INTERNATIONAL OVERDOSE AWARENESS DAY 2021
Digital Campaign Guide This is a guide to hosting a successful digital IOAD event. Even if your area does not have COVID-19 restrictions in place, this guide has plenty of ideas as well as Frequently Asked Questions to let you plan with confidence.
Share your story Everyone involved in this campaign has an overdose story worth sharing. This year, our team is collecting stories from people around the world to bring more attention to the lives touched by this crisis. Take a video and share your story. How did it start? Who was affected? Was there something which turned things around? How are you today? You don’t need an expensive camera. You just need a phone. Record a video and send it to our team at info@overdoseday.com.
Write to your elected officials Many elected officials, especially in communities that have been hit hard by the overdose crisis, support the goals of International Overdose Awareness Day – even if they don’t know about our campaign. Writing to them can be very powerful – especially if you are joined by other people and write with a clear goal in mind. What will you ask them to do? Maybe it will be making naloxone (Narcan) more accessible for people who use drugs. Perhaps it will be to officially recognise International Overdose Awareness Day. Or perhaps there are drug treatment or advocacy organisations in your area that could use more funding. These are just three ideas – we’re sure you will have many more. Talk with your friends and IOAD collaborators to decide on your goal, your key “asks”, and try to encourage as many people as you can to also write. Check our website soon for template letters you can use to write to your local official.
Start a petition or fundraiser Online petitions are a great way to harness community support and draw attention to your cause. They can make a very powerful statement that things need to change. Consider the many different campaigns that can be represented by a petition. You could start a petition calling on local police to de-prioritise low-level drug possession and put more resources toward directing people to treatment. Or one that calls on your local authorities to make naloxone (Narcan) able to be handed out more easily. There are lots of websites where you can easily create an online petition: the two most popular are Avaaz and Change. You can also create one yourself using Google Forms. Once your petition has finished, present the results to your local officials. 1