Supporting Peer Work (SPW) is an advocacy group that came out of a community-guided participatory action research project. Between 2020 and 2023, SPW studied how “low barrier” social service agencies in the Greater Toronto Area treat workers with lived/living expertise — also known as “peers." We discovered that most agencies misunderstand peer work. Based on our findings, SPW demands organizations provide peers with living wage and more control over their working conditions, but also that they shift workplace cultures that currently enable and often encourage direct discrimination against Black and Indigenous peer workers, narrow and inappropriate standards of “professionalism,” and criminalizing and classist ideas about drug use. The SPW team asks that anyone who reads our reports make a personal commitment to improving employment conditions of people in peer positions. We have provided a series of questions on our website to support you in this important work.
Please reach out to us at spwteam2020@gmail.com to connect with us and share comments, concerns, ideas and/or stories. We would love to know how you are using our research to make change.