Grant: Project Grant

Unemployment, poverty and material insecurity (e.g. housing insecurity) are key drivers of health and well-being. This is particularly the case for inner-city, drug-using populations in the context of the ongoing and conjoined overdose and COVID- 19 health emergencies, which disproportionately impact this population. The ASSET study leverages and expands an existing pilot study, seeking to examine the dynamics and impacts of innovative economic participation in the context of multiple intersecting health challenges, with a view to identifying programmatic and policy responses to improve individual health and socioeconomic well-being. The study's objectives are to: (1) identify relationships between economic activities and individual health and socioeconomic well-being; (2) examine the impacts of the pandemic and associated government responses on participants; (3) explore how participants navigate, perceive and experience economic participation; and (4) identify modifiable barriers to and facilitators of economic participation. An ongoing cohort-based evaluation with a nested qualitative component, this study employs innovative, pandemic-appropriate remote data collection techniques, drawing on quarterly surveys and annual semi-structured interviews to assess whether and how economic participation impacts the health and well- being of inner-city, drug using populations. The study will pay specific attention to naturally occurring changes in the health, service provision and policy environment. The ASSET study works with a range of community and government partners to optimize impact, will provide data for economic-opportunity-providing organizations for internal evaluations and will inform policy and programmatic responses to ongoing health emergencies. Understanding the effectiveness of strategies to disrupt the poverty-drug use-poor health nexus in times of formidable public health crises, as this study proposes, is critical to addressing health inequity.