People First Radio – August 20, 2026People First Radio – August 20, 2026
People First Radio
PEERS Victoria staff discuss support for sex workers, including a pilot for non-English-speaking immigrants and migrants, and how stigma and law affect safety and health. Senior knowledge broker Chandni Sondagar then outlines a playbook of evidence-based interventions for small cities responding to substance use harms.
0:00•20 Aug 2026
Sex Work, Small Cities, and Safer Communities on People First Radio
Episode Overview
- PEERS Victoria provides housing support, outreach, counselling, and harm reduction for current and former sex workers, often acting as a "catch all" where other services feel unsafe.
- A new pilot at PEERS supports Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking sex workers with health supplies, translation, culturally safe referrals, and community-building events.
- Canadian sex work laws criminalise many safety measures, which Leigh argues increases violence and exploitation despite claims of protecting communities.
- Sex work intersects with disability, homelessness, substance use, and colonialism, with many workers reporting chronic illness or disability and facing multiple layers of marginalisation.
- The Small Cities Playbook for Action offers over 50 evidence-based interventions to help smaller municipalities respond to substance use harms across prevention, treatment, housing, and public safety.
“Sex work is work and people deserve to have safe working conditions to do that work.”
Curious about how others manage their health, safety, and substance use in tough circumstances? This episode of People First Radio brings together two very different but connected conversations about vulnerability, stigma, and practical support. First, Leigh, executive director of PEERS Victoria Resource Society, and Ray Ray, a community support coordinator, talk through their work with sex workers in Victoria.
PEERS has been around since 1995, offering housing support, outreach, free counselling, harm reduction supplies, and a “bad date and aggressor” reporting system that helps sex workers warn each other about dangerous situations. Leigh explains, “Sex work is work and people deserve to have safe working conditions,” while Ray Ray describes the isolation many immigrant and migrant workers face when they “cannot speak English very well” and are afraid of deportation.
Their new pilot focuses on Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking sex workers, offering health supplies, culturally safe referrals, translation at medical appointments, and monthly community events. It’s slow, trust-building work: some people assume their outreach texts are spam, but over time a small community of 12–20 regular contacts has formed, giving participants “some love and also warmth” in a new country.
In the second half, senior knowledge broker Chandni Sondagar from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction talks about the Small Cities Playbook for Action. Aimed at communities of 150,000 people or fewer, it lays out more than 50 evidence-based interventions across prevention, harm reduction, treatment, housing, public safety, and cultural supports.
Chandni stresses that there’s no single fix for what she calls a “substance use crisis” intertwined with housing, homelessness, mental health, chronic pain, and an increasingly toxic drug supply. Together, these conversations offer a grounded look at how grassroots services and municipal leaders can respond to complex, overlapping harms. Where do you see your own community in these stories, and what small step could it take next?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.