National Addictions Awareness Week: Working Together to Change the Narrative About Substance Use and Addiction

This year during National Addictions Awareness Week (NAAW) we are Driving Change Together. We invite you to join us during the week of November 21–27.

It’s about collaborating as a community to make change happen. We want to present Canadians with ways to reassess the way they think about substance use and people who use drugs.

Please share your NAAW activities on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and show how you are driving positive change in your community. Share your plans, photos and social media information by emailing media@ccsa.ca or tagging us in your posts.

CCSA’s Issues of Substance and NAAW

It takes a range of perspectives and collective efforts to drive the needed change to shape a brighter future for people who use substances. Close to 1,000 people in Canada will come together to drive change during CCSA’s Issues of Substance 2021 conference.

National Addictions Awareness Week happens in conjunction with CCSA’s first virtual Issues of Substance conference. It runs as three half-days from November 23 to 25.

If you’re attending the conference, let us know what you think. We’re interested in what you’re learning. How do you plan to use what you are learning in your daily life or work life? We would like to know which presentations caught your interest. In fact, please lets us know anything you would like about the conference. Be sure to use the hashtags #CCSAConference and #DrivingChangeTogether so we can follow your conference experience.

Coming Together to Promote Change

During NAAW, we want to highlight resources, research and work being done across the country to fight stigma or reduce harms from problematic substance use. We’ll be posting about a different topic each day:

Sunday, Nov. 21: Stigma
Monday, Nov. 22: Alcohol
Tuesday, Nov. 23: Gambling
Wednesday, Nov. 24: Adverse Childhood Experiences
Thursday, Nov. 25: Opioids
Friday, Nov. 26: Cannabis
Saturday, Nov. 27: COVID-19 and Mental Health

Do you have any related content from the work you’re doing? Any tips or thoughts to share? We’d love to hear about them! Let us know on social media by sharing your events photos and ideas with the hashtags #DrivingChangeTogether and #NAAW2021.

Spread the Message

Help us spread the message about National Addictions Awareness Week and Driving Change Together!

National Addictions Awareness Week Social Media Graphics

Download the graphics below and pair them with posts from our social media content bank. Post them on your social media platforms during the week of NAAW.

National Addictions Awareness Week Posters

Use the two NAAW posters to help spread the word about what you are doing to help make changes in your community. Snap a photo and share on social media.

I Will Help Drive Change: NAAW 2021 [poster]

Changing the Culture: NAAW 2021 [poster]

About National Addictions Awareness Week

NAAW highlights solutions to help address the harms related to alcohol and other drug use. It provides an opportunity for Canadians to learn more about prevention, to talk about treatment and recovery, and to bring forward solutions.

This year during National Addictions Awareness Week (NAAW) we are Driving Change Together. We invite you to join us during the week of November 21–27.

It’s about collaborating as a community to make change happen. We want to present Canadians with ways to reassess the way they think about substance use and people who use drugs.