OUR MOVEMENT IN MOTION
December 19, 2024


SECTION 1: News and Announcements

+ CALIFORNIA ‘CAHRES’: NHRC’s California Harm Reduction Exchange Summit (CAHRES) brought together 82 representatives from California Syringe Service Programs (SSPs) in Monterey, California. These participants, originally funded through the California Department of Public Health's California Harm Reduction Initiative (CHRI) and now supported by The Center at Sierra Health Foundation's California Overdose Prevention and Harm Reduction Initiative (COPHRI), convened to explore the themes Healing, Education, Arts, and Love (HEAL) in a transformative, community-driven gathering.
Attendees engaged in presentations and creative outlets including art healing workshops and games.

The Yarrow Collective facilitated a presentation on liberatory harm reduction, offering innovative approaches rooted in empowerment and equity. Participants joined an interactive session on grief, where they created grief candles, and complementary acupuncture sessions were provided. NHRC staff and partners presented on policy, not-in-my-backyard attitudes, and “know your rights 101,” providing attendees with critical insights and actionable strategies. NHRC staff also hosted a presentation on cybersecurity to help participants safeguard their organizations and practices.

The Hope Dealer Awards during the event honored leaders in the California harm reduction movement Dallas Blanchard, needle exchange director at Fresno Needle Exchange, and Annina van Voorene, founder of Any Positive Change of Lake County. Both celebrated over 30 years of unwavering leadership and dedication to advancing harm reduction.

The summit exemplified the power of community-centered solutions, the importance of holistic approaches, and the value of convening SSPs to share best practices, celebrate successes, and address challenges. With this shared sense of purpose and connection, NHRC looks forward to continuing this exceptional work together, fostering hope and advancing the mission of harm reduction across the state.


+ PROTECT THE FUTURE OF HARM REDUCTION: The harm reduction movement is under threat. With political attacks looming, the next four years will challenge our ability to do our work — save lives, fight stigma, and support people who use drugs. This period will test our resilience, our adaptability, and our capacity to innovate and thrive in challenging times. At NHRC, we’re ready to confront these challenges head-on — but we can’t do it without you.

Every day, we support organizations on the frontlines to advance harm reduction. Together, we fight oppressions and injustice, defending harm reduction as an essential resource for dignity and survival, and we do this side-by-side with supporters like you — because even when we don’t agree on everything, we remain united, championing harm reduction as a fundamental right and life-saving strategy for people who use drugs and their communities.

Now, we need you to stand with us again as we provide critical support to Syringe Services Programs (SSPs) nationwide, train healthcare providers to deliver compassionate care to people who use drugs, and advocate for bold, evidence-based policies that save lives. As demand for our services grows, so do the threats we face. To safeguard harm reduction for today, tomorrow, and decades to come, we need your urgent support. When we stand united, our voices are stronger than those who oppose us — and we cannot afford to give up now. Make your end-of-year gift today! Thank you for standing with us. Together, we are unstoppable.

Link: bit.ly/NHRCEOY2024


+ GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE IS HARM REDUCTION: NHRC’s Lighthouse Learning Collective presented at the New York State World AIDS Day and Ending the Epidemic Summit. Taylor Edelmann, NHRC’s LGBTQIA+ Health & Harm Reduction Manager and manager of Lighthouse, joined Mateo Belen from Trans Equity Consulting to present, "Lighting the Way: A Toolkit for Gender-Affirming Care in Syringe Service Programs." About 120 attendees, including different state departments and community members, listened in to the session. Check out news coverage of the event here.

Links:
bit.ly/LLCToolkit2024
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+ COMMEMORATING WORLD AIDS DAY AND OUR HISTORY: Three decades ago, a handful of individual activists, educators, and people who used drugs began launching grassroots efforts to support members of their communities who were dying from AIDS. Brought together by their love and compassion for people who use drugs, these individuals formed a small working group that became the start of the harm reduction movement and the Harm Reduction Coalition — before expanding to become National Harm Reduction Coalition. We’ve lost countless friends and loved ones along the way and touched the lives of so many more. The heartache and hope for a brighter tomorrow drives us on each World AIDS Day, held each December, and every day.



+ CONFERENCES AND EVENTS: 

-National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s HEAL Initiative, NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) are hosting a virtual workshop, "Health Economics Research to Address the Needs of Those With Serious Mental Illness, Substance Use Disorder, and Comorbid Conditions" on February 14, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. ET. Register and learn more here.

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-The American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) is hosting its 2025 ACMT Annual Scientific Meeting April 2-6, 2025, in Vancouver, Canada. Learn more here.

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-IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is holding its international drug policy conference November 12-15, 2025, in Michigan. Follow the conference website here for future updates and registration.

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-NHRC is hosting our monthly Peer Gathering Cohort, PeerUp, after hearing the need for peers nationally to have a space to connect, talk, and network. The cohort 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, email NHRC’s Capacity Building + Hepatitis C Coordinator, Jose Martinez, at [email protected].


+ NEWS: What to know about the first [state-sanctioned] overdose prevention center in the U.S., from the researchers studying it — NHRC is thrilled about Rhode Island's overdose prevention center (OPC), the first state-sanctioned program in the country! A ribbon-cutting celebration was held at the site, which will undoubtedly save lives and improve public health. Time and time again, we have seen how these centers in New York and across the world provide life-saving care to people most impacted by drug use and overdose: People who use drugs.

As noted in this Brown University coverage, "There are approximately 200 OPCs operating in more than 14 countries around the world. The first opened in Switzerland in the 1980s, so they are not a new intervention globally. Studies consistently show substantial public health benefits: for example, one study from France showed an almost 60% reduction in emergency department visits among people who used an OPC compared to people who use other harm reduction programs. I led a study, published in the Lancet in 2011, that demonstrated a 35% reduction in overdose mortality in the immediate vicinity of an OPC after it opened in Vancouver, Canada."

Link: bit.ly/RIOPCLaunch


+ NEWS: ‘War on drugs has failed, completely and utterly’: UN human rights chief — As harm reductionists and people who use drugs along with public health departments and organizations have been echoing around the world, the so-called "War On Drugs" is a failure, even by its own standards. People who use drugs deserve support, resources, stigma-free care, and love.

United Nations High Commissioner Volker Türk said, "The evidence is clear. The so-called War on Drugs has failed, completely and utterly...And prioritising people over punishment means more lives are saved."

Link: bit.ly/UNNamesWarOnDrugsFailure


+ NEWS: Syringe service programs work. Let’s work together on syringe litter. — As NHRC's Associate Director of Capacity Building Mike Selick noted in this VTDigger piece, syringe services programs (SSPs) save lives, improve community health through reducing the spread of bloodborne diseases like HIV/AIDS, and support and expand syringe litter clean-ups that would otherwise not exist.

"I understand people’s concern about discarded syringes as a public health risk, but the risk is much lower than most know. In the U.S., there have been no known cases of HIV transmission due to a needlestick injury from a discarded syringe and hepatitis B and C transmissions from needlestick injuries have occurred very rarely...The risk of blood-borne infection from needlesticks is lower because of how effective SSPs are at both preventing infection and reducing syringe litter," he said.

Link: bit.ly/VTSyringeCleanup


+ NEWS: What Cities Really Take Away When They Sweep Encampments — Encampment sweeps are deadly and dangerous — and also heartbreaking. When encampments are destroyed, people lose access to communities that looked after one another, life-saving medications, crucial documents, survival gear, and many other items with sentimental value. In many cases, folks lose the ashes of their loved ones — confiscated or discarded. People deserve so much better. Read more from this investigation by ProPublica, which shares accounts of people who not only lost their homes, but everything else they owned.

Link: bit.ly/EncampmentSweeps


+ NEWS: Syringe services for people who inject drugs are enormously effective, but remain underused — As outlined by Dr. Nora Volkow of NIDA, the effectiveness of syringe services programs (SSPs) is well documented, making clear these are necessary to save lives and improve public health.

"Unfortunately, prejudices against harm-reduction continue to impede the reach of SSPs. Some states and communities continue to resist or even shut them down, even though history shows that the effects of such prejudice can have a disastrous impact on public health," she noted on NIDA's blog.

Link: bit.ly/SSPsUnderutilized


+ NEWS: The recovery community says it offers refuge from opioid addiction. But it’s still hostile to lifesaving addiction medications — People must have access to life-saving medications with no hesitation, hostility, or judgment. Despite how effective medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) are — and how many folks need and want access to these medications — the use of MOUD prevents many people from joining certain recovery groups, receiving services, or being accepted into various programs.

