What's Your Fix (2022)
“What’s Your Fix?” 2022 – 2023 Media Campaign - Part I
National Council Against Drug Abuse launches 2022-2023 Campaign to inspire a shared understanding around the drug-free cause
22 SEPTEMBER 2022
The National Council Against Drug Abuse (NCADA) of Singapore officially launched What’s Your Fix? its 2022-2023 media campaign. This campaign aims to spark meaningful conversations on the lived realities of drugs, raise awareness on how members of society, especially youths, can be advocates for the anti-drug vision as well as support those who may be vulnerable to the influence of drugs. Through a series of engagement efforts and advocacy initiatives, this campaign hopes to inspire a shared understanding in the community around the vision and purpose of a drug-free society.
The first phase of the What’s Your Fix? campaign is “Finding Juliana” – a TikTok-exclusive series screening from 23 September 2022. The series will culminate with a virtual live event on TikTok on 15 October 2022. In addition, in 2023, What’s Your Fix? will be screening a documentary series featuring advocates from the post-risk community whose stories inspired “Finding Juliana”, as well as a youth film development programme.
Dr Chew Tuan Chiong, Vice Chairman of NCADA, said, “Central to this year’s campaign is our effort to engage the community. All of us, community groups, public agencies, media, corporates, parents, educators or students, we all have a part to play in shaping the society we live in, and the culture we hope the next generation inherits. And part of this vision is to inspire a new wave of advocacy for the drug-free cause, not only through education, but by building emotional understanding of the lived realities of drug abuse.”
Strengthening engagement efforts to build community resilience
As part of the engagement efforts, NCADA announced a strategic partnership with Architects of Life (AOL), a social enterprise that seeks to help ex-offenders on their journey to not just reintegrate into society but to develop into role models in the community.
Mr Ahmad Firdaus Daud, Spokesperson for NCADA, said, “We are heartened that we have been able to bring on board AOL as a strategic partner in our community engagement efforts. AOL has done tremendous work in reaching out and supporting the community of ex-offenders, and we hope that through our parternship, we can work together to catalyse community action for the drug-free cause. This partnership is part of our efforts to bring different circles of the community together, refine our collective efforts, build community resilience, understand how we may protect the vulnerable, and activate society by first cultivating common language that expresses a shared vision for a drug-free society.”
Mr Glenn Lim, Founder and Chairman of AOL, said, “We are heartened that we have the opportunity to work closely with NCADA on outreach and intervention programmes for youths at risk and ex-offenders. As a social enterprise, we strive to empower the youths at risk and ex-offenders to help transform them from stigmatised stereotypes to societal archetypes. Through this partnership, we hope to do our part and contribute towards building a shared community identity of a drug-free society.”
Adopting upstream efforts to stem a culture of permissiveness toward drugs
The first phase of the campaign, “Finding Juliana”, is a TikTok series that navigates identity, relationships, and deep-rooted problems, to share a simple message – you are not defined by your challenges or circumstances, but by how you respond and overcome them.
On the motivations for this approach, Dr Chew, Vice Chairman of NCADA, said, “We are seeing growing divisiveness towards the issue of drugs and drug abuse, both globally and increasingly, in Singapore. And it is important that we start building a common ground for constructive conversations on our aspirations, as well as the lived realities of drug abuse beyond the echo chambers. As such, the What’s Your Fix? campaign hopes to encourage conversations that are not abstract, but ones that seek to verify truths, explore their implications, and what they might mean to us in real life. And at the heart of it, our goal is to encourage people to make clear choices against apathy and permissiveness on drug abuse, and to help those around them who may be vulnerable. We hope that this campaign inspires a new wave of advocacy and community engagement, as we work towards a collective identity of a drug-free society.”
Throughout the “Finding Juliana” series, members of the public will be able to take part in a series of virtual engagement activities and reflect on how they would react, not just when they’re looking for a friend, but when their friend is struggling with a problem bigger than themselves. These virtual engagement activities will be led by personalities such as Nicole Liel and Zhin Sadali and will build towards the TikTok live event on 15 October 2022.
For more information on the What’s Your Fix? campaign, visit https://whatsyourfix.sg.
About the National Council Against Drug Abuse (NCADA)
NCADA was formed in January 1995 as a citizen’s advisory council to the Ministry of Home Affairs on preventive drug measures and programmes in Singapore. A key objective for the Council is to spur collective ownership of Singapore’s drug-free vision, and to mobilise society for the drug-free cause.
In NCADA, we recognise that holistic interdisciplinary support fixes intricate problems better. For example, the treatment of addiction itself often requires a bio-psycho-social approach. The involvement of families, schools, and the wider community, together with the government helps prevent intergenerational cycles of drug abuse. NCADA particularly focuses on upstream efforts because we believe that the deep-rooted consequences of drug abuse thwart young people from achieving their full potential in life.
The drug-free cause campaigns for a drug-free culture in Singapore. NCADA hopes that more people become aware of how to help their friends and loved ones steer encounters with drugs. We also hope to encourage greater advocacy in order to build a drug-free environment for the next generation.
Annex A
Stills from the TikTok series Finding Juliana, the first phase of the What’s Your Fix? campaign by NCADA.
Photo from MOU signing to mark the partnership between NCADA and AOL.
Photo from the Live TikTok Event on 15 October 2022, featuring TikTok influencers cum hosts Nicole Liel and Zhin Sadali, cast members Rishi Vadrevu (“Xavier”) and Tania Tan (“Juliana”), in conversation with former youth drug abusers Nicholas and Heidi, whose stories helped to inspire this series.
