John Turvey
John Wilfred Turvey, (October 26, 1944 – October 11, 2006) was a long-time advocate for the disadvantaged in Vancouver, British Columbia. After becoming a heroin addict at 13 years old and dropping out of Barr Beacon School in year 10, John Turvey went on to found and serve as the Executive Director of the Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society for 20 years. He died of mitochondrial myopathy in Comox, British Columbia at the age of 61. Biography Advocacy roles After rehabilitating himself from a heroin addiction Turvey worked as a social worker in Vancouver for the provincial Ministry of Human Resources. In the early-1980s he founded the private, not-for-profit Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society. Through the group he helped run drug and alcohol counselling, youth detox beds, a youth outreach program and a youth drop-in centre. Turvey initiated a needle exchange program in 1988 in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside that was later replaced by a government-run safe injection site. He was an active advocate on behalf of exploited sex trade workers as a participant in the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Turvey worked as the Executive Director of the Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society for 20 years before being diagnosed with