We Know Harm Reduction Harm Reduction
With over 100 years of combined knowledge, Reduce Harm Inc is here to support SSPs with capacity-building through technical assistance, training, and consulting.
OUR MISSION
The mission of Reduce Harm, Inc. (RHI) is to support new, emerging, or struggling community-based syringe service programs (SSPs) working to “Stand in the Gap,” aiding underserved communities, with a special emphasis on supporting Black-led harm reduction programs around the country.
At RHI, we are all service leaders, adept at operating at the intersections of recovery and harm reduction and working directly with and across multiple sectors, like health care, substance use treatment, shelter and housing, emergency services, law enforcement, corrections, and more.
Our greatest strength lies in our team’s accumulated experience and expertise across every aspect of SSP development and operations in multiple unique settings, coast-to-coast, along the full continuum from the most rural to urban, serving a diverse spectrum of communities using all service models.
RHI intends to build on the success of the Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance (CTHRA) – founded by Mark Jenkins and one of RHI’s founding board members – on a national scale, following CTHRA’s principles and strategies, also including the Rover program – a unique creation of CTHRA allowing seamless transportation of SSP-related supplies to communities.
What does this look like in action?
In addition to providing supplies, RHI will help SSPs with capacity-building through technical assistance, training, and consulting, all while tailoring support to the unique needs of their respective programs. This can include support such as Staff Training/Support, Operations and Policies, Network/Partnership Building, Development and Fundraising Strategy, Strategic Planning, and more.
With 17 SSPs already engaged, RHI has provided initial orders for Rovers and supplies in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota (White Earth Nation), Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma (Cherokee Nation), Tennessee, Texas, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
We believe that the communities we serve have the insights, wisdom, creativity, and power to affect meaningful, positive change. Thus, we promote meaningful involvement by inviting and celebrating their expertise and power in every aspect of the efforts we support.
Can we help you support your program or SSP? Contact us <hyperlink>, or learn more here <hyperlink>.
Our Values*
Embrace
As part of the Harm Reduction principles, our main focus is to meet people where they are and embracing them in their current time and place – with no place for judgment.
Educate
Education is a vital part of dismantling myths, stigmas, and misinformation. Education is at the forefront, from our training offerings to our Rover Program. Through educating, we can encourage larger community conversations centering on the Harm Reduction movement and people who use drugs (PWUDs).
Empower
Empowering the voices of the PWUD community allows RHI, SSPs, and communities alike to meet their needs best. Tailoring resources, supplies, and training to support PWUDs is vital to the Harm Reduction movement – meeting them where they are.
Equip
Providing safe supplies and training equips PWUDs, communities, and individuals with the resources and knowledge to focus efforts on harm reduction practices, allowing safe spaces and safe care for all community participants.
We are committed to:
- Inclusiveness, diversity, equity, integrity, and compassion, respecting all people’s human rights, cultural values, autonomy, and dignity.
- Serving and supporting programs led by members of black, indigenous, and other people of color, along with potential candidates that we have deep experience with, such as rural programs.
- Centering harm reduction principles in meeting individuals and organizations where they are at and maintaining an ethic of acceptance, humility, and inclusion in our shared mission to deliver materials, information, support, and hope to the most vulnerable and disempowered members of our communities.
- Non-negotiable support from every member of RHI that people who use drugs (PWUDs) are not tokenized by one-off involvement on committees that are disconnected from policy making and service delivery, but rather that PWUDs occupy and are supported to fulfill roles in leadership, service delivery and program evolution and improvement.
RHI was awarded funding from the Comer Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, and the AIDS United Harm Reduction Futures Fund, primarily for supplies and administrative support.
*Disclaimer: RHI does not operate as a high need/low resource SSP. However, our primary mission is to provide providers and organizations with the supplies and support needed to develop into sustainable programs in their respective communities that are experiencing high rates of drug-related HIV, viral hepatitis, endocarditis, and overdose.