07/23/2026
There are a lot of hidden heroes at Cool Aid—people doing invaluable, life-saving work behind the scenes. Outreach Support Worker, Shae Gallagher, is one of them.
Most days, Shae meets with five or six people, and she's often booked weeks in advance. By the time someone sits down across from her, they've often exhausted every other option.
"It's hard for people to walk through our doors," she says. "They come out of sheer desperation when they have nothing left."
A conversation that begins with an application for income assistance can quickly become something bigger. Someone may also need help applying for disability benefits, finding housing, accessing rent subsidies, replacing identification, or connecting with supports after experiencing intimate partner violence.
For the past five years, Shae has helped people navigate systems that can feel impossible to understand, especially for those experiencing homelessness or living with trauma. As Cool Aid's only Outreach Support Worker, she's seen demand for her role grow dramatically.
Still, she returns each day with the same belief that drew her to this work in the first place—a deep sense of social justice and a genuine care for people.
"Everyone is somebody's kid. We need to get to know people, hear their stories and understand why they need caring."
The work is hard and sometime heartbreaking but Shae says that often just when she's had enough, something good happens...a housing application is approved, a benefit cheque arrives, someone reconnects with family, a person who thought they had nowhere left to turn finds a way forward.
And for Shae, that's enough to keep showing up—because she has seen firsthand that a caring connection and the right support can change the course of someone's life.
