How to Engage with Just Say Know, SSDP’s Drug Education Curriculum

This new year, start an effective campaign with your chapter or community by engaging with our new Just Say Know drug education program! We’re looking for feedback and we need your help spreading our mission and building the future of drug education. Here are some ways you can help kick off JSK while building valuable skills and programs. 

Tabling

Set up a table with your chapter or fellow ambassadors where you ask passersby to fill out our survey on their phones while they walk. It only takes 10 minutes or less! Use a QR code for people to scan while they walk by. If they care about drug education, we want to know what they think! You can also use this opportunity to distribute harm-reduction supplies and other chapter materials.

General Body Meetings

If your chapter/community regularly hosts general body meetings, add Just Say Know to your first meeting agenda for the semester! You can talk about JSK’s mission, and emphasize our need for student, stakeholder, and professional feedback. Present the survey links, and then leave 10-15 minutes for everyone to fill out the survey(s) while they’re there!

Making Connections

Have your chapter board and/or chapter members make new connections on campus by collecting emails from your various university stakeholders and professionals – like administrators, faculty, and staff in the student health center – and draft emails asking them to fill out our surveys. It’s important that we hear from the people who will be distributing and developing the curriculum, so ask your university officials to get involved. Not only will it help us collect information to develop JSK, but your members will also develop skills in networking and writing effective calls to action over email. The connections you make with the university officials may help you with future chapter campaigns. 

If you are an ambassador rather than a university chapter member, consider making connections at your nearest university, or finding stakeholders in community centers such as recovery centers and syringe services. You can develop these same networking skills and establish meaningful connections with people in your community. 

Practice Lobbying on Campus

Does lobbying in the government feel intimidating? Get some practice by lobbying for sensible drug education within your university offices. Have chapter members go to different offices across campus – think of student health departments, recovery centers, dean of students – and ask faculty and staff to fill out JSK surveys. You can come up with talking points for JSK, just like you would while lobbying for policy in the halls of Congress. This gives you face time with important connections, and gives your chapter members the opportunity to develop valuable and marketable skills.