Opioids in Alberta is a campaign created in 2022 by a group of Communication and Media Studies students attending the University of Calgary. After many discussions, we believe that lack of awareness has skewed public perception of the opioid epidemic in Alberta and has caused users of opioids to become alienated from our communities.

Recently, we have been learning about the importance of using rhetorical appeals in digital media and how it can persuade, inform, and initiate discussions about the foremost social issues and causes in society. We are offering our knowledge by creating a website dedicated to raising awareness about the opioid crisis in Alberta. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has exasperated the problem (EHN Canada, n.d.). We are here to reignite awareness in our province.

One of our main focuses is how the crisis has disproportionately affected marginalized groups and youth in Alberta (EHN Canada, n.d.). We have gathered statistics from quantitative research to prove this claim. Being of university age and part of a more internet-savvy generation, we believe our organization has great potential to reach more high-risk social demographics by using strategies of digital rhetoric.

We hope that you will join us in our fight against the opioid crisis and change the stigma surrounding opioid users. Our website is our method of starting the conversation around the opioid crisis in an ethical and well-researched matter. We want to make the tragic reality of this situation heard while providing the resources needed to combat this epidemic.

Thank you for taking the time to visit our website. Feel free to explore!

Best regards,

Natasha Bodnarchuk, Alex Brickstock, Amy Dougherty, Glory Okeleke, Mary Okokon, and Madi Tarkowski

If you have any questions regarding this project you may contact our professor Dr. Smith.