Tuesday 27th June.
Our Executive Director, Ruby Lawlor, was invited by the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) in Singapore to give a presentation about Youth RISE and young people who use drugs (YPWUD) as part of their Support Don’t Punish Webinar Series ‘From Coercion to Care’. This webinar was titled ‘Listen to Youth Who Use Drugs’ and facilitated by Sachi from TJC. It gave us an opportunity to share our work and stress the importance of prioritising youth-friendly harm reduction with a new audience, as well as equipping the attendees with knowledge on how to approach these topics and highlight YPWUD needs with relevant stakeholders.
Ruby shared about how we support YPWUD, why it is important to pay attention to the experiences of YPWUD, and the unique needs and experiences that YPWUD have and have experienced that communities and policymakers need to understand.
Ruby also shared about the level of accessibility of harm reduction services for YPWUD, and what harm reduction looks like in various political contexts globally and the impact of the governments/systems and communities on these services. Further points of discussion were how youth are navigating substance use and the support they should have access to, the focus areas for youth-led harm reduction and drug policy reform, and how to encourage YPWUD to get their views on drug policy heard, particularly in contexts where there may be stigma and punishment.
“Young people who use drugs are talked about at all levels of policy-making and in service provision but rarely ever consulted about our needs. The war on drugs is waged in our name, but we are not asked what we want and what we know is best for us. We cannot continue to be left behind, especially as we look towards drug policy reform in some countries.”
YPWUD inclusion in events like this is essential. We rarely get the opportunity to share our needs, to highlight the importance of us being involved in discussions and decision-making about us. We are very grateful to the Transformative Justice Collective for inviting us to be part of this series of webinars, all of the webinar recordings can be found on their Facebook page, and the recording for our session can be found here.