OUR MOVEMENT IN MOTION
Sept. 29, 2023


SECTION 1: News and Announcements

+ NHRC WELCOMES NEW STAFF MEMBER: We are thrilled to announce Raven Hoopes (they/them) has joined the NHRC team as a capacity building manager (northern California)! Raven has decades of experience in harm reduction, and is energized by compassionate work with positive impact in the lives of those most affected by socioeconomic inequalities and inequities. Learn more about our colleagues and the rest of the team here. 

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+ INTERNATIONAL OVERDOSE AWARENESS DAY: Together, across the globe, we united to show our commitment to ending overdose, honoring those we've lost this year and in years past on International Overdose Awareness Day, August 31. From town halls and city streets to memorial walks and virtual events worldwide, we fiercely advocated for — and celebrated — needed change to prevent overdose and support the empowerment of people who use drugs. One life lost to overdose is one too many, and every overdose death is a policy failure. We vow to continue building a world where people who use drugs are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve, and have the resources and radical love needed to survive and thrive — today and every day.


+ CONFERENCES AND EVENTS: 


-The Oklahoma Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence is hosting its 9th conference on October 12, 2023, at the Metro Tech Conference Center in Oklahoma City, OK. This year’s theme is “Harm Reduction: A Transformative Approach to Recovery.” For more information about sponsorship, vendor registration, and more, contact:

OKATOD Conference Chairperson, Albert Rios  – [email protected]
OKATOD President, Ann Jamieson  – [email protected]
OKATOD Treasurer, Christian Threadgill  – [email protected]

-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. NHRC is teaming up with PeerUp at the conference to host, “Harm Reduction: The Slaughter and Resurrection of the Peer Workforce” on Thursday, Oct. 19, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. MT. People who use drugs are the experts in their own lives, and harm reduction must center their needs, experiences, and voices. We hope you'll join us during this session to hear more from PeerUp and how we're called in to collectively show up for people who use drugs. Additionally, NHRC's Executive Director, Laura Guzman, is a panelist during the panel event, "Immigration in the Age of Fentanyl: How the overdose crisis is fueling xenophobia, racism, and undermining sanctuary policies in the U.S. — a candid conversation about how drug policy intersects directly with the immigrant rights movement in the U.S. and what we can do to preserve recent wins." The panel will take place Saturday, October 21, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. MT. To learn more about the conference, visit this link.

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-NHRC is hosting our monthly national Peer Gathering Cohort after hearing the need for peers nationally to have a space to connect, talk, and network. The cohort and all sessions — which take place the first Monday of each month — 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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+ NEWS:  Will the Opioid Crisis Deliver Its Worst Harms to Black and Brown People? — All communities are impacted by drug use and the devastating punitive measures of the "War On Drugs," though the structural racism BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) individuals face fuels disparities in overdoses and access to resources and support. "It’s not too late to fix our eyes on these goals and undo the damage of a century of 'drug wars' waged against our own people. But to do so we need to recognize that our crisis is, and has been, as much about race as it has been about drugs." Read the fully story in The Nation Magazine.

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+ NEWS: $1bn in aid has been used to support failed ‘war on drugs’ over past decade, says report — As a "world house," we have to make programs, resources, and policies that actually support people a reality — not continue enforcing punitive measures that continue to steal lives and worsen public health crises across the globe. As reported in The Guardian, "'When you think about development, you don’t really think about it being used for those kinds of activities — you think of poverty reduction, working towards development goals on health or education,' said Catherine Cook, sustainable financing lead at HRI, which monitors the impact of drug policies. 'This money is actually being used to support punitive measures — so policing, prisons, essentially funding the 'war on drugs,' even though we know the 'war on drugs' and punitive policies have repeatedly failed.'"

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+ NEWS: Opioid antidote Narcan will cost $45 at major U.S. drugstore chains this fall — Life-saving naloxone should be free and accessible to all — full stop. “It’s exploitation of a community that has already been exploited for decades,” said Jose Martinez, a coordinator at the nonprofit National Harm Reduction Coalition that focuses on overdose prevention and drug policy. “It is scary to know there is now going to be a market that thrives the more our community is impacted.” See the story as read in The Spokesman-Review and originally published by Bloomberg.

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+ NEWS: Harm Reduction Saves Lives - NHRC Executive Director Laura Guzman sat down with Slate to debunk myths and discuss how, "Abstinence, treatment, behavioral health support, housing — there are all these strategies that are needed to support people who are impacted by drug use...The impact drug use has — according to class, race, and ethnicity in this country have been different...primarily Native, Black, and Latinx folks — those are the overdose deaths that are rising." Hear the full podcast at the link here.

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+ NEWS: Column: I went to an overdose prevention site. Biden and Newsom need to stop blocking them — From the very beginning of the harm reduction movement, people — mainly people who used/use drugs — kept each other safe and alive, despite the criminalization of life-saving resources and support. That continues today. “Two lives saved before lunch — by rogue activists breaking the law to do it. 'Saving lives is an act of civil disobedience,' Lydia Bransten, one of those illicit do-gooders, told me. 'Insane.' In a city where more than 470 people have already died of overdoses this year, putting it on track to be the most deadly year for drug deaths on record, I have to disagree. Keeping overdose prevention sites illegal isn’t insane, implying a lack of control over the situation. It’s cruel, to those addicted and those that care about them — a move that puts optics and politics over lives," as read in the Los Angeles Times.

