Our First Blog: The Story Behind Our Initiative

Hi There!

For those who are new here—welcome! My name is Joy Yang, and I am the co-founder of Bandage & Beyond (BB), a registered non-profit in BC dedicated to providing accessible, zero-cost wound care kits and education to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside community. We’re so grateful to have you with us as we begin documenting our journey at BB.

This platform will serve not only to keep the public updated, but also as a space for reflection—sharing what we’ve learned, what’s working (and what isn’t), how we can improve, and the ways we’re engaging with the community.

I’ve been entrusted with the enormous responsibility of writing our very first blog post. We figured we’d kick things off by introducing our team and sharing a bit more about the story behind how our initiative came to life.

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The Story Behind BB

The Very Beginning

Our initiative started in the summer of 2024 with three undergraduate students— me, Raj, and Vanesse— who happened to cross paths while doing research on paediatric infectious diseases at BC Children’s Hospital. We had the same supervisor, similar projects, and before long, we found ourselves bonding over a shared passion for infectious diseases (no surprise there) and health challenges in resource-limited settings.

Us at BCCHR! (Circa Jul 2024)

At the same time, Raj was volunteering at a local clinic, where he repeatedly saw unhoused patients struggling with untreated cuts and infected wounds. Many shared that they had little access to even the most basic wound care supplies—such as clean bandages. They also often lacked knowledge about the warning signs of infection or what steps to take when they sustained a wound. Several recounted that their friends faced the same challenges, unsure of where, when, and how to seek help—since many clinics in the Downtown Eastside either do not provide wound care or are overwhelmed and overbooked.

Many of these wounds are a downstream result of life in conditions where trauma, scrapes, injuries, and comorbidities are a daily reality. Without resources or knowledge, small injuries often escalate into complicated and life-threatening conditions such as sepsis, amputations, or deep tissue infections. Once patients reach this stage, compliance with intensive treatment is critical—but for those who are unhoused, managing complex or chronic wounds is extremely difficult.

It became clear that addressing wounds only at this downstream stage was not enough. As students, we asked ourselves: What if we intervened earlier? We realized the greatest impact could come from working upstream—equipping people with wound care kits at the moment injuries occur and sharing practical education on how to recognize infection, when to seek help, where to find it, and the consequences of delaying care. By shifting the focus to prevention and early action, we could support individuals before wounds became life-threatening, bridging a critical gap in care for the Downtown Eastside community.

The more we read and discussed, the more obvious it became: this issue wasn’t simply about access to hospitals or medications. It was about making sure people had the basic tools and knowledge to care for themselves before small wounds spiraled into amputations, sepsis, or other life-threatening conditions. That realization became the foundation of our initiative. Just to highlight a couple of key stats and insights:

• On any given night in Canada, an estimated 35,000 people experience complete homelessness, with the Downtown Eastside having one of the highest per-capita rates in the country (Stephenson, 2021).

• Wound care has become a pressing yet often neglected health priority: about 17% of emergency department visits among people experiencing homelessness (PEH) are due to skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) (Fairbairn, 2012) . This was the number one reason why PEH seek care!

• Even though 72% of PEH report accessing primary care, emergency room use remains elevated (60%), suggesting delayed care-seeking or barriers to timely care (Kerr, 2005).

• PEH face far higher risks of bacterial infections: for example, they are 53 to 100 times more likely to develop invasive Group A streptococcal (iGAS) infections compared to the general population (Dauby, 2019; Mosites, 2019; Valenciano, 2022).

Getting Started

Our summer research projects eventually wrapped up, but for us, the work was only just beginning. That’s when we started laying the foundation for this initiative. As you may have seen in our website intro, we built it around two main pillars: kits and education. We realized that most existing models tend to focus on just one, either distributing supplies or running workshops/public health campaigns but rarely both together. From the start, our vision was to create something long-term and sustainable, not another “drop-in, drop-out” or pilot program. Too many well-meaning projects in this space have struggled with short timelines, so we wanted to approach things differently.

We began by brainstorming and reaching out to both scholars in the field and people on the ground. In the fall of 2024, we were thrilled to welcome our fourth member, Jane. I vividly remember those 8am team calls over the holidays (call us crazy!) where we spent hours planning, pitching, and researching. We want to give a huge thank you to all the researchers, physicians, nurses, and community organizations who offered valuable insights during these earliest stages. Our initial ideas were quite ambitious and wild, to say the least, and went through many rounds of refinement thanks to their guidance.

Community Engagement

Once we got back to school, in addition to more pitching, we began getting to know the community we’d be working with. We want to be upfront: we know we are guests in the neighbourhood, and as much as our passion drives us, there is still so much we don’t know. With that in mind, we approach this work as learners.

After many conversations, we connected with Salvation Army Harbour Light, Mission Possible, and Kilala Lelum. We are so grateful to be able to partner with these amazing organizations and share in their mission. At the same time, we achieved the milestone of winning the SFU Community Engagement Competition which gave us our first seed funding.

What is Next

After almost a year of preparation, we’re finally so close to launching! Our first step will be piloting our initial batch of kits and educational posters, gathering community feedback, and using this iterative process to refine our materials before rolling them out on a larger scale.

At the same time—as you’re reading this blog—we’re working to raise public awareness not only about our initiative but also about the often-overlooked issue of wound care in the DTES community. We know this is just the first step of a much longer journey, but we couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead.

Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has shared their feedback, suggestions, and time with us—and to you, for reading our very first blog. It truly means a bunch ! :)

Until then, please follow our website for updates and feel free to reach out to us at bandageandbeyond@gmail.com!

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A Bit of Personal Reflection

If you haven’t read our team introduction yet, I’m one of the co-founders of BB and a finance student at UBC. One of the questions I get asked the most is: “Why are you involved in this?”

It’s a fair question. Finance, to many, feels like this vague, abstract world of financial jargon and numbers in the millions. And honestly, sometimes that perception is true, and it saddens me. But I cannot say how fortunate I am to experience both sides of the door: doing infectious disease research in resource-limited settings at BC Children’s, seeing the health realities in the DTES through BB, and also working in the finance industry.

Those multiple exposures gave me a bigger-picture perspective. And once you see the disparities up close, it’s hard to unsee them. That’s what made me passionate about the intersection of economics and health. On paper, the two fields I’m in might sound contradictory, but I believe there’s a way to bring them together and that belief is one of the reasons why I helped start BB.

I also have to say how lucky I feel to be surrounded by the best team I could ask for: the most hardworking, funny, and compassionate people I know. I’m so proud of how far we’ve come together, and even more excited for what’s ahead.