2018 Speakers
keynote address speaker
zoë dodd
Zoë Dodd is a co-founder and Program Coordinator of the Toronto Community Hep C Program (TCHCP). The TCHCP has offered community-based access to Hep C treatment and support for people who use drugs for over ten years and has been replicated around the province. Zoë has worked in Toronto for many years on issues of poverty, HIV, hep C and harm reduction in both front-line, advocacy and research roles. Her work has been published online and in the International Journal of Drug Policy, European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy. Zoë has also contributed to publications for both the United Nations and World Health Organization. She regularly contributes to local, national and international networks and committees to advise and develop equitable responses to Hepatitis C. She currently helps to co-organize the Moss Park Overdose Prevention Site and is a member of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society and the Toronto Harm Reduction Alliance.
mid-morning presentation speaker
nick boyce
Nick Boyce has 20 years of experience working in harm reduction. He is currently the Director of the Ontario HIV and Substance Use Training Program, providing harm reduction training and capacity building to individual workers and organization across Ontario. Previously he had community based outreach experience, specifically with youth in the electronic music scenes and with gay men in Toronto. He is a member of the Ontario Ministry of Health’s Opioid Emergency Task Force, a Board Member with Addictions and Mental Health Ontario, and a member of the Research Group on Drug Use – Toronto. In the summer and fall of 2017, he was a lead volunteer organizer of an unsanctioned Overdose Prevention Site in Moss Park Toronto.
afternoon plenary session speakers
panel discussion: peer work in harm reduction
richard audit
Richard Audit is a peer support worker with 30+ years of lived experience in addiction and homelessness. In the last two years through self-discovery, Richard has built a spiritual foundation on which he has brought healing, balance and transformation to his life. In his work as a peer, these experiences have given him the ability to connect with, and support individuals who may be on the same path he was once on.
ivy Beaton
Ivy Beaton is a LGBTQ2S community activist, educator, and Transgender Peer Support Worker for the Gilbert Centre’s Gender Diverse and Trans Program. Ivy has worked with and through many LGBTQ2S health, legal, and Pride agencies. Ivy is also a member of the Board of Directors for accessibility at Chigamik Health Centre in Midland. Ivy has been active in Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous twelve steps programs for 21 years. Ivy is also a horticulturist and Certified Floral Designer.
Dylan De la Riviere
Dylan de la Rivière is an Outreach Peer Supporter with The Lance Krasman Memorial Centre. He is the Krasman representative to the Harm Reduction Coalition of York Region, the Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the Ontario Peer Development Initiative (OPDI), and a member of the Advisory Panel of Persons with Lived Experience to the Drug Treatment Funding Program (DTFP) at CAMH. He provides intentional peer support and education, and facilitates groups for voice hearers and people who have uncommon experiences. Dylan studied philosophy and literature at University of Toronto and continues to bring a passionately critical and humanist approach to his all his work.
afternoon concurrent breakout speakers
workshop 1
adam chalcraft
Adam Chalcraft is the Harm Reduction Program Supervisor for the Peel HIV/AIDS Network working with people who use drugs and people who are homeless. He is currently the Chair of the Peel Harm Reduction Committee and sits on Peel’s Opioid Overdose Surveillance and Urgent Response Stakeholder Group. Adam is an anti-poverty activist and is dedicated to fighting the many intersecting forms of oppression that impact the people he works with.
workshop 2
betty williams
Betty Williams is the Women’s Harm Reduction Peer Coordinator with the Peel HIV/AIDS Network. She holds Mohawk College’s Law and Security Administration Diploma and received her BA in Honours Criminology and Contemporary Studies with a Minor in Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University. She has worked on the Let's Talk About Sex Work: Report of the REAL working group for Brantford, Haldimand & Norfolk, Assessing the Needs of Sex Workers in Our Community as well as the Know More: Peel Sex Worker’s Needs Assessment. She has also worked in Peel advocating for women’s safe spaces with the Women’s Community Action Group. She brings lived experience on a number of levels to her work and believes strongly that those experiences are the driving force behind her passion and accomplishments.
sistering peer workers
Peers have been working at Sistering over the past seven years doing outreach in the community, facilitating morning and evening sex worker drop-ins, leading harm reduction kit making sessions, doing community advocacy, providing support in Sistering’s 24/7 drop-in, facilitating groups on a wide range of topics, and supporting the Sistering community in a variety of capacities. They work in a very dynamic role and provide incredible support to Sistering and the community.
workshop 3
matt turner
Matt Turner is the Harm Reduction Coordinator at The Gilbert Centre. Matt has spent over four years as an outreach worker providing sexual health and harm reduction at the AIDS Committee of Toronto. He is a recent graduate of Glendon College, York University, where he served as the Director of Awareness of GLgbt* -- an on-campus LGBTQ student group. He organised HIV testing and other awareness activities throughout the campus. Through his work experiences, Matt has seen a variety of clients and worked in both the university and urban settings such as bathhouses, gay bars, and afterhours clubs. Currently Matt is serving on multiple harm reduction committees with the local health unit, including the Simcoe County Opioid Response. Matt is also leading the initiatives on Overdose Prevention Sites and Supervised Consumption Sites as part of the Simcoe Muskoka Opioid Strategy.