Regina non-profit launching anti-fentanyl campaign to try to save youth in North Central

A grassroots organization in Regina is launching an anti-fentanyl educational campaign in the city's North Central neighbourhood, in an attempt to protect youth from dying.

Women of the Dawn Inc., a non-profit that offers counselling services among other things, is paying out of pocket for two billboards — one near Fourth Avenue and Albert Street and another close to SARCAN Recycling, near Ninth Avenue and Albert Street.

"Nobody's educating our children in the neighbourhood. Nobody seems to want to say anything about the opioid crisis," executive director Ivy Kennedy told reporters Wednesday.

"We have to do something now."

The opioid crisis has been ongoing for years in Canada, but data shows the situation has progressively been getting worse in Saskatchewan — especially since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020.

The Saskatchewan Coroners Service has reported 186 confirmed or suspected overdose deaths throughout the province this year as of April 30, data shows.

Regina has not been immune to the trend, police data shows, but 2023 in particular is on pace to be a deadly year.

The Regina Police Service (RPS) reported 55 apparent overdose deaths as of April 30 — the most within the first four months of a year since the police started tracking overdoses in 2018, data shows.

An RPS spokesperson said many factors could be contributing to more people dying, so they were unable to comment specifically on the increase.

Kennedy said she has recently mourned three relatives due to fentanyl.

Her granddaughter, a 28-year-old mother of five, died about a year and a half ago, she said. Her nephew, 40, was experiencing homelessness and froze to death in December with fentanyl in his system. Then her grandson, 27, died in January after taking a Xanax pill that he didn't know was was laced with fentanyl.

Kennedy acknowledged the problem is not exclusive to North Central, but having lived in the neighbourhood for three decades, she knows drugs affect many families in the area.

She hopes the signs, which are supposed to be up Thursday, will spark conversations among families who live in North Central and help educate youth living there.

Shay Scales, 22, supports Women of the Dawn's initiative.

Her older sister, a mother of five, died from an overdose just over a year ago, then her older brother overdosed about two months ago. Both were 28 when they died, she said.

"It does make me mad," Scales said. "It's hard for the whole family because it affects everybody in the family, not just the person that has the addiction.

"We grew up [as] a really close family, and for them to just be gone just like that, it's just really hard for all of us."

Scales wants youth and children, including her younger siblings, to learn more about the potential dangers of drugs, such as how they can be laced with other substances.

Meanwhile, the signs are just a starting point for Kennedy and her organization.

Women of the Dawn is supposed to be meeting with school divisions about programming in schools, Kennedy said, and the organization will be lobbying various levels of government and agencies such as the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan.

The North Central Community Association, of which Kennedy is a board member, will be meeting to discuss what it can do at the neighbourhood level, she added.

Kennedy also wants stiffer penalties for drug dealers in the judicial system, she said.