Ashley Jellema (left) and Summer Wawia (right).
Explore Our Harm Reduction with an Indigenous Lens workshop.
"Walk With Me" is an immersive, trauma-informed workshop specifically created for organizations, bands, frontline emergency responders, and community groups. We move from strictly managing a crisis to actively promoting life, dignity, and survival.
Meet Your Facilitator
Before coordinating regional training or responding to high-stakes emergencies, your facilitator lived the very realities this training addresses. Having navigated the profound hardships of living on the streets, battling severe drug abuse, and overcoming alcoholism, they intimately understand the weight of addiction, the sting of systemic isolation, and the paralyzing burden of shame. They don't look at vulnerable populations from a distance—they look at them with the deep, unconditional empathy of someone who has shared their struggle and found a path forward.
That lived experience became the fuel for a lifelong commitment to community care. Over the past 16 years, they have served on the frontlines of Emergency Medical Services, Search and Rescue, and crisis intervention, paired with 6 years coordinating complex regional training networks across Northwestern Ontario—from Dryden to Toronto and into remote northern communities.
Real experience, real impact.
Module 1: Reimagining Care & Life Promotion Shifting the organizational focus from policing substance use to actively prioritizing survival, deep connection, and the value of every human life.
Module 2: Historical Context Understanding the structural roots of trauma—including institutional impacts, culture erasure, and resource exclusion.
Module 3: Clinical Public Health meets Traditional Knowledge Bridging the gap. Your team will understand the mechanics of harm reduction supplies and overdose reversal.
Module 4: The Tactical "DOs and DONTs" of Reducing Stigma Hands-on communication strategies. Learn exactly what phrases create stigma, person-first language, and understand how to build conditional-free relationships with vulnerable individuals.
Module 5: Legal & Emergency Literacy Navigating challenges with calm and professional confidence, including practical education on the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act and knowing when and how to mobilize emergency responses safely.
Module 6: Self-Care to review and understand the importance of self-care and why it helps to protect us from burn-out and compassion fatigue.