Each month, we profile someone connected to CBRC, featuring them in The Update, our monthly newsletter. Check out the July 2026 newsletter here.
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Daniella Leacock (she/her) is an Associate Director at Fred Victor, a social service charitable organization working to reduce poverty and homelessness in Toronto. She also recently joined CBRC’s Summit Planning Committee, and is currently reviewing proposals to help build the programming and schedule for this year’s conference, taking place in Toronto from October 29-November 1.
Daniella grew up in Barbados and left at the age of 16 to pursue schooling in Canada. “I grew up volunteering with my parents. My dad was a part of the Rotary Club in Barbados, so being in community, working with community, and supporting folks within community was ingrained in me from a young age,” she shares. During undergrad studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, she stumbled upon Martha’s Table, a program offering free meals to the Kingston community, and volunteered there throughout her undergraduate career.
After graduating, she moved to Toronto and started volunteering with organizations like Planned Parenthood Toronto and LGBT YouthLine, and eventually started working in mental health support at the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention for a few years. Then, she became the Manager of the Toronto Drop-In Network, a coalition of drop-in centres throughout the city that work with people who are homeless, marginally housed, or socially isolated.
In Ontario, Daniella says that we are seeing an attack on underhoused and marginalized folks, especially with the closure of supervised consumption sites. “When I think of harm reduction and meeting people where they’re at, it feels so inherent to being queer and trans,” she says.
With her background in mental health and harm reduction, Daniella says that hosting Summit in Toronto this year feels significant. “I’m curious to learn from folks who have already been doing this type of work but have never had the support of a supervised consumption site,” she says. In a city as big and diverse as Toronto, there is a massive 2S/LGBTQIA+ community and a large QTBIPOC community as well. “I hope Summit attendees walk away with a different perspective of Toronto. It can feel like a concrete jungle and a bit isolating at times, but I’m hoping folks can find little pockets of belonging at the conference, and bring questions, answers, and ideas back to their communities.”
Daniella first attended Summit last year in Montreal. “It was so fantastic to be in a space with other 2S/LGBTQIA+ researchers and organizers. It felt exciting to have research presented in accessible ways, and that there were lots of opportunities for grassroots researchers to share information. I left feeling extremely inspired, having lots of research questions myself.” Daniella’s own research interests include Black queer and trans nightlife as it relates to community connection and quality of life.
Outside of work, she is a foster parent to cats (though she wants to foster a dog soon!). She also hosts a weekly writers’ group in Toronto, and enjoys partying, bike-riding, and exploring green spaces in the city.
Registration for Summit 2026 is now open! You can get your tickets at early bird rates until September 12.
Photo: RJ Jones
“Harm reduction started as a way for communities to look after ourselves, to keep ourselves safe when no one else would. The government decided to support, to fund, to take part and now it feels like they are reverting. At the end of the day, it has always been on us as community members to keep ourselves and our neighbours safe.”
