Autumn Update 2020
We brought honest conversations about drugs to students on campus at O-Week 2020.
Over the last few months, the SSDP Australia team have been working hard behind the scenes on our youth-led strategy, supported by our extensive network of advisors and allies. Though we’ve been a little quiet lately, we’ve been slowly but surely resourcing and connecting young people who work on drug policy advocacy at the international, national, state and local campus levels.
2020 has already brought many challenges, from which SSDP has not been immune. The bushfires had a significant impact on the festival space in Victoria and NSW, limiting our campaigning and outreach.
Now, while COVID-19 limits physical outreach in campus and nightlife spaces, our audiences are as captive as ever. New complexities in drug consumption, the ongoing injustices of drug prohibition, and the opportunities for reform are clear in our view.
We look forward to keeping you updated and bringing more opportunities to get involved. But first, here’s some of what we’ve been up to:
An Expert Board of Directors
SSDP Australia’s Board has recently expanded, drawing in the expertise we need to effectively govern our trailblazing organisation. With Directors hailing from the Federation of Community Legal Centres of Victoria, the NSW Users & AIDS Association and Harm Reduction Australia, we’re taking our national strategy to the next level in 2020. Stay tuned for announcements introducing our current Board of Directors and our 2020 AGM.
A Diverse Team
SSDP Australia has continued to build a diverse core team with representation from multiple states, genders, racial and cultural backgrounds, and lived experiences of a covert Drug War in Australia. This has been no easy feat in these times, and one we are proud to continue.
A Unique Strategy
We have carefully and collaboratively developed a three-year strategic plan and operational framework to organise our work, with a clarity of direction which remains durable despite the COVID-19 crisis. We look forward to publicising our strategic plan and program focuses in the coming weeks and months.
Decentralised campus operations
We established a Campus Network program, successfully resourcing students from multiple University and TAFE campuses to collaborate during O-Week: recruiting 10 new student leaders and having hundreds of honest conversations about drugs. While COVID has impacted the physical possibilities for the Network, our success at O-Week 2020 will inform how we approach campus advocacy into the future.
Trailblazing nightlife advocacy
Over summer we hosted and attended several events as part of our #BeHeardNotHarmed campaign. We represented young people at a music festival safety forum convened by Victoria Police, hosted workshops and education events in Melbourne, collaborated on a pill-testing protest in Sydney and reached multiple target MPs across Victoria and NSW. While the festival and nightlife spaces have taken major hits due to COVID-19, our long-term strategy to start activating party spaces remains. Take part in our community survey to help inform this strategy going forward, or sign-up to get more involved!
We facilitated honest discussions about drugs and the importance of activism in our peer-led workshop at Esoteric Festival. (Credit: Ben Muscara / ZNTH)
What’s next?
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our initial plans for 2020, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to adapt. Our Board, National Executive team, Campus Network and long-term strategic direction are stronger than ever. We are currently seeking funds, in-kind support and more volunteers to:
Survey students and young people about their drug use, communities and policy attitudes - following the COVID-19 crisis.
Develop and launch innovative digital harm reduction and drug literacy resources and events.
Continue building a team of early career researchers to collaborate with our Expert Network to conduct Rapid Assessment Research on a range of policy areas.
Continue engaging our global, national, state and local networks to set our operational direction as the COVID crisis subsides in Australia.
Induct a formal Assembly of students and young people, to debate and approve detailed policy models for justice in drug legalisation.
Stay tuned over the coming weeks as we find our voices in this post-COVID Australia, with more opportunities to join us and get involved in bringing youth perspectives to drug policy!