2022-2023

PDS is able to re-launch the Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP), a platform where people with lived and living experience (PWLE) of substance use are paid to leverage their experiences to help shape local programs, policies, and initiatives. The panel offers organizations an invaluable opportunity to receive feedback on their activities and make necessary adaptations to more effectively serve to the needs of individuals who have navigated experiences with substance use. Learn more here.

2022-2023

The Peterborough Drug Strategy (PDS) conducted a housing research project between September 2022 and April 2023. PDS is a community-based organization focused on reducing the harms of substance use and it is well known that the drug poisoning epidemic intersects with the housing and homelessness crisis, and the mental health crisis – you cannot really talk about one without the other. Learn more here.

2020-2023

The Housing Unit Takeover (HUTs) Project focused on research, education, and the creation of a manual intended to help collate existing tools and resources as well as provide some Peterborough Kawartha-specific context for use by PDS members, regional partners, and organizations. Learn more here.

2019

The PDS Strategic Planning Framework was finalized in 2019 and was based on a consultation process that engaged stakeholders throughout the City and County. Based on the information that we gathered from our consultations, we defined our mission, approach, values, and four strategic focus areas. The plan includes recommendations for action and identifies pathways to improve prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and enforcement efforts in the community.

2017-2018

The PDS Panel was an opportunity for people with lived experience related to substance use to use their experiences to help inform local programs, policies, and initiatives. It was also an opportunity for organizations to get feedback on their activities and adapt them to better meet the needs of people with lived experience of substance use.

Over the course of a one-year pilot project (2017-18), we established the panel, which offered consulting services to PDS member organizations. This project was generously funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

The panel was later re-launched in 2022. Learn more here.

2016-2017

The Peterborough Police Service with PDS and other supporting organizations received funding in August 2016 from the Proceeds of Crime Front-Line Policing program to work with the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) to implement a naloxone distribution kit program through the hospital’s emergency department. Learn more here.

2013-2015

Between 2013 and 2015, the Peterborough Drug Strategy successfully implemented several community-based projects designed to address substance use among youth. These projects included Challenges, Beliefs, Change (CBC), Strengthening Families for Parents and Youth (SFPY), and Life Unleashed, Learn more here.

2009

PDS was established in 2009 by four partnering organizations: Peterborough Public Health, PARN – Your Community AIDS Resource Network, Four Counties Addiction Service Team, and Peterborough Police Service. These organizations were united in their view that collaboration around how addiction is addressed in our community is crucial to supporting the needs of individuals who use substances as well as their families and support people.

2005

During the summer of 2005, the Four Counties Needle Exchange Coalition, which had been in operation since 1997, reported an increase in the number and severity of complaints of found needles on both public and private properties. The Health Hazards program staff agreed to facilitate consultations with representatives from: the City and County of Peterborough, municipal and provincial police forces, the Four Counties Needle Exchange Coalition, Emergency Medical Services, and the Peterborough County-City Health Unit, with the goal of developing a community-wide protocol for the referral, safe handling, and disposal of found used needles and/or sharps.