Community-Engaged Arts-Based
Research and Consultation
Health Systems Innovation
Community Development and Visioning
Harm Reduction Education and Knowledge Mobilization
Who We Are
Walk With Me is an arts based community-engaged research and social change project designed to reduce harms associated with the toxic drug crisis, housing crisis and other related social and ecological crises facing communities, and catalyze forms of community wellness. We operate as a not-for-profit society in B.C.
Our work began in 2019, at the Comox Valley Art Gallery (public contemporary art gallery on Vancouver Island). A group of staff working at the Gallery had borne witness to the increase in drug-related incidents in the community experienced by youth, artists and people living just outside the Gallery. After hosting several celebrations of life, we began asking "what can arts-based researchers and community developers do to spur change?".
We posed this question to our long-term harm-reduction partners at AVI Health and Community Services, collaborators within Island Health, and a group of cultural mapping researchers at Thompson Rivers University, as well as to People With Lived and Living Experience (PWLLE) involved in the Gallery. From these conversations, the project was born.
Purpose
Walk With Me exists to:
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Uncover community-defined pathways towards wellness in the midst of social and ecological crisis, including the toxic drug crisis and housing crisis.
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Reduce harm and generate improvements in care and quality of life for people at the heart of these crises
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Activate leadership in research, art, and innovation towards community regeneration and crisis response
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Cultivate systems change
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Honour and amplify the voices of People With Lived and Living Experience (PWLLE)
Our work involves sitting in-person with PWLLE of social and ecological crises, as well as their family members and friends, and health and community leaders. We listen to stories and insights, glean wisdom from them, and share this wisdom with decision-makers in social, political and health domains, as well as with the wider public. We hold space for difficult conversations that bring people together in new ways towards progressive social outcomes.
Our Team
Sharon Karsten - Health Research BC Scholar
Sharon Karsten is a Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar at Vancouver Island University, situated in the Department of Recreation, Tourism & Hospitality Management. Sharon’s work with Walk With Me, informed by years of leadership within arts & non-profits organizations, is inspired by an effort to activate social and systems change amidst the toxic drug and housing crisis, leading to improved health outcomes for people with lived and living experience of substance use. Sharon holds a doctoral degree in Communication from Simon Fraser University.
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Christopher Hauchildt - MITACS Research Fellow
Christopher Hauschildt is a Mitacs Research Fellow at Vancouver Island University, and an MA Student in Global Leadership at Royal Roads University. Over the last five years Christopher has lent his lens of lived experiences of poly-substance use and houselessness to the community-engaged research efforts of Walk With Me. With a passion for pursuing pathways to activating Peer/Lived-Experience leadership amidst crises, Christopher is invested in actioning social and systems change to address the toxic drug and housing crises.
Cory Cliffe- Yaka’lagilis - Cultural Safety Coordinator
Cory Cliffe, traditional name Yaka’lagilis, comes from the Laichwildaux people of Campbell River. As a steward of his territory he has focused his efforts on restoring the environment, mentoring youth and researching ancient ways of healing including producing traditional medicine foraged from his home territory and made in his house. In 2021 he began his journey with 7 Generation Stewards Society to help his community and in this found his calling.
In his spare time he enjoys being in the forest, on the water in his canoe or at home making medicine. As a self proclaimed odd ball he knows fitting in means following a crowd and that has never been his style so often you can find his easily with a big smile, his signature cedar fedora and usually the loudest odd ball in the room.
Trevor Wideman - Michael Smith Health Research BC Research Trainee
Trevor Wideman is a MITACS Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education at Vancouver Island University. Trevor's community-engaged research with Walk With Me looks at municipal/organizational governance and health policy in small cities in British Columbia, and how these intersect with individual lived experiences of the housing and toxic drug poisoning crisis. He holds a doctoral degree in geography from Simon Fraser University, and his broader research program examines the role of land use planning in relation to housing advocacy and the governance of residential property in Canadian cities.
Caresse Nadeau - Arts Coordinator and MITACS Researcher
Caresse Nadeau is an interdisciplinary artist based out of the Comox Valley, and a Mitacs Research Fellow with Vancouver Island University. Building off her skill-set developed over the last ten years as a multidisciplinary independent artist, and with various non-profits; Caresse is leading many of the arts-based practices of Walk With Me. Weaving together stories and soundscapes, Caresse lends her artistic vision to Walk With Me in the passionate pursuit of community development and social justice