First Year Grantees

California

• Strengthened its mobile outreach van staffed with people with lived experience.
• Added an “Interested in Suboxone?” sandwich board, prompting participants to ask, “Who can I talk to about getting on Suboxone?”
• Hired a peer navigator who works closely with a physician and a physician assistant to connect participants to a low-barrier Suboxone program.

Maryland and Washington, D.C.

• Deployed four public health/harm reduction vending machines (HRVM), offering over 42 free items (the first such initiative in Maryland, with a successful pilot launch in Baltimore).
• Conducted over 1,200 engagement and registered over 170 HRVM users.
• Distributed more than 623 HRVM packets and $35,000 to individuals seeking critical supplies, support and resources in the community.

New York

• Offered a total of 4,752 services for people who inject drugs.
• Distributed harm reduction supplies, nutritional support and urban living supplies, including socks, mylar blankets and wound care kits.
• Distributed 5,822 naloxone kits and 17,402 fentanyl test strips between April 1 and Oct. 31 via Narcanazo, its community upstander overdose prevention campaign.

Maryland

• Created two health-focused community liaison positions to connect participants to case management and health services at the drop-in center and during outreach in East Baltimore.
• Improved access to individually tailored case management, HIV/HCV/STI testing and treatment, medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and harm reduction services.

Illinois

• Partnered with eight Chicago Public Library branches to distribute harm reduction supplies and engage people in brief services.
• Provided its staff and community network with two trainings on care for people who use drugs (PWUD).
• Distributed more than 50 Narcan kits.

Ohio

• Recruited a peer to enhance its service delivery and contribute to program development.
• Formulated and approved protocols for mobile services, solidifying memorandums of understanding with 11 satellite sites across the city of Columbus.
• Secured approval for mobile syringe service programs (SSP) through the city council and Columbus Public Health in October 2023.

Florida

• Built collaborative efforts across the state to reduce overdose deaths.
• Analyzed available demographic data and executed a gaps analysis and implementation plan.
• Built new relationships within the public and behavioral health communities.
• Facilitated eight monthly regional harm reduction work group calls for naloxone providers in Florida.

Massachusetts

• Rebuilt the Highway to Hope program, in which peers provide transportation to appointments and treatment, and introduced an app that offers information on the program.
• Expanded its treatment facility contact to 30+ programs in Massachusetts.
• Trained its staff in harm reduction concepts.

California

• Hired a peer navigator.
• Increased the total number of naloxone doses it distributes to the community.
• Through the peer navigator, connected 160 clients with housing, shelter, substance use treatment and other resources.

Florida

• Added one full-time and one part-time staff member to its IDEA Orlando program to expand its syringe exchange efforts.
• Added over 100 new participants to the program.
• Expanded hours and outreach efforts to service more participants.

Illinois

• Hired two street outreach workers.
• Hosted three naloxone training and distribution community events, distributing a total of 476 community participants and 500 naloxone doses.
• Partnered with six houses of worship and churches in its target area and distributed naloxone to clergy and congregants.

North Carolina

• Expanded its health hub, a low-barrier workforce development program for PWUD.
• Hired a director of health services and a health hub coordinator.
• Trained 25 people who engaged with its programs on harm reduction strategies, overdose prevention/reversal, safer injection use and drug checking.
• Provided drop-in client support services at its office.
• Collaborated with organizations to provide services such as food distribution, walk-in testing, overdose prevention training and community-wide naloxone distribution.

Canada

• Increased its overdose prevention hotline capacity by 190%, receiving 12,000 overdose prevention monitoring requests compared to 5,500 during the same period in 2022.
• Detected 21 adverse drug events requiring crisis response medical interventions, with zero loss of life.

Texas

• Expanded outreach services staff, providing vital support to communities of use in the El Paso area.
• Collected and collated data to identify populations at high risk from substance use, primary health conditions and secondary mental health challenges.
• Increased access to other, more clandestine communities of use, widening and enhancing its impact in the region.

Rhode Island

• Created a peer-led program focused on the unique needs of female-identified individuals who engage in street-based sex work in Rhode Island and are at risk of overdose.
• Addressed those individuals’ urgent needs related to harm reduction, safety and access to resources, as well as addressing long-term goals in strengthening community through peer support and wellness.
• Hosted community events and guest speakers on the changing drug supply and health care access for people engaged in the sex trades.

California

• Hired a full-time staff member, which increased capacity to offer drug user support groups, case management, referrals, clinic transportation and client advocacy.
• Distributed more naloxone and conducted in-depth naloxone and harm reduction training to participants, staff and other organizations.
• Built relationships and increased skill sharing with local harm reduction organizations.
• Deepened relationships with participants by connecting them with the same staff every week, allowing staff to learn specific needs and research ways of meeting those needs.

Florida

• Through its Resilience Against Drug Deaths program, expanded outreach and strategic programming targeting those who are most at risk: individuals with substance-involvement history, those experiencing chaotic use, and individuals who have fallen out of care or have limited access due to geographic or socioeconomic barriers, including unsheltered and unstably housed individuals.
• Provided education on harms associated with substance use, evidence-based risk-reduction practices and efforts to combat stigma and involve PWUD to address myths and misconceptions connected to substance use.

Utah

• Assembled over 500 overdose aftercare kits for people who experience/respond to an overdose.
• Hosted 27 online and in-person overdose support groups for people who have survived or witnessed an opioid overdose.

Arizona

• Established six new bilingual fixed sites at a behavioral health clinic, offering MOUD education and referral, a laundromat and on-site expungement services and HIV/HCV care.
• Disseminated a survey to participants to better understand their needs and satisfaction with current referrals.

Michigan

• Empowered 28 registered and 383 nonregistered participants by sharing knowledge, developing networks of care and providing stipends to peