“Using a drug doesn’t tell you what kind of person someone is or how they may parent. A drug test is not a parenting test, and the idea that it could function as such is a function of white supremacy. There is no good/bad parent binary. The test and report protocol fails to account for any nuance. It fails to account for people as people.” -Nathalia Gibbs, Lighthouse Learning Collective
Child “protective” services are part of the carceral state and causes considerable harm in our communities. It’s not designed to prevent nor heal the harms that Black and brown families have experienced for decades.
Follow Movement for Family Power to stay updated on their work in support of a series of bills that will let parents know their rights at the beginning of any CPS investigation, increase access to legal assistance, and demand that hospitals obtain informed consent prior to drug testing parents and their newborns.
Supporting, celebrating, and connecting with our trans siblings to transform resources and create/decentralize care practices is critical to reducing harm in our communities.
Experiencing a medical emergency like an overdose is traumatic and we can support people returning to consciousness with kindness and without judgment.
ID: Tiles with rainbow gradient and large type: WELCOME BACK What to say after you respond to an overdose with naloxone. Waking up from an overdose can be traumatizing. As someone starts to wake up, give them a little bit of space and gently welcome the person back into consciousness. “Hi, friend. I’m [name] and I just had to give you Narcan. I’m sorry you don’t feel good. Sit up when you’re ready. You’re safe. I’m glad you’re alive. I’ve got you.” Repeat until the person is fully awake. If they are disoriented, give them more space. If they want to leave, don’t try to make them stay. Try to stay with the person for 90 minutes and remember to take care of yourself as well. After a medical emergency like an overdose, it is not the time for: Arguing, Shaming, or Shouting. When we are gentle with others, we also learn to be more gentle with ourselves.
Sierra Harm Reduction Coalition is a syringe services program in El Dorado County, the first program of its kind in the region. SHRC was awarded CHRI funding last year and has been ramping up their services including syringe litter clean-up, distribution of safer drug use supplies like fentanyl test strips, naloxone, wound care kits, PPE and sterile syringes. SHRC provides harm reduction training and referrals to a network of community health services and care.
“I grew up in a small farming community in central Indiana, so though I’ve lived in several large cities since leaving, I still value and respect rural communities like those that we serve in El Dorado County, California. Through an overabundance of privilege, and some hard work, I earned a PhD in Immunology. Now I get to leverage my scientific background to provide and promote evidence-based harm reduction principles and services. I am filled with gratitude and fortune each day for these opportunities. Everyone with Sierra Harm Reduction Coalition has lost friends and family to the negative outcomes of substance abuse and the inequalities that affected their ability to access efficacious healthcare and harm reduction services. Most of us have lived experience struggling to access those services. Through Sierra Harm Reduction Coalition, we get to deliver lifesaving harm reduction services to keep our community of fellow people who use drugs safe and healthy. Even though our county is rural and conservative, through persistence and patience, we are seeing more and more community buy in. We are excited begin expanding our services to more people through regular mobile services, and then to provide a growing suite of healthcare options, such and hepatitis C screening and low barrier treatment for opioid use disorder. Mentorship from National Harm Reduction Coalition has been an essential force, helping to educate, guide and support us as we move forward, struggle and succeed. Our future feels so bright and exciting that sometimes we have to slow down to enjoy our present.” -David Jay, SHRC Exec Director
As Harm Reductionists, we all imagine a world where people who use drugs and engage in sex work have the ability to do so safely and without fear of judgment or criminal consequence. Voting helps us do just that. Voting can also feel abstract. It’s hard to look at a ballot receipt, or an “I voted” selfie, and see in it the world we want to create.
It’s important to remember that we vote with our resistance.
It’s important to remember that we vote when we engage in solidarity and mutual aid.
We keep us safe, and voting is one way we do that.
It’s hard to look at a ballot receipt and see it as a solution to state-sanctioned violence.
It’s hard to look at a ballot receipt and see in it an end to the racist drug war.
It’s difficult to look at a ballot receipt and find hope for a competent pandemic response.
Our votes are critical, even when we can’t see it. This voter guide has the information you need to understand your options and includes a resource guide with links that will prepare you to cast your first vote.
Harm Reduction Coalition began as a grassroots working group 25 years ago, and today, our team is thrilled to announce a new name, new look and new website.Meet the new National Harm Reduction Coalition: www.harmreduction.org
We’ve changed over the course of 25 years, and more than 900,000 people access the valuable resources on our website each year, and nearly 100 people worked on the new brand and website project, including many National Harm Reduction Coalition staff, a community stakeholder board and agency partners at Joybyte! Tell us what you think below!
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The National Harm Reduction Conference has never been just a conference. It is where the harm reduction community holds our collective knowledge and stands in powerful relationship.
We’ve been prioritizing that knowledge, and the safety and health of our community while we made decisions regarding #HarmRed20.
After thoughtful consideration, we have decided to postpone #HarmRed20. When the time is right, we will hold each other again.
“I want to feel what I feel. Even if it’s not happiness.”― Toni Morrison
Black History Month is a time when we often celebrate the strength, talent, and resourcefulness of Black people. We bring ourselves close to black movements and spaces. We steep ourselves in images boasting the continued resilience of Black people.
We use resilience as cover for continued abuses against Black people. We use resilience to mask the horrors of the racist war on drugs, we use resilience to erase the contribution of Black people in every facet of our society. We use perseverance to avoid looking directly at equity.
The national Harm Reduction Coalition is committed to learning and growing and requiring less resilience of people.
“Fear about a young person’s drug use can cause you to make bad decisions that can harm your child and your relationship with them. By tapping into what harm reduction and skilled parenting share, you can begin to feel more at ease in dealing with your child’s substance use.” No need to panic — parenting with a #harmreduction approach:
Daniel Raymond, Harm Reduction Coalition’s policy director, told Filter that “striking the balance between being prescriptive and flexible” is key. He cautioned that “maximum flexibility” for states “carries the risk that some states will opt to invest in ineffective interventions, whether that’s treatment programs that don’t offer [medication for opioid use disorder] at all, more punitive or coercive policies, or naloxone distribution that fails to prioritize people who use drugs.”
