OUR MOVEMENT IN MOTION
June 29, 2023


SECTION 1: News and Announcements

+ CELEBRATING PRIDE: Pride is more than a moment. The LGBTQIA+ liberation movement shows the power of radical love as resistance, and we — particularly looking at you, aspiring allies — are all called in to keep momentum going to reimagine and build a world where LGBTQIA+ people are safe and free to thrive. This month, we amplified this message across our work and joined NHRC’s Lighthouse Learning Collective and the New Hampshire Harm Reduction Coalition to kick off Pride Month with a Pride Twitter chat. The conversation aimed to engage harm reduction and LGBTQIA+-serving organizations around the intersections of queer experiences and harm reduction. Check out the chat from June 1 on Twitter. 

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+ HONORING JUNETEENTH: NHRC celebrated Black joy as resilience this past Juneteenth, and will continue to every day after that — and we encourage you to do the same while supporting and centering Black-led organizations in your community. We were closed June 19 through June 23 in observance of Juneteenth as a period of institutional pause and rest. Rest is resistance, and rest is necessary! 

+ NSSSP SURVEYS: Calling all Syringe Services Programs (SSPs) — We need your feedback! The 2023 National Survey of Syringe Services Programs, launched with the North American Syringe Exchange Network (NASEN) and RTI International, is open. Tracking SSP budgets and data over time helps us advocate for more resources. Respond today with your experiences! Participating programs will be mailed a $125 check after completing the survey. Check your inbox for an email invitation from NASEN, and see more info with this FAQ link.

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+ CONFERENCES AND EVENTS: 

-NHRC is hosting our monthly Peer Gathering Cohort after hearing the need for peers nationally to have a space to connect, talk, and network. The cohort started Monday, June 5, and the sessions — which take place the first Monday of each month from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST — are open to peers with lived/living experience only at no cost, and folks from around the U.S. are welcome to join. Together, we'll work to build a support system through the states. Come as you are, this will be a non-judgmental space! To join, visit this link.

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-The National Survivors Union will host "Liberating Methadone: Building a Roadmap and a Community for Change," a hybrid conference that will be held online and in-person in New York City Thursday, September 21, through Friday, September 22, 2023. Among the presenters is NHRC's Community and Capacity Building Manager, Hiawatha Collins. Abstract submissions for the poster session, travel award applications, and an early registration process privileging directly impacted people are now open. For early registration for people with lived/living experience of methadone treatment, click here to register. For abstract submissions for the poster session, visit this link. The travel award application can be found via this link.

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The International Drug Policy Reform Conference, hosted by the Drug Policy Alliance, is happening in Phoenix, AZ from Wednesday, Oct. 18, through Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. Learn more about the conference here, and click this link to register.

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+ NEWS: Opinion: Overdose Prevention Centers help make communities safer — "At OnPoint NYC, I found myself averting my eyes, not wanting to look into the face of addiction. Then I heard Sam Rivera, the center’s executive director, speaking to people with a tone of love and admiration. His love for them compelled me to look into their faces and see their humanity, and seeing their humanity made me feel my own. I’ve always believed everyone deserves care and compassion; at OnPoint I saw how it can transform how we see others, and ourselves." Beautiful words and perspective from a parent coordinator at an East Harlem public school about the importance — and humanity — of overdose prevention centers, and how they keep us all safer. Read the full story as read in City Limits here.

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+ NEWS: First-ever vending machine offering free Narcan, safer drug use kits, and menstrual kits installed in New York City — The need for harm reduction tools is 24/7, and this new vending machine supplied with life-saving public health resources in NYC — "the city that never sleeps" — will help address that need. NHRC's Associate Director of Capacity Building, Mike Selick, told amNY, "Vending machines are a cheap way to ensure access to safer drug use supplies while our existing harm reduction infrastructure is closed during late nights, and this is a move that will save lives...We are excited to see how this new machine is used and to see this program expanded to more locations across the city." The full article can be read here.

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+ NEWS: Fatal overdoses increase after police seize drugs, study finds — "The study found that police drug seizures were associated with increases in fatal overdose in the surrounding geographic area in the three weeks following enforcement, possibly by leading people [who use drugs] to take greater risks when they tried to restore their supply. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, raises questions about policies that might be exacerbating overdoses during a persistent epidemic that is contributing to reductions in the nation's life expectancy." — as read in Brown University’s news blog, with information from American Journal of Public Health, RTI International, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and several others, with study funding by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Click here to read the story.

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+ NEWS: U.S. will fund study of safe injection sites despite pushback — NHRC's Hepatitis C + Harm Reduction Associate, Jose Martinez, shared glimpses of his story and outreach work, highlighting for WebMD how "people avoid deadly overdoses and infectious diseases like hepatitis, HIV, and AIDS because of the clean supplies and trained staff at supervised injection sites. 'Everybody deserves a chance and an opportunity,' he said. 'It's not up to other people to dictate what that looks like.'"

