Skip main navigation

New lower prices! Get up to 50% off 1000s of courses. 

Explore courses

Community mobilisation | self-organising

In this video, Mat Southwell from EurNPUD speaks about community mobilisation and self-organising of people who use drugs

You might have noticed throughout this course, that people often mention that harm reduction programs are working WITH people who use drugs, rather than FOR people who use drugs. Looking back at Judy’s and Mat’s previous videos, I’m sure you see why people chose to use this language. In this video, Mat dives us deeper into the second component of community mobilisation; self-organising of people who use drugs.

In week 1, we already heard from Louise Vincent, in the frontline to fight the overdose epidemic. This project is a beautiful example of an entirely community-led initiative. Mat is an expert in providing technical support in setting up and fostering self-organisation of communities of people who use drugs. He explains that.. “Self-organisation is when community members come together to form their own initiatives to respond to community needs.”

We will hear from examples in his home-town, as well as from his work with Raheem in Afghanistan (we met Raheem in week 1). At the end of this second week, you will hear from another fantastic community-led initiative in San Francisco.

This article is from the free online

Drug Use and Harm Reduction

Created by
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now