May 15, 2021

National Harm Reduction Coalition creates spaces for dialogue and action that help heal the harms caused by racialized drug policies.

+ NEWS: Newly Introduced Legislation Pushes People Who Use Drugs Into Harm’s Way Amidst an Overdose Crisis and Pandemic — New legislation in California — AB 1542 — represents a step backwards for people who use drugs. Learn more about this controversial legislation from Savannah O’Neill, MSW, CATC, Associate Director of Capacity Building at National Harm Reduction Coalition.

+ NEWS: Vancouver’s Advancing Drug Decriminalization Plan Sparks Controversies — The city of Vancouver is seeking an exemption to effectively decriminalize drug possession for personal use. Sounds like good news, right? Not so fast — a coalition of harm reduction groups in BC are pushing back because people who use drugs in the city have not been involved in development of the policy. Learn more about the story in Filter.

+ TRAINING: Are you a hep C peer, patient, and/or telephone navigator based in New York? We have some upcoming trainings for you! 

• Two part training on Hep C Medical Care & Treatment Updates, facilitated by Jose Martinez, Hepatitis C + Harm Reduction Associate, and Lill Prosperino, Southern States Regional Organizer.⁣Two hour Overdose Prevention.
  • Part 1: May 18, 12-2 PM ET⁣, RSVP: bit.ly/NYHepC1
  • Part 2: May 25, 11-1 PM ET⁣, RSVP: bit.ly/NYHepC2
• Overdose Prevention Training for HCV Navigators ⁣⁣
  • May 20, 12 -2 PM ET⁣⁣, RSVP: bit.ly/ODPreventionMay20. 

+ VIRTUAL EVENT: Join us for a panel discussion with Maggie Mayhem, Tina Wolf, Frederick Cortes Diaz, JoAnna Vance, and Lill Prosperino on strategies for increasing naloxone access by building secondary distribution networks and supporting peer-based distribution. Panelists will share their challenges, successes, best practices, and describe what secondary naloxone distribution can look like on the ground. The virtual panel will be on May 25 from 12:30-2 pm PST and you can register online at www.bit.ly/May25Naloxone.

+ VIRTUAL EVENT: On Wednesday, May 26 from 4-5:30 pm ET, we invite you to join Faith in Harm Reduction for Transforming Grief: A Ritual & Storytelling Roundtable. An incredible lineup of speakers and leaders will share narratives and lead practices related to sharing and healing from grief related to the work of harm reduction. Register online at www.bit.ly/TransformingGrief. 

+ TRAINING: RSVP for an upcoming training on May 21 from 10 am - 12 pm PST called “Cultural Humility and Harm Reduction” to learn more about cultural humility, why it is relevant in harm reduction and why it’s a needed practice in our day to day work/life. Register at www.bit.ly/HarmRedWY2.

+ ZINE: Check out this new zine release titled Harm Reduction is Not a Metaphor, where the work of Bronx Móvil and other pivotal harm reduction organizers is featured. The zine is a collaboration with MoMA PS1, What Would an HIV Doula Do, and Visual AIDS and is featured in a MoMA PS1 exhibit called Gregg Bordowitz: I Wanna Be Well through October 11, 2021.

+ MUTUAL AID: Join the Movement for Family Power, JMacforFamilies, Ancient Song Doula Services, Drug Policy Alliance, and The Bronx Defenders to organize mutual aid for mamas. Donate supplies linked on this registry: http://tgt.gifts/MamasDayRally until May 21, and supplies will be distributed by Ancient Song Doula Services on June 12 at 521 Halsey Street in Brooklyn, NY from 1-4 pm ET. Access this virtual social media toolkit provided by the organizers to support this work. 

+ RESOURCE: Learn more about the history of drug testing and how it serves as a critical piece of the drug war to deny care, target, surveil and criminalize. Check out this factsheet from Drug Policy Alliance to keep learning: ”Putting an End to Drug Testing.”

+ RESEARCH: RTI International is looking for syringe service programs (SSPs) to complete this survey to understand state-level initiatives that support better service delivery to participants: https://survey.rti.org/SE/1/SSP/ The survey takes 25-30 minutes to complete and participating organizations will be compensated $75 for completing the survey. They are looking for New York-based programs in particular, but invite programs from across the U.S. to complete the survey.

+ FUNDING FOR SEX WORKERS: Third Wave Fund is now accepting grant applications for their Sex Worker Giving Circle. Apply by May 26, 2021. 

+ NEWS: The P+A team would like to give a HUGE shoutout to everyone who took the time to fill out our 10 Target State Survey. To date, we have received over 100 responses! This wouldn’t have been possible without the lovely staff at NHRC who made sure the survey got out to their networks so OUR community voices could be heard.

+ NEWS: In response to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms increasing their censorship of drug use health content, NEXT Harm Reduction wants to support content creators by archiving their content on a centralized censorship-free platform.

NEXT put out a call for content created for social media platforms that covers topics like overdose prevention, safer use, sex work, and other harm reduction related information. Whether or not your content has been deleted, all those who are interested are welcome to send up to 10 posts of their choosing. Your work will be credited and remain yours. If you have posts on harm reduction and intersecting issues in a variety of languages, you can submit at the form below until Tuesday, June 1st.

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

+ Chicago Recovery Alliance — Executive Director

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