By Gillian Shorter, Phoebe McKenna-Plumley, Kerry Campbell, Jolie Keemink, and Benjamin Scher, et al.

Overdose prevention centres can also be referred to as drug consumption rooms, safe consumption/injecting/smoking sites, and/or other relevant names. These names can reflect legal distinctions e.g. in Canada, which relate to permanency or function of the site. There are currently over 200 OPCs worldwide in 17 countries, primarily in urban areas, and they cater to a range of drug types and visitor numbers.

Overdose prevention centres can be integrated facilities with other services, specialised sites which are primarily an OPC with limited other services, mobile sites, or tent/other temporary sites. Collaboration and consultation before and after a service opens is central to successful OPCs. Potential and actual OPC users should be consulted on the design of and running of sites to support their use. Collaboration and consultation involving members of the local community, businesses, police, elected representatives, public health, or other local authority staff with OPC staff and operators can smooth over any issues before and after a service opens. Belfast, Queen's University, 2023. 188p.

pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/530629435/DS_OPC_Report_V4.pdf

MAT CONTAIN MARKUP

By Charles O. Jones..

"An Introduction to the Study of Public Policy" is a comprehensive guide that delves into the complexities of policymaking in the public sector. This book offers a thorough exploration of the theoretical frameworks, analytical tools, and practical applications essential for understanding how policies are formulated, implemented, and evaluated. Whether you are a student, researcher, or policymaker, this insightful resource provides a solid foundation for navigating the intricate world of public policy and fostering informed decision-making.

Belmont. Wadsworth 1970.

By Sirje Laurel Weldon

A must-read for scholars across a broad sweep of disciplines. Laurel Weldon weaves together skillfully the theoretical strands of gender equality policy, intersectionality, social movements, and representation in a multimethod/level comparative study that unequivocally places women's movements at the center of our understanding of democracy and social change."" ---Amy G. Mazur, Washington State University "Laurel Weldon's When Protest Makes Policy expands and enriches our understanding of representation by stressing social movements as a primary avenue for the representation of marginalized groups. With powerful theory backed by persuasive analysis, it is a must-read for anyone interested in democracy and the representation of marginalized groups." ---Pamela Paxton, University of Texas at Austin ""This is a bold and exciting book. There are many fine scholars who look at women's movements, political theorists who make claims about democracy, and policy analysts who do longitudinal treatments or cross-sectional evaluations of various policies. I know of no one, aside from Weldon, who is comfortable with all three of these roles."" ---David Meyer, University of California, Irvine What role do social movements play in a democracy? Political theorist S. Laurel Weldon demonstrates that social movements provide a hitherto unrecognized form of democratic representation, and thus offer a significant potential for deepening democracy and overcoming social conflict. Through a series of case studies of movements conducted by women, women of color, and workers in the United States and other member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Weldon examines processes of representation at the local, state, and national levels. She concludes that, for systematically disadvantaged groups, social movements can be as important---sometimes more important---for the effective articulation of a group perspective as political parties, interest groups, or the physical presence of group members in legislatures. When Protest Makes Policy contributes to the emerging scholarship on civil society as well as the traditional scholarship on representation. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with advancing social cohesion and deepening democracy and inclusion as well as those concerned with advancing equality for women, ethnic and racial minorities, the working class, and poor people.

Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011. 244p.

By Frana, Philip L.

From the webpage: "Generative AI language models currently operate only within the controlled environments of computer systems and networks, and their capabilities are constrained by training datasets and human uses. The generative transformer architecture [hyperlink] that is powering the current wave of artificial intelligence may reshape many areas of daily life. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been making a global tour to engage with legislators, policymakers, and industry leaders about his company's pathbreaking Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) series of large language models (LLMs). While acknowledging that AI could inflict damage on the world economy, disrupt labor markets, and transform global affairs in unforeseen ways, he emphasizes that responsible use and regulatory transparency will allow the technology to make positive contributions [hyperlink] to education, creativity and entrepreneurship, and workplace productivity."

