Equipping Changemakers: Exploring North Island College’s Potential to Spur Culture, Community, and Systems Change in Response to the Toxic Drug Poisoning Crisis

Maya’xala: Cultivating Community Respect in the Midst of the Toxic Drug, Trauma, and Housing Crises; Moving Forward in a Good Way

Walking Together: Towards a Stronger, More Integrated Substance Use Network in the Comox Valley

Walk With Me: A Community-Engaged Response to the Drug Poisoning Crisis

The Walk With Me team and SFU CERi have collaborated on the report Walk With Me: A Community-Engaged Response to the Drug Poisoning Crisis to illuminates a powerful role for community-engaged research in addressing the drug poisoning crisis. 

SFU Blog Post about Walk With Me

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PATHWAYS Forward - Island Health & the Toxic Drug Poisoning Crisis (2022)

In 2021, Walk With Me was invited to work with Island Health to engage staff in Central and North Island facilities in a multi-tiered research initiative. The staff from these facilities participated in “Story Walks”—a series of guided listening journeys foregrounding local first-hand testimony of the crisis. Following the walks, staff were invited to sit in-circle and to share insights and respond to the question: “How can Island Health better-serve people at the heart of this crisis?” In collecting and analyzing staff insights, the project aims to illuminate ways forward for Island Health towards progressive institutional change.

Walk With Me Policy Report - Comox Valley (2021)

This report is the product of two years of work sitting in circle with People With Lived and Living Experience of the toxic drug poisoning crisis, their family members and frontline workers. It illustrates how the toxic drug poisoning crisis has played out in the Comox Valley and recommends steps forward to help those affected.

Forthcoming…

Walk With Me is currently engaged in producing several policy reports. We are also supporting academic publications authored by members of our team. We have just completed the 2022 Island Health report above. We will complete a second Comox Valley focused policy report in the spring of 2023 having worked alongside the Comox Valley Substance Use Strategy Committee. We will also be completing reports for North Island College and Campbell River in 2023, and we are contracted to produce a second report for IH in the future.