In contrast to the SAFE Community Pulse Survey and its wide distribution, the SAFE Community Resources Exercise is an activity for your coalition to complete to provide an overview of the existing resources in your community and to identify any potential gaps.
Sometimes, when individual community sectors do their work to mitigate the opioid and addiction crisis, they are so busy doing good work that they aren’t aware of other services the community offers and how they might interact. They don’t have time to survey the landscape and see what else is available. The SAFE Community Resources Exercise seeks to address this issue by helping coalition members understand the resources their fellow members bring to the table as well as educate the coalition about the depth and breadth of other services that are offered in the community.
The completed product will provide your coalition and community with a map of current community resources as well as any gaps. This resource map, together with the SAFE Community Pulse Survey, coordinates directly with the six lines of operation suggested by SAFE as a way to organize your efforts. It will indicate to your coalition the potential areas where the community should focus its work.
Focusing your community’s efforts does not mean doing only one thing to combat the opioid and addiction epidemic. By identifying your community’s attitudes and perceptions, as well as gaps in services, you will be better able to focus your available time and energy on paths that have the most opportunity for impact.
Note: You may have local organizations that have completed a similar scan of resources. There is no need to duplicate their good work! Incorporate that information into this exercise. To keep things moving, you can either have the coalition members complete the exercise on their own and then compile the results, or you can complete it as a team at one of your meetings.