Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA)

Senior Media Relations Specialist

At CCSA my primary duties revolve around communicating the organization's activities with reporters and journalists. I've been with CCSA a little over three months at this point.

I don't have a lot to communicate to you right now, given I'm just getting my shop off the ground. I can tell you though that CCSA so far has been a great professional experience. The organization has a sophisticated and extensive ecosystem-strategy of addressing the harms of substance abuse - from a National Framework for Action to Reduce the Harms Associated with Alcohol and Other Drugs and Substances in Canada - to various other national programs like the National Treatment Strategy.  These initiatives bring together key stakeholders in Canada to try and advance positive change in how we tackle the issues of substance abuse - these aren't your traditional 'point product' strategies (to use the lingo of my tech days) - these are comprehensive strategies with a focus on tackling a social issue that is bigger than any one organization. 

What I'm finding fascinating is that from an analogous perspective CCSA is like a giant Systems Integrator - think IBM'ish - bringing together the best of Canada's organizations and expertise to tackle the big issues that require a collective effort from everyone involved. Capturing that value for the public to see and understand will take a little more time than a typical tech launch, but I think (and know) there are some amazing things going on at CCSA that will be exciting to communicate to reporters and journalists.

Lastly, it's great working with a group of extremely intelligent and committed individuals.

I'll update my work with CCSA in the near future - stay tuned.