Atlantic Council Of The United States. 2023. 21p.

By Mckillop, Matt; Lieberman, Dara Alpert

From the document: "The United States spends trillions of dollars annually on healthcare, but U.S. residents are not getting healthier and tend to experience worse health outcomes than residents of other high-income countries that spend comparably less money on healthcare. Keeping everyone safe from diseases, disasters, the health impacts of climate change, and bioterrorism requires a public health system focused on prevention, equity, preparedness, and surveillance. Investment to ensure foundational public health capabilities is key. Foundational public health capabilities include assessment and surveillance, emergency preparedness and response, community partnership development, communications, policy development and support, organizational accountability and performance management, and a focus on equity. Interagency and jurisdictional planning and cooperation are also critical, as are efforts to address the needs of population groups or communities at greatest risk. All of these activities require dedicated and sustained funding and a well-resourced public health infrastructure and workforce, one that has the resources to deal with its everyday work and that is well-positioned to quickly pivot and scale up during emergencies. [...] To advance equity, successful public health systems promote structural conditions that support optimal health for all and work to remove systemic barriers that have resulted in health disparities. In addition, a strong public health system comprises federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local health agencies working within a network that includes healthcare providers, public safety agencies, human service and charity organizations, education and youth development organizations, recreation and arts-related organizations, economic and philanthropic organizations, and environmental agencies and organizations. [...] Experts agree that increased and sustained funding to strengthen the country's public health system is urgently needed, particularly in the areas of data infrastructure and workforce." The associated Fact Sheets are available here: www.tfah.org/chronic-underfunding-in-public-health-fact-sheets/

Trust For America's Health. 2023. 52p.

By Mari McGilton and Sabrina Rizk

Pressure to identify and reduce disparities through policy has risen in recent years, but these priorities are neither new nor easily achieved. Most studies of these disparities are siloed from each other and are limited to a single outcome measure, comparison group, and/or comparison time point, meaning policymakers end up relying on incomplete information to make critical decisions. This is especially true for federal and state sentencing decision-makers, who are bound by policies made across multiple agencies. Federal sentencing decision-makers specifically are driven by US attorney general directives, legislative policies, Supreme Court rulings, and amendments to the US federal sentencing guidelines. These policies affect several decision-makers at different stages in the federal sentencing process (e.g., attorneys’ application of mandatory minimum statutes, federal probation officers’ determination of final offense level, federal judges’ sentencing decisions). Most studies on disparities at the federal sentencing stage of the criminal legal system investigate only racial disparities in sentencing decisions, such as in/out decisions (i.e., prison/no prison), and/or sentence lengths, and evaluate changes in these disparities based on predetermined points in time from predetermined policies assumed to have impacted those changes. Although these studies provide critical information on disparities in federal sentencing, we could expand our knowledge and the methods used. Funded by the National Institute of Justice, we sought to answer three key research questions: 1. Do racial disparities vary across three stages of federal sentencing and over time? If so, how? 2. During which years do the measured racial disparities have a statistically significant decrease? 3. Which policies likely impacted these decreases the most? What are the commonalities between them?

Washington DC: Urban Institute, 2023. 53p.

By Jean-Pierre Tranchant.

With almost 40 per cent of its urban population living in slums, the state of Maharashtra faces a severe problem of inadequate housing and urban planning. The acute inequalities that characterise current Maharashtra’s urban development leave many people suffering from inadequate housing, poor service provision, lack of access to health and sanitation, overcrowded spaces, and limited employment opportunities. With urbanisation poised to increase dramatically over the next decades in India, it is urgent to remedy the current situation lest the social ills associated with unbalanced urbanisation grow worse. This report analyses the relationship between violence and economic vulnerability among urban populations in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It argues that the interconnection of crime, violence and vulnerability has to be explicitly recognised for both development and security policies to succeed. Efforts to improve the security of vulnerable urban populations must include physical insecurity at the margin by focusing on social, economic or legal insecurity.

Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, 2013. 39p.