Service Enhancement

  • Alignment Across Pillars: Reduce barriers for people accessing services with an equity centred and trauma informed approach, and offer support to increase the accessibility of programs and services in both urban and rural settings (e.g., transportation, child minding, free services, mobile outreach etc.)
  • Short Term Priority: Assess access to leisure activities and other preventive factors such as safe places to socialize, make meaningful relationships and opportunities for employment and academic achievement.
  • Long Term Priority: Increase access to leisure activities and other preventive factors such as safe places to socialize, make meaningful relationships and opportunities for employment and academic achievement.

Building Community Capacity

  • Alignment Across Pillars: Identify and prioritize annual evidence-informed training for ECDAS members and partners and provide evidence-informed anti stigma training and promotion of respectful language and dialogue with all community partners that work across all four pillars.
  • Short Term Priorities: Develop a local education campaign in consultation with the local community and priority groups about the harms of substance use, and implement an awareness campaign on the social determinants of health to increase community awareness of preventive factors and their role in preventing substance use.
  • Long Term Priority: Icelandic Model

Community Coordination

  • Alignment Across Pillars: Improve coordination between community partners that work across all four pillars.
  • Short Term Priority: Provide evidence-based resources to schools and school boards to inform school-based interventions.
  • Long Term Priority: Enhance school and community group partnerships to build a sense of community connection.

Advocacy

  • Alignment Across Pillars: Develop an advocacy strategy outlining advocacy efforts at the local, provincial and federal levels that is aligned with drug and alcohol advocacy efforts in other regions.
  • Short Term Priorities: Advocate for service that is inclusive, accessible, coordinated and responsive, and challenge the continuum of service providers and media not to perpetuate stigma.
  • Long Term Priority: Advocate for service that is coordinated and responsive.