Cassandra Smith conducts workshops, trainings and presentations to provide expertise around substance use, parenting, and systemic racism against the African Caribbean Black (ACB) community. She has accumulated this knowledge through working in community service organizations for over 10 years along with her own living experience.

Her public speaking engagements include Toronto Children’s Aid Society’s ‘Journey to Zero’ launch,  WHAI Women and Harm Reduction Webinar Series, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition’s Stimulus Connect and, Innocence Ryerson’s Women of Colour and Wrongful Convictions.  She speaks to groups with the hopes to inspire, build and motivate the ACB community’s capacity to support by connecting her experiences with incarceration, substance use, and child protection.

Cassandra Smith

Cassandra is a member of the Toronto Drug Strategy Panel, Decriminalization Working Group, Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation Women and Gender Diverse Accessibility to OPS/SIS Working Group and the Research Lead for Dr. Peter’s BIPOC Overdose Prevention Site Project.  She joined the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention in November 2018 to Coordinate their Ministry of Health funded Harm Reduction program and became their Harm Reduction Specialist in September 2020.

Cassandra shared her story in a video via the Canadian Drug Policy’s Getting to Tomorrow project. Watch: