National Harm Reduction Coalition creates spaces for dialogue and action that help heal the harms caused by racialized drug policies. |
+ LIGHTHOUSE LAUNCHES GENDER-AFFIRMING TOOLKIT FOR SSPS: NHRC’s Lighthouse Learning Collective has published “Gender Affirming Harm Reduction: A Toolkit for Syringe Service Programs,” a resource created in collaboration with Trans Equity Consulting. The toolkit is dedicated to the late visionary and Trans Equity Consulting founder, Cecilia Gentilli, who supported the vision for the project. The resource was developed to provide organizations with a roadmap for increasing service delivery and commitment to TGNCNB (Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, Nonbinary) communities. The toolkit includes an organizational assessment to highlight areas for growth and opportunities as well as information on chemsex, overdose response and prevention, sex work, and how to ask for and write up a more affirming sexual health history, and more. Also included in the resource are self reflection questions to guide understanding of the toolkit and content to continue learning and expanding knowledge. Check out the toolkit flip book here, and site version here. Don’t miss the webinar to take a deeper dive into the toolkit on September 25, 2024, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST! ASL and Spanish interpreters will be provided. Sign up for the webinar here.
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+ LAST CALL FOR FEEDBACK: We're sending out a last call to participate in this year’s National Survey of Syringe Services Programs (NSSSP) before the survey closes on August 31, and we need your feedback! NHRC, in collaboration with the North American Syringe Exchange Network (NASEN) and RTI International, launched the survey earlier this year, which provides crucial data to highlight the life-saving work as well as challenges Syringe Services Programs (SSPs) face across the country. Tracking SSP budgets and other data over time helps us advocate for more resources. Participating programs will be mailed a $125 check after completing the survey. Check your inbox for an email invitation from [email protected] and see FAQs for more info (in English or Spanish). If you have not received a survey invitation or you can’t find yours, you can request one here. If you have any questions, please reach out to Lynn Wenger at [email protected].
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+ MAKE IT PLAIN: Language is so important, and we must be clear: The issue is not opioids or other drugs themselves, but the many lives lost to overdoses and the structural systems that allow these deaths to continue. Read our principles of harm reduction on our website.
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+ CONFERENCES AND EVENTS:
NHRC’s Capacity Building and Hepatitis C Coordinator, Jose Martinez, will serve as the moderator for “Unlearning for Change: Rethinking Recovery,” hosted by the Pennsylvania Harm Reduction Network (PHRN) on September 5, 2024, at 7 p.m. EST. Learn more and sign up for the virtual event here.
The National Health Care for the Homeless Council is accepting abstracts through September 6 for its national conference, happening May 12 through May 15, 2025. Click here to see more. -
NHRC is hosting our monthly national Peer Gathering Cohort, PeerUp, after hearing the need for peers nationally to have a space to connect, talk, and network. The 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, contact Capacity Building + Hepatitis C Coordinator, Jose Martinez, at [email protected].
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In honor of International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31, join Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), harm reductionists, health advocates, service providers, people who use drugs, and others affected by the so-called “War on Drugs” for OPCs (Overdose Prevention Centers) National Solidarity Week in support of expanding OPCs in the U.S. From August 25 through August 31, in cities and states across the U.S., the collective will educate and engage communities and put pressure on legislators to support the establishment of these centers. To sign on to DPA’s letter in support of OPCs, click here. To learn more, click here. If you would like to participate, please contact Gia Mitcham at [email protected].
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The Florida Harm Reduction Collective is hosting its 3rd Annual Florida Harm Reduction Conference Tuesday, October 29, and Wednesday, October 30, 2024 in St. Petersburg for harm reduction activists and advocates across Florida and the south. To learn more about the two-day conference and register, click here.
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+ NEWS: Providence, RI, Overdose Prevention Center Set to Open This Fall — The overdose prevention center (OPC) in Rhode Island will undoubtedly save many lives. Beyond that, it will serve as a hub for the health and well-being of people who use drugs and entire communities. We need more of these life-saving centers to stem the tide of the overdose crisis.
