Peer-led Intervention to Support Clients to Vacate Warrants Following Release from Prison: A Case Study from Canada (PID132)

2pm – 2.30pm EDT, 25 October 2023 ‐ 30 mins

Workshop Session

Peer-led interventions can play a critical role in supporting clients to navigate the criminal legal system, including the process of vacating warrants. Individuals who face having a warrant are at a higher risk of overdosing and increasing the barriers to access community services. The positive reception of this peer-led warrant program has led to increasing demands to provide this warrant program to the surrounding communities.

Speakers

Mo Korchinski

Executive Director, Unlocking the Gates Services Society, Canada

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Pam Young

Program Manager, Unlocking the Gates Services Society, Canada

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Mo Korchinski

Executive Director, Unlocking the Gates Services Society, Canada

Mo Korchinski is the Executive Director of Unlocking the Gates Service Society (UTG). Mo has had a long history with substance abuse and incarceration. Her lived history and experiences have shaped the program into what it is today. Mo has a Bachelor of Social Work from Nicola Valley Institution of Technology and was one of UTG’s first ever Peer-Mentors. Her life’s work is now dedicated to helping others break the cycle of incarceration. She is an advocate for people involved in the criminal justice system and continues to push for change at a policy-level and increased supports for her community. Mo feels strongly about the need to address trauma and support healing for people who experience incarceration.

Pam Young

Program Manager, Unlocking the Gates Services Society, Canada

Pam Young has worked with Unlocking the Gates Services Society (UTG) since its inception in 2011. She is currently the Program Manager, and previously worked as a Peer-Mentor for many years. She is extremely passionate about the work she does with people, and especially women, leaving prison. As somebody with lived prison experience Pam recognizes what a difference it could have made for her own journey to have been connected to a peer mentor during the post-release period.