'Peering' into the System: A conversation with Julia Read and Tonya Evans
About
This Hot Topic Webinar features a conversation with Julia Read, a PhD candidate at the Lyle S. Hallman School of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, whose research and clinical practice are transforming how peer work is understood.
Julia brings together lived/living experience, clinical insight, and academic rigour to challenge biomedical dominance and highlight the invaluable expertise of people who’ve been psychiatrized, diagnosed, or criminalized as “addicts.” Her talk explores how people with lived/living experience who work in substance use health systems navigate exploitation, isolation, and co-optation within both abstinence-based and harm reduction environments — and what transformative, justice-oriented peer work can look like instead.
Julia’s approach, grounded in relational accountability, reciprocity, and community-based methodologies, reimagines how we build knowledge and support healing within substance use health and mental health care.
Tonya Evans, from Reclaim Collective, chats with Julia, sharing her insights and experiences with peer work.
This webinar was co-hosted by SUHN and Reclaim Collective.
