CharityVillage

Position: Part-Time Peer Navigator – Harm Reduction Project

Are you a compassionate, community-rooted individual with lived or current lived experience with using substances? Do you believe in non-judgmental, peer-led harm reduction? Are you passionate about supporting Spanish-speaking, 2SLGBTQIA+, and racialized communities navigating overlapping challenges related to drug use, stigma, and systemic oppression?

The Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples (CSSP) is hiring a Part-Time Peer Navigator to join our culturally grounded harm reduction team as part of the BIPOC Harm Reduction Alliance in Toronto.

In this position, you’ll use your lived experience, empathy, and peer leadership to support people who use drugs, particularly from Spanish-speaking, Latin American, 2SLGBTQIA+, and other BIPOC communities. You’ll provide harm reduction education, safer use supplies, referrals, and advocacy, with a focus on outreach in parks, safe use sites, encampments, and other community-based spaces. You will work under the guidance of our Harm Reduction Coordinator and contribute to building trust, connection, and care among underserved and often stigmatized populations. Key Responsibilities:

Community Outreach & Engagement

• Conduct respectful and trauma-informed in-person outreach in parks, encampments, and community spaces.
• Build relationships rooted in shared experience and empathy, while offering support (including naloxone distribution and de-escalation).
• Actively engage people facing structural barriers, including those living with HIV, struggling with mental health, or unhoused.

Harm Reduction Supply Distribution

• Distribute safer smoking, snorting, and injection kits, as well as hygiene supplies and condoms, based on real-time community needs.
• Ensure culturally appropriate supplies are accessible and well-stocked in all outreach settings.

Peer Facilitation & Health Education

• Co-facilitate workshops and informal educational sessions on safer substance use, overdose prevention, stigma reduction, and system navigation.
• Tailor materials and discussions for Spanish-speaking and 2SLGBTQIA+ participants with lived experiences of marginalization.

Community-Based Campaigns & Leadership

• Co-lead grassroots campaigns and community events that celebrate harm reduction and empower peer voices.
• Collaborate with other people with lived experience in creating culturally resonant resources and advocacy tools.

Alliance & Interagency Work

• Represent CSSP and peer perspectives within the BIPOC Harm Reduction Alliance.
• Participate in alliance meetings, peer learning opportunities, and service referral networks.

Who We're Looking For:
We are seeking someone with:

• Lived or current lived experience with using substances and navigating harm reduction systems.
• Strong empathy and ability to relate to others non-judgmentally, including those experiencing trauma, criminalization, or unstable housing.
• Fluency in Spanish and English (spoken and written) is required.
• Experience or understanding of HIV, mental health, and 2SLGBTQIA+ realities, especially within Latin American and racialized communities.
• Experience in outreach, peer navigation, or frontline support work is an asset.
• Comfort working outdoors and in high-risk environments.
• Availability to work some evenings or weekends as needed.
• Commitment to anti-stigma, anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and harm reduction principles.
• Open to ongoing peer training and community leadership development.

Position Details:

• Wage: $20/hour
• Schedule: 21 hours/week (typically Monday, Wednesday, Friday – flexible)
• Location: Field-based in Toronto with some office and virtual collaboration
• Unionized Position: OPSEU Local 512
• Duration: 1.5–2 years, with possibility of renewal based on funding

Equity & Inclusion Statement:

We strongly encourage applications from:

• People with lived/living experience of substance use
• Individuals from Spanish-speaking, Latin American, racialized, and Indigenous communities
• People living with HIV, mental health challenges, or impacted by the criminalization of drug use
• Members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, especially trans and non-binary individuals

CSSP is committed to an accessible hiring process. If you require accommodations at any stage, please contact us.

Due to the urgency of this recruitment, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and the position may be filled before the closing date. Early applications are strongly encouraged. We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.