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The Drug Policy Program offers a podcast on alternate Thursdays, highlighting issues related to the Four Pillars Drug Strategy. All of the podcasts are less than 10 minutes in length.
December 11, 2008
A Youth View of SACY
Riley is a 15-year-old student who is part of the School-Aged Children and Youth (SACY) substance abuse prevention program at Tupper Secondary School in Vancouver. She spoke about her involvement in the program, what’s included in SACY, and how she thinks it’s helping youth.
Running time: 9:00 minutes
November 27, 2008
VANDU marks first decade
This years marks the 10th anniversary of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU). Jennifer Gray-Grant spoke with VANDU Executive Director Ann Livingston, who reflected on the group's goals and accomplishments.
Running time: 9:55 minutes
November 13, 2008
Mayor Sam Sullivan's Reflections
As he neared the end of his three-year term as Mayor of Vancouver, Mayor Sam Sullivan spoke with Jennifer Gray-Grant and outlined how he views Vancouver's drug problems, reflected on areas where he felt he made a difference and offered some advice for Vancouver's next mayor. This podcast is slightly longer than the usual offering, reflecting the mayor's depth of interest and experience an area he focused on during his 12 years as a councillor and three years as mayor.
Running time: 13:06 minutes
October 30, 2008
Supported Employment Program
The City of Vancouver's Four Pillars Supported Employment Program, which is funded by the City's Engineering Department and the Vancouver Agreement and coordinated by the City's Drug Policy Program, offers short-term City employment to people who are in recovery from substance use. This fall, when two jobs vacancies arose in the City of Vancouver Engineering Department's Streets section, two of the men who had worked in Streets through the Supported Employment Program were hired. Jennifer Gray-Grant spoke with one of the men, Larry Colbourne, while he was on a break from his work on the Carroll Street Greenway.
Running time: 9:53 minutes
October 16, 2008
Collaboration for Change
Earlier this year, the City of Vancouver initiated an innovative collaboration among a broad range of Vancouver's institutional and community stakeholders. Participants in this process, called the Collaboration for Change, are committed to addressing the urgent situation facing some of Vancouver's most vulnerable citizens: those with mental health and addictions problems who are also homeless or living in substandard conditions. At the recent Mayor's Four Pillars Coalition meeting, Civil City Commissioner Geoff Plant offered an update on the Collaboration for Change.
Visit the Collaboration for Change website for more information.
Running time: 9:25 minutes
October 2, 2008
The Toronto Drug Strategy
The City of Vancouver was the first municipality in Canada to adopt a four-pillar approach to drug policy. Now, other municipalities are following Vancouver's lead and implementing four-pillar approaches to drug policy, tailored to each city's particular needs. As Toronto Drug Strategy Manager Susan Shepherd explains, Toronto adopted its four-pillar drug strategy in 2005, after two years of research and discussion.
Visit the Toronto Drug Strategy's website for more information.
Running time: 9:26 minutes
Sept. 18, 2008
Overdose Prevention Project
The first person who usually notices a drug user is overdosing is the person with whom they're using. Toronto Public Health, along with Toronto's Harm Reduction Task Force and other agencies, decided to go directly to users, to offer them training in dealing with overdoses. Last summer, the City of Vancouver's Jennifer Gray-Grant met with the training program's organizer, Ruth Yeoman. She's a counselor at Toronto Public Health's The Works, a downtown facility offering needle exchange, safer crack-use kits, a methadone program, Hepatitis A and B vaccines and sexually transmitted disease testing.
Running time: 9:52 minutes
Sept. 4, 2008
Wet Shelters
Wet shelters provide residential care for formerly street-entrenched alcoholics who would otherwise cycle through jails or hospitals numerous times throughout the year. They provide residents with food, clothing, shelter, medical care and managed alcohol (usually wine). Art Manuel, program director of the Seaton House Annex Wet Shelter in Toronto, recently spoke with Vancouver Drug Policy Program's Jennifer Gray-Grant about the shelter.
Running time: 9:52 minutes
Aug. 21, 2008
Strengthening Families for the Future
Strengthening Families for the Future is an Ontario-based prevention program reaching out to families with children aged 7-11. Meeting once a week for 14 weeks, families work with a facilitator to learn new skills and improve children’s resiliency against future substance abuse. Now, the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health is offering the program materials.
Running time: 9:40 minutes
Aug. 7, 2008
Toronto crack kits
When Toronto Public Health started distributing crack kits about two years ago, it discovered that while the kits certainly offered clients the benefits harm reduction, the process also engaged a whole new population in healthcare and other services.
Running time: 9:15 minutes
July 24, 2008
DRUG CONTROL THROUGH REGULATION
Could regulation provide a better approach to drug control? Mark Haden, Clinical Supervisor of Addiction Services at Pacific Spirit Community Health Centre in Vancouver thinks that regulation may be the most effective way of controlling drugs. For more information about Haden's views, visit his website at www.markhaden.com. Haden also offers weekly, free public education sessions on issues associated with substance addiction. For more information call 604-267-3970.
Running time: 8:38 minutes
July 10, 2008
Donald Macpherson regarding Human rights
When City of Vancouver Drug Policy Program Coordinator Donald MacPherson returned from the annual International Harm Reduction Conference last May, he reflected on the shift in discussions of drug policy, to the inclusion of human rights.
Running time: 8:33 minutes
June 26, 2008
Parenting as prevention
At the Mayor's Four Pillars Coalition Meeting last March, Julie Norton of the BC Council for Families spoke about the dearth of new parenting programs - which are a strong protective factor against later substance abuse-particularly for 7 to 12-year-olds.
Running time: 4:58 minutes
June 12, 2008
Crack Kits
What's in a crack kit? Syd Malchy, co-investigator on the SCORE (Safer Crack Use, Outreach, Research and Education) project, describes to the Drug Policy Program's Jennifer Gray-Grant the contents of the crack kit SCORE handed out in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Click here to read the SCORE project's final report.
Running time: 8:33 minutes
May 29, 2008
Broadening the debate
Mark Haden, Clinical Supervisor of Addiction Services at Pacific Spirit Community Health Centre in Vancouver, sees the current legalization versus criminalization debate around drugs as too limited. He outlines a spectrum of eight different options. For more information, visit his website at www.markhaden.com. Haden also offers weekly, free public education sessions on issues associated with substance addiction. For more information call 604-267-3970.
Running time: 6:04 minutes
May 15, 2008
Prevention beyond the classroom
Vancouver Superintendent of Schools Chris Kelly gave the final address at the Mayor's Four Pillars Coalition Meeting last March. He spoke about his vision for a culture of prevention in Vancouver.
Running time: 5:06 minutes
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