​Substance Use and Addiction Action Table launches new strategic plan

The Community Safety and Well-Being Planning (CSWBS)’s Substance Use and Addiction Action Table, also known as the Community Drug and Alcohol Strategy (CDAS), has launched a new strategic plan.

The plan identifies key community priorities for the collaborative to address over the next four years, serving as a road map toward the overall vision of improving the health, well-being, and safety of individuals, families, and communities in Bruce and Grey counties and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, by reducing substance-related harms.

The priorities are:
 

• Enhancing community safety and reducing the harms of opioids and the unregulated drug supply
• Reducing the harms associated with alcohol use
• Preventing and delaying substance use among youth
• Increasing access to inclusive, culturally-safe, and respectful care, support, and services
• Reducing stigma and its impacts through evidence-informed education, training, and communications

The CDAS, in collaboration with community partners, members, and other CSWBP Action Tables, will work to address these priorities, while centring the voices of people with lived and living experience of substance use and addiction in all aspects of drug strategy work.

DEVELOPING THE STRATEGIC PLAN

The CDAS’s 2025-29 Strategic Plan was developed following a meaningful engagement and planning process that sought out the ideas, perspectives, and experiences of community partner organizations and people with lived and living experience of substance use.

This process included an in-person strategic planning session, held June 3, which brought together 51 individuals representing 25 agencies and groups from 12 different sectors.

To read the CDAS Strategic Plan and learn more about the strategic planning process, see: Community Drug and Alcohol Strategy (publichealthgreybruce.on.ca)

The core function of the CDAS is to foster collaboration among community partners and members on issues that go beyond the scope and resources of any single organization acting alone. The CDAS recognizes that reducing substance-related harms involves shared responsibility and active participation of many sectors and the importance of equitable representation of people with lived and living experience of substance use and addiction at all levels of decision-making.

WHAT IS THE CSWBP GREY-BRUCE?

The CSWBP Grey-Bruce helps organizations improve the things that keep us healthy, happy, and safe. Together, we use research to create solutions focused on education, health care, food, housing, income, crime, and belonging. It is important that we create a welcoming community where problems are solved before they happen and where different professionals and community members work together to help people now and in the future.

The ongoing work of CSWBP is supported by an advisory committee representing more than 70 partners from across Bruce-Grey who are working together to address crime prevention by investing in social development, prevention, and risk interventions. This upstream preventative model focuses on creating protective factors that make individuals less vulnerable to crime and victimization.