Long-term, meaningful, and inclusive collaboration with equity-deserving youth and families, including Indigenous people, is the guiding principle of all of our work. When undertaken with thoughtfulness and honesty, community-based participatory action and co-design research approaches can answer calls from Indigenous scholars and teachers to foster a research environment of respect, trust, self-determination, relationship and capacity-building, safety, and healing. As members of our Cluster and leadership structure, an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper, Indigenous harm reduction expert, and multiple Elders provide cultural wisdom and teachings, ensuring that our work is responsive to the unique needs of Indigenous communities. We work with multiple advisories composed of youth and families with lived experience to continually and directly shape our approaches to studying, advancing, and advocating for youth overdose prevention.

 

The Families Council works to ensure that the voices and perspectives of families (biological, adoptive, and chosen) are central in shaping research, policy, and practice for youth impacted by substance use and overdose. It is currently composed of 6 members, including those who have lost a young person to overdose, those who have cared for a young person using substances in the past, and those who are currently caring for a young person using substances. Rooted in social and health justice principles, our work is dedicated to improving systems and services, influencing policy, and advancing overdose prevention among youth.

 

The Teen Council is a newly formed group of 5 young people between the ages of 16 and 20 with lived experience of substance use, mental health challenges, and homelessness and unstable housing. Our goal is to inform youth overdose prevention in the broadest sense, through research guided by the perspectives of teens with lived experience of substance use at every stage. Our work is informed by fundamental social and health justice principles.

 

The Youth Health Advisory Council (YHAC) is a group of 8 young people with lived experience of substance use, mental health challenges, and homelessness and unstable housing. It includes a majority of Indigenous and 2S/LGBTQ+ youth. Formed in 2018, the YHAC meets at least bi-weekly and collaborates on numerous research and knowledge mobilization projects. Our goal is to inform drug policy and practice through research guided by the perspectives of young people with lived experience of substance use at every stage and to fight for meaningful change.