I think mentoring is an important part of peer-to-peer programs. I think the most important part, particularly with marginalized groups who feel isolated within community—and marginalized as Wally Oppal defines marginalization—is there are very few resources in the community for the groups of marginalized women I named in my presentation to reliably access resources and trust that they will be received not only with courtesy, but with meaningful response and resources.
When I was the executive director at PEERS, and we were serving the most distressed portion of sex workers, which is about 20% of that population, and serving people who were maybe more stable, but then going through a crisis, they would come into our centre and they would often only access our centres. The point with marginalized people is that often they will not access other centres.
When we lost funding at PEERS last year, due to changes in provincial funding and had to temporarily close several of our services, our colleague agencies around town told us that the people we were serving were not appearing at their door. They were disappearing into the community.