Despite the overwhelming amount of people we are losing to overdose, “it took the US until November 2021 to open two of them [OPCs] — run by OnPoint NYC in Manhattan and authorized by New York City. The outcomes speak for themselves. By summer 2023, the organization reported having averted over 1,000 overdoses among more than 3,700 participants. But the first state to officially authorize OPC was Rhode Island, which enacted a bill to create a pilot program in July 2021 (Minnesota followed in May 2023, and Vermont in June 2024)," as covered in Filter.
+ NEWS: The war on drugs has failed — Elton John himself points out how harm reduction approaches are not revolutionary – these measures are proven to save lives and have been backed up by decades of evidence and folks' lived experiences.
As noted in this Telegraph op-ed, "The introduction of programmes providing sterile needles and syringes in cities, including across Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and Switzerland in the 1980s – at the height of the AIDS epidemic – were largely responsible for keeping HIV infections amongst people who use drugs at very low levels in these countries. In Vietnam, the rollout of needle and syringe programmes were estimated to have averted over 30,000 new HIV cases over a 10-year period, saving many lives in the process. When effectively implemented and properly funded, such needle and syringe programmes, together with medications for opioid dependence such as methadone and buprenorphine, community provision of naloxone, drug checking services, and overdose prevention centres, can virtually eliminate HIV transmissions among people who use drugs and can reverse the global tide of fatal overdose deaths. We need more, not less of these essential services."
+ NEWS: “Soups Will Cook There:” How Prisons Became Heat Traps by Design — Each year, we lose so many people to heat-related deaths in prisons — an inhumane and unjust way to die. This social justice issue is closely tied to the treatment of people who use drugs, many of whom are incarcerated because of the so-called "War on Drugs," aka a war on people. With more extreme weather events and the warming of the planet, environments in prisons and jails will only become more dangerous.
“Prisons cells in the South can reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit or more. Raven*, also serving a life sentence, recalled an officer recently coming in with a meat thermometer that read 109 degrees Fahrenheit. It was in his breast pocket, but it was also 9 pm. You can make coffee by just putting the freeze-dried powder in cold water and leaving the cup on the windowsill for half an hour," this coverage in Filter notes.
+ NEWS: A tale of two opioid antidotes — Naloxone has proven to save lives. As NHRC’s Associate Director of Capacity Building Mike Selick noted to POLITICO, “there’s no need for Zurnai because naloxone is proven effective at reversing overdoses caused by heroin, fentanyl and its analogs. The best response to a known or suspected overdose, he added, is to use the lower dose of naloxone with rescue breathing.
‘Higher dose reversal drugs and long acting reversal drugs put people who are dependent on opioids into longer and more severe withdrawal…This makes people less likely to seek further care and more likely to try and use more opioids which can result in another overdose.’ Selick’s position mirrors a statement issued last year by the American College of Medical Toxicology and the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, months after the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] approved a nalmefene-based nasal spray.”
+ NEWS: Over 321,000 Children Lost Parents to Overdose in a Decade — Any parent lost to overdose is one too many, and the impacts of this tremendous loss on children and families run deep. These heartbreaking deaths not only steal the lives of people who use drugs, but leave holes in the hearts of their loved ones. We do not have to live and die this way, and we shouldn’t. People who use drugs deserve support. Read the full story from Filter here.
+ NEWS: U.S. Lags Behind Other Countries in Hepatitis-C Treatment — We are collectively letting people living with hepatitis C down, particularly those who use drugs. We must eliminate barriers to stigma-free health care and supportive services.
This story in The New York Times notes, “A course of medications lasting eight to 12 weeks is straightforward. But the most at-risk, including those who are incarcerated, uninsured or homeless, have difficulty navigating the American health system to get treatment. Of those diagnosed in the United States since 2013, just 34 percent have been cured, according to a recent analysis by the CDC.
