https://bit.ly/45CQ4RM

10/02/2026

Approximately 20 new Community Safety Hosts will graduate as the internationally recognized Winnipeg initiative continues to grow.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The award-winning Community Safety Host Initiative (CSHI) will celebrate the graduation of its 4th, 5th and 6th cohorts on November 17,

09/11/2026

The Community Safety Host Initiative has won the 2026 IDA Pinnacle Award!

The Pinnacle Award is the International Downtown Association’s highest recognition for excellence and innovation in urban place management, and we want to be clear about who earned it:

Our Hosts did.

CSHI was built around a different idea of community safety, one rooted in relationships, de-escalation, lived experience, compassion, and community leadership. But an idea is only an idea until people bring it to life.

Every relationship built, every person supported, every referral made, every conflict de-escalated, every difficult interaction navigated, and every shift worked helped make the CSHI what it is today.

This international recognition belongs to the Hosts who do that work on the ground, every single day.

A model developed here in Winnipeg is now being recognized internationally as an example of what innovative public-space management can look like.

To every Community Safety Host, past and present: this award is yours. You earned it.

Explore CSHI on the International Downtown Association website:
https://downtown.org/innovative-projects/the-community-safety-hosts-initiative/


Zoongizi Ode - Strong Heart

06/09/2026

Community safety starts with community. 💙

Thank you to our Hosts, school partners, and everyone working to show that safety can be trauma-informed, human-centered, and rooted in care.

A Winnipeg school grappling with concerns around open drug use and homelessness near the site has brought two community safety hosts — a type of security guard — on board.