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SECTION 2: Emergent and Exciting Work


+ FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:

-The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) has released a new funding opportunity to support the evaluation of smoking supplies distribution as a harm reduction strategy. Through this funding opportunity, NACCHO will provide up to $38,000 to approximately four syringe services programs (SSPs) to evaluate the distribution of smoking supplies as a harm reduction strategy. Applicants are encouraged to explore topics such as how distributing smoking supplies has affected program reach and engagement or injection drug use and health outcomes among participants. A secondary goal of this project is to identify promising models and practices related to the distribution of smoking supplies. Methods can include analyzing existing program data or collecting and analyzing new data (e.g., through surveys or focus groups with program participants).

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-Community Paramedicine Grants — The CARESTAR Foundation is offering grant funds to support the expansion of community paramedicine (CP) programs across California. Applications will be accepted through December 2023. For more information, visit this link.

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+ RESOURCES:

-The University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research has developed a “The Safe Bathroom Toolkit,” to help prevent overdose and support the safety of people who use drugs. The toolkit includes a walk-through checklist, overdose response scenarios, protocols/guides that can be adapted to meet area-specific and building-specific needs, fact sheets, and promo signs. To access the toolkit, click here.

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-Vital Strategies and the Scattergood Foundation have introduced the REACH PA initiative, offering a one-year grant opportunity to address rising overdose rates, particularly among Black and Indigenous Pennsylvanians. The organizations are inviting applications from individuals and organizations across sectors who are working to address the root causes of overdose deaths and disparities, including systemic racism, houselessness, rural underinvestment, limited medical access, stigma, and the over-policing of BIPOC communities. You can find the full request-for-proposals, including eligibility details here. To register for an informational webinar on October 2, 2023, at 1 p.m. EST, click the link here. The application will be open until October 30, 2023, 11:59 p.m. EST.

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-Drug Policy Alliance has published a toolkit, “Protecting Our Communities: All Neighborhoods Need Health-Centered Approaches to be Safe and Just,” to help advocates understand recent trends in health, houselessness, crime, and enforcement and needed responses to support communities.

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-NHRC requests organizations 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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+ TRAININGS:

The Wyoming Harm Reduction Learning Collaborative is hosting a training series that will run through October 2023. This training opportunity is for participants from WY and other states in the Intermountain West region, and the collaborative will be prioritizing registration from folks from those areas. The next and final training of this series, “Pregnancy, Substance Use, and Harm Reduction (nurses)”, is happening Oct. 18, 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. MT: Sign up here.

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-NHRC is thrilled to offer monthly Foundational Fridays training sessions, which focus on building basic knowledge about various intersectional public health issues. The free sessions, running from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. EST the last Friday of each month, are for providers, peers, and anyone in the harm reduction community as well as anyone looking to learn more about the field. To sign up for the next session happening on Oct. 27, Safer Injecting 101, visit this link. Stay tuned for more details about the trainings, happening through June of next year! For more information, contact Capacity Building and Hepatitis C Coordinator, Jose Martinez, at [email protected]. The rest of the training schedule dates are as follows, with registration links included in hyperlinks below:

Sex Work 101 - Nov. 24
Sexual & Reproductive Health 101 - December 22
Syringe Access 101 - Jan. 26
Dismantling Drug-Related Stigma 101 - Feb. 23 
MOUD 101 - March 29
HCV 101 - April 26
Drugs 101 - May 31
LGB/TGNC 101 - June 28

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-NHRC is excited to launch our new free online training modules for NYC residents, covering safer use, stimulants, and wound care for non-clinicians! For more information and to sign up for each of the modules, visit this link.

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-The CA Bridge Navigator Program Training Series provides education and resources to hospital teams implementing medication for addiction treatment (MAT) programs in the acute care setting. The Building and Strengthening Your Bridge Navigator Program, Los Angeles session, happening Oct. 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. PST, will include plenary and breakout sessions designed to deepen your program connections and MAT knowledge. This training event is specifically for hospitals receiving funding through the Bridge Navigator Program. 

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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: Work for the Movement

+ NHRC is continuing to hire for several roles, including:
-California Capacity Building and Training Coordinator
-Director of Capacity Building and Community Mobilization
-NYC Office Coordinator

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+ Bowery Residents Committee (BRC) is looking for a shelter-based Certified Peer Specialist (CRPA) for several locations in NYC.

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+ Community Outreach through Radical Empowerment (CORE) is searching for a Young Adult Advocate.

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+ Mount Sinai is hiring for a Health Educator - Emergency Medicine position.

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+ NASTAD is hiring a Manager, Finance and Accounting and Manager, Meetings and Travel

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+ The New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) is creating a Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) — for NY state current or former recipients of services — to "inform OASAS policy, programming and funding priorities." Attendance at meetings is reimbursed at $150/meeting, and applications are due October 31, 2023.

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+ Sonoran Prevention Works is hiring for a remote Finance & Operations Director, a remote Data & Special Projects Coordinator, and an Administrative Assistant. Interested applicants should apply through Indeed here.

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+ The Supporting Harm Reduction Programs team at University of Washington is hiring a team member to join the National Harm Reduction Technical Assistance Center.

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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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