Nicolas Crier Email & Phone Number

My career in the burgeoning micro-industry of integrative peer work began in 2015, while taking on the occasional shift at the former Drug Users Resource Centre (D.U.R.C.), hosting the front desk duties or escorting clients around to appointments, assisting in art project, pretty much anything they needed, etc.. This is where I met Kelty, who offered me a spot in social research/theatrical performance project she had planned called Illicit: Stories from a Harm Reduction Movement, which I am proud to say is now in its fifth year of funding for our storytelling mandate to fight the Overdose/Toxic Drug Supply crisis. Many other opportunities also arose at the time of this original illicit engagement: - the Empowering Informed Consent: Community Ethics in Cultural Production and Research 101 projects, which led to to the publication of both the Empowering Informed Consent resource card and Research 101: A Manifesto for Ethical Research in the Downtown Eastside, both of which have been widely endorsed and even adapted into policy and approved as required curriculum readings at both SFU and UBC. - How to Save a Life: Frontline Stories, a original speaking series which then grew into Megaphone Speakers Bureau, which has flourished in its first two years (while maintaining the full original roster of speakers) and has since into partnerships with UBC Transformative Health and Justice Research Cluster, First Nations Health Authority and Pivot Legal Society, and has made many other ground-breaking advancements in the arena of destigmatization efforts on behalf of marginalized populations. - Pivot Legal Society, whose Executive Board of Directors I serve on as Secretary for the second of a two-year term, and who have also made commendable advances in their organization in the challenging work of Indigenous reconcilation and de-colonizing practices.And I also do a bit of freelance writing, photography and consultation-type engagement with a number of local community organizations including Union Gospel Mission, Community Action Initative and the Community Research Ethics Workshop. I have also worked at Spikes-on-Bikes, Molson Overdose Prevention Site and I currently work as a unionized peer staff with the Mobile Overdose Prevention Unit and Chill Room Attendant at InSite, Canada's original safe injection site, operated by Portland Hotel Society. Most recently, I was offered a position with BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services and accepted the job title of Lived Experience Strategic Advisor on the Sigma Awareness and Reduction Initative.