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+ COLLABORATIVELY ADDRESSING SYNDEMIC: NHRC’s Executive Director, Laura Guzman, was invited to participate in Gilead Sciences, Inc.’s advisory board focused on syndemic approaches to HIV, viral hepatitis, STIs, and substance use. The goals of the event held earlier this month included seeking guidance from community leaders on how Gilead can be most effective in supporting syndemic approaches and addressing both challenges and opportunities associated with this work. Colleagues from across the country shared their expertise and commitment to supporting communities impacted by health and income inequalities. NHRC is grateful to the Gilead team for the invitation and opportunity to collaboratively share, learn, and deepen syndemic conversations with our partners in the movement.
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+ CALIFORNIA LOVE: The NHRC California team got together in our San Francisco DOPE Project office with the talented California Department of Public Health Office of AIDS harm reduction team to kick off implementation of the new California Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction Initiative (COPHRI) Technical Assistance component. We had a lovely day filled with brainstorming and planning, and the delight of seeing each other in person again!
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+ FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: The Support. Don’t Punish campaign is offering grants for strategic, creative, and collaborative projects to be carried out from October 2024 to February 2025. The activities proposed must seek to advance drug policy reform, bolster harm reduction and build bridges with/within/between communities disproportionately impacted by the so-called “War on Drugs” (e.g. people who use drugs, farmers of crops deemed illicit, youth, racialized communities, LGBTQIA+ people, and sex workers, among many others). The deadline for applications is September 2, 2024. Learn more here.
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+ RESOURCES AND REPORTS: -
International Overdose Awareness Day, a Penington Institute Initiative, is happening August 31 this year. Learn more about the campaign and related resources, including toolkits, here.
DPA has released three new fact sheets that describe overdose death trends among Black, Latinx, and Native/Indigenous communities. The resources also provide policy recommendations and strategies for how elected officials can save lives.
- OnPoint NYC has released a virtual tour of its OPCs with Brown University School of Public Health and People, Place & Health Collective. Click here to see the video.
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NASTAD has opened the application period for its 2025 Emerging Community Leaders Program (ECLP). Participants complete one week of in-person training and are paired with peers in their cohort for support, accountability, and practice. To learn more and apply by the September 18 deadline, click here.
NHRC’s Online Learning Center includes on-demand courses, including Foundations of Harm Reduction, Overdose Prevention and Response, Engaging People Who Use Drugs, and more. NHRC also offers free modules for NYC residents, in English and now Spanish, which cover safer use, stimulants 101, and wound care. ¡Chequea los nuevos módulos en Español sobre Uso Seguro, Estimulantes 101, y Cuidado de Heridas!
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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 AND WEBINARS: -
Las Americas is back!/¡El retorno de Las Américas! NHRC is thrilled to uplift and amplify the voices and experiences of Latinx/é and Caribeñe harm reductionists during Las Americas (traditionally known as “Hispanic Heritage Month”), celebrated from September 15 to October 15. This initiative is designed to recognize the significant contributions of Latinx/é and Caribeñes that made harm reduction history possible as well as the harm reduction movement in the U.S. and the global south, fostering an inclusive and equitable environment for harm reduction and overdose prevention efforts among Latinx/é and Caribeñe communities. Planned activities include virtual panels, honoring both established and emerging Latinx/é and Caribeñe harm reductionists, and ensuring language justice through comprehensive translation services from English into Spanish and Spanish into English. NHRC is grateful to the California Health Care Foundation for their support in sponsoring this series. We hope you’ll join us for the following sessions and associated office hours as part of the Las Americas Harm Reduction Spotlight Series (session descriptions included in registration links):
La