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SECTION 2: Emergent and Exciting Work


+ FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:

The New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) is providing 325 full scholarships to Stony Brook University (SBU) and Alfred State College (ASC) for eligible applicants to complete the online 350-hour Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC) Program. OASAS will also provide scholarships to Alfred State College to complete the online 250-hour Certified Prevention Professional (CPP) Program. To learn more, please contact SBU at [email protected] and ASC at [email protected]. The deadline to apply for this opportunity is Friday, July 21, 2023.


+ RESOURCES:

-NHRC requests organizations to add or update their information on the Naloxone Finder map in an effort to ensure the resource is up-to-date. To add a new program, click here. To update existing program information on the map, please fill out this form. We appreciate your support in spreading the word about these life-saving materials!

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-Season 4 of Coming Together for Sexual Health, a podcast from the California Prevention Training Center, has begun. The first three episodes are on harm reduction using the ecological model from individual and organizational, to structural and social. In the first episode, host Tammy Kremer sat down with "Narcan Queen" Kochina Rude to discuss her efforts to educate LGBTQIA+ community members about how to administer naloxone and safer drug use/partying practices. She talks about how punk inspires both her drag and her harm reduction work. Her performances at SF Oasis with Lisa Frankenstein have included giving out over 2,000 bottles of nasal Narcan. Listen on your favorite platform by searching for Coming Together for Sexual Health or click here.

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+ TRAININGS:

-Transcending Oppression: Uniting Against Anti-Trans Legislation & Inspiring Action — Join us for our upcoming Office Hours training on Tuesday, July 25, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST! This transformative event brings together a diverse panel of experts to shed light on the flood of anti-trans legislation with the hope to unite and inspire fellow harm reductionists to come together against threats to the well-being and bodily autonomy of TGNCNBI (Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, Non-Binary, and Intersex) individuals. Speakers will provide legal insights navigating the complex legal landscape, offer crucial perspectives on the healthcare implications for transgender individuals, particularly youth, and talk about how legislation can hinder access to vital resources. Most importantly, attendees will gain valuable knowledge and actionable steps to mobilize their organizations and create meaningful change to empower and support TGNCNBI people. To secure your spot, register here.

Link: bit.ly/TransRightsNHRC


-Provide, Inc. is providing free virtual trainings, titled, "Connecting Abortion Referrals and Harm Reduction: How You Can Combat Stigma and Promote Autonomy" from June through August. Through each 4-hour training, attendees will learn their state's legal landscape around abortion, substance use, and harm reduction, how to recognize stigma against people who use drugs and people seeking abortion, how to combat stigma through promoting client autonomy and helping folks make decisions best for them, and how to navigate common barriers to care for people who use drugs and people seeking abortion. Sign up for one of the trainings here.

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-Reframe Health & Justice and In The Works partnered to create and produce a free e-course, "Taking Action On Racial Equity In Drug User Health Programs," as a way to scale racial equity education specifically designed for providers offering services to people who use drugs. In recognition that harm reduction organizations must take on racial equity work to address racial disparities in overdose and other harms created by the racist war on drugs, Vital Strategies funded this project to ensure programs have foundational basics and move to self-identifying their own practices to address internal and external racial disparities in overdose and impacts of the racist war on drugs.

-Module 1 covers foundational racial equity principles and practices and highlights the intersections of drug use and criminalization
-Module 2 reviews approaches to identifying and changing organizational practices to better promote equity and inclusion
-Module 3 provides strategies to use data to identify disparities and move toward action in your own community

Throughout the course, hear from harm reduction advocates from across the country as they share their tried and true practices and lessons learned through their work in organizations, coalitions, and partnerships. Enroll today via this link!

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If you support emergent and exciting work at National Harm Reduction Coalition, please join our community of monthly donors, the Harm Reduction Champions! Become a Harm Reduction Champion Today.

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SECTION 3: The Policy Plug


+ LEGISLATION AND POLICY ADVOCACY:

NHRC AND DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE CONDEMN SF’S ARRESTS AND FORCED TREATMENT: We joined the Drug Policy Alliance to issue a statement condemning San Francisco's forced treatment and arrests of people who use drugs. The city's effort to arrest people who use drugs will not save lives — and, in fact, will lead to more deaths and devastation in the community — particularly for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals. As decades of research and folks' lived experiences prove, harm reduction works. We can choose a better way. To read the full joint statement, visit our blog.


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SECTION 5: Work for the Movement

+ OnPoint NYC is hiring a Database Administrator and a Distribution Associate.

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+ Hepatitis Education Project (HEP) is searching for a Clinical Nurse Manager.

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+ Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program is hiring a Team Coordinator of Harm Reduction Specialist.

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+ Drug Policy Alliance is looking for a Managing Director of Organizing and Strategic Partnerships.
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+ Mount Sinai is hiring for a Health Educator - Emergency Medicine position.
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+ Integral Care is hiring an MAT LPHA.
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+ NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene is hiring for the role of Medications for Substance Use Disorders Technical Assistance Lead, Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention, Care, and Treatment (BADUPCT)
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+ NASTAD is hiring a Manager, Finance and Accounting and Manager, Meetings and Travel

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Hiring? Send us a note about open positions in harm reduction to [email protected] to have a job post shared here.


National Harm Reduction Coalition
243 Fifth Avenue
Box 529
New York, NY 10016
United States

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