"'It is another unfortunate circumstance where we find very rigid systems that are very categorical, and by being so categorical, they close the doors,' said Nora Volkow, an addiction psychiatrist and the director of the [NIDA.] 'I have been with patients who respond very well to buprenorphine but want to be able to go to group therapy, to Narcotics Anonymous — they are rejected. They are placed in this bind: whether to discontinue the buprenorphine, which is helping them, or to let go of their support systems.'"

Read more from STAT here.

Link: bit.ly/MATNeeds


+ NEWS: Climate change is disrupting access to HIV treatment — People living with HIV are often forced to navigate not only through barriers to health needs including life-saving, life-affirming medication, but also the stigmas that surround HIV/AIDS. Add in climate change and how this is contributing to medication disruptions, and these impacts deepen. Particularly for people who are unhoused, dramatic storms and weather are increasingly more dangerous.

"These are people who are going through extremely stressful, life-destroying situations and they have to do the emotional calculation of, ‘will disclosing this make me less safe?’...That is the hardest part of the puzzle for us to figure out. It is not just about access, it is the reality that HIV stigma is still very alive and well and still very powerful," this coverage by The 19th News examines.

Link: bit.ly/HIVAndClimateChange




SECTION 2: Emergent and Exciting Work

+ NHRC’s Associate Director of Capacity Building, Mike Selick, was joined by more than a dozen volunteers in Burlington, Vermont, at City Hall Park who cleaned up more than 250 syringes on World AIDS Day. The group plans to continue these clean-ups monthly. See the previous op-ed coverage here, also linked in the news media section above.

Link: bit.ly/VTSyringeCleanup



+ RESOURCES AND REPORTS:

-DPA and Harm Reduction International (HRI) have published the report, "A World of Harm — How U.S. Taxpayers Fund the Global War On Drugs Over Evidence-Based Health Responses." Check out the report here.

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-Christine Minhee of OpioidSettlementTracker.com and the Vital Strategies Overdose Prevention Program have released an update and expansion of the opioid settlement guides for all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Check the updated resources out here.

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-The Brookings Institute has shared its research, "The impact of fentanyl on American Indian and Alaska Native communities." Read the report here.

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-The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) public comment period for updated HIV screening recommendations in clinical settings is now open. These recommendations are now posted to the Federal Register for a 30-day public comment period, ending on January 2, 2025. Learn more here.

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-IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Correlation - European Harm Reduction Network and Drugreporter co-produced the film, "Drug Consumption Rooms Around the World," highlighting how these spaces operate around the world.

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-REMINDER: NIDA invites people with lived/living experience of substance use to join a new workgroup. The group's primary purpose is to make recommendations for ways to enhance and expand engagement with people with lived or living experience with drug use in NIDA-funded research. Applications are due January 10, 2025. Learn more here.

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-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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bit.ly/NYCHarmReduction


-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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+ FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:

-NASTAD has several requests for proposals posted, including the Hub and Spoke Centers of Excellence in Harm Reduction: Key Projects to Support Regional Centers of Excellence in Harm Reduction. See full opportunities here.

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-NIDA has announced a new funding opportunity to eliminate barriers for people who use drugs looking to use PrEP. Learn more here.

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+ TRAININGS AND WEBINARS:

-FOUNDATIONAL FRIDAYS: 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. ET 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 tomorrow’s session, "Sexual and Reproductive Health 101" click here. To sign up for the January 31 session, "Syringe Access 101," register here. Stay tuned for updates about our latest Foundational Fridays series! For more information, contact Jose Martinez at [email protected].

Links:
bit.ly/FoundationalFridaysSexualandReproHealth2024
bit.ly/SyringeAccess1012025



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 hiring a NYC Capacity Building Coordinator.

Link:
bit.ly/NHRCCareers


+ DPA is looking to fill several roles, including:

-East Coast Regional Advocacy Campaign Manager

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-Mid-West Regional Advocacy Campaign Manager

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-Movement Building Manager

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-Policy Associate — California

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-Southern Regional Advocacy Campaign Manager

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-Director, Criminal Legal and Policing Reform

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+ GLIDE SF is hiring a Medication Assistant Treatment (MAT) Navigator.

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+ OnPoint NYC is hiring for multiple roles, including:

-Harm Reduction Navigator

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-Building Coordinator

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-Certified Medical Assistant

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-Fleet Coordinator

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-Director of Low Threshold Services

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-Overdose Prevention Specialist

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-Full-time Registered Nurse

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-Part-time Registered Nurse

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-Part-time Holistic Health Specialist

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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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