Coalición Nacional de Reducción de Daños (NHRC) está encantada de elevar y amplificar las voces y experiencias de los reductores de daños latinos/é y caribeños durante Las Américas (tradicionalmente conocido como “Mes de la Herencia Hispana”), celebrado del 15 de septiembre al 15 de octubre. Esta iniciativa está diseñada para reconocer las importantes contribuciones de Latinx/é y Caribeñes que hicieron posible la historia de la reducción de daños, así como el movimiento de reducción de daños en los EE. UU. y el sur global, fomentando un entorno inclusivo y equitativo para los esfuerzos de reducción de daños y prevención de sobredosis entre las comunidades Latinx/é y Caribeñes. Las actividades planificadas incluyen organizar paneles virtuales, honrar a los reductores de daños latinos y caribeños establecidos y emergentes, y garantizar la justicia lingüística a través de servicios integrales de traducción del inglés al español y del español al inglés. La Coalición Nacional de Reducción de Daños le agradece a California Health Care Foundation por su apoyo como auspiciadores de esta serie educativa. Esperamos que se una a nosotros en las siguientes sesiones y horarios de oficina asociados como parte de la
Serie Destacada sobre Reducción de Daños Las Américas (las descripciones de las sesiones se incluyen en los enlaces de registro):
History of Harm Reduction and Emerging Issues in the Latine/x and Caribe Community, September 19 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST/Historia de la reducción de daños y problemas emergentes en la comunidad latina/x y caribeña, 9 de septiembre de 2 p.m. a 4 p.m. EST -
Harm Reduction in the Americas and the Global South, September 24, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST/
Reducción de Daños en las Américas y el Sur Global, 24 de septiembre de 3 p.m. a 5 p.m. EST
- Promotores and Harm Reduction, October 3, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST/Promotorxs y la Reducción de Daños, 3 de octubre de 2 p.m. a 4 p.m. EST
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Office Hour 1: October 10, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST/
Hora de Oficina #1 — 10 de octubre, 2 p.m. a 3 p.m. EST
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Office Hour 2: October 17, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST/
Hora de Oficina # 2 — 17 de octubre, 2 p.m. a 3 p.m. EST
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NHRC, in collaboration with the Opioid Response Network (ORN), is excited to launch a free bilingual educational initiative aimed at people who work with people who use drugs, their families, and communities across the prevention, treatment, and recovery spectrum. This September, NHRC trainers will continue facilitating training sessions as well as office hours, a post-training reflection space following the sessions.
For us, it is vital our community has access to information about harm reduction and substance use in Spanish, since we know it can save and improve our quality of life. With this initiative, we also aim to break the supremacy of the English language in our communications, recognizing language justice as a key element of our work and activism, and develop a framework that allows us to educate ourselves about the impact of the so-called “War on Drugs” as an integral part of colonialism, structural violence, and racism our population suffers throughout the U.S. and its colonies.
La NHRC, en colaboración con Opioid Response Network (ORN), se complace en continuar implementando una iniciativa educativa bilingüe gratuita dirigida a personas que trabajan con personas que consumen drogas, sus familias y comunidades en todo el espectro de prevención, tratamiento y recuperación. Este mes y hasta septiembre, los capacitadores de la NHRC continuarán facilitando sesiones de capacitación, así como horarios de oficina, un espacio de reflexión posterior a la capacitación después de las sesiones.
Para nosotros, es vital que nuestra comunidad tenga acceso a información sobre reducción de daños y uso de sustancias en español, ya que sabemos que puede salvar y mejorar nuestra calidad de vida. Con esta iniciativa, también pretendemos romper con la supremacía del idioma inglés en nuestras comunicaciones, reconociendo la justicia lingüística como un elemento clave de nuestro trabajo y activismo, y desarrollar un marco que nos permita educarnos sobre el impacto de la mal llamada “Guerra contra las Drogas” como parte integral del colonialismo, la violencia estructural y el racismo que sufre nuestra población en todo Estados Unidos y sus colonias. La Coalición Nacional de Reducción de Daños le agradece a California Health Care Foundation por su apoyo como auspiciadores de esta serie educativa.
We hope you can join us and participate in the various remaining training sessions on the following Thursdays in September (registration links include descriptions)/Esperamos que puedan unirse a nosotres y participar en las diversas sesiones de capacitación restantes los siguientes jueves de septiembre (el enlace de registro incluye descripciones):
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NHRC is thrilled to continue offering 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, "Overdose 101," happening tomorrow, August 30, click here. To sign up for the September 27 session, “Outreach 101,” click here. Stay tuned for updates about our latest Foundational Fridays series! For more information, contact Jose Martinez at [email protected].
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