They are shunned when they seek medical care, when they try to find housing and when they look for employment.

Locals who use drugs and have stories to tell about living with that stigma in the Kootenays are the subjects of a multi-part video series from social outreach group ANKORS.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e very intimate,鈥� said ANKORS executive director Cheryl Dowden. 鈥淚 feel like people were very authentic and they were also extremely vulnerable but resilient, as well, in what they had to say. I hope people connect to that.鈥�

Dowden said the series is funded by the provincial and was created to represent the priorities of the Nelson Fentanyl Task Force.

She hopes the videos help alleviate some of the issues faced by community members seeking help from services many take for granted.

鈥淚f the first thing that we鈥檙e doing is seeing somebody鈥檚 addiction and defining them in that way, then we鈥檙e not even seeing the human being and we鈥檙e not connecting first person-to-person. We鈥檙e connecting through the lens of stigma and we need to remove that.鈥�

The first two videos in the series can be seen below. The Star will update this page as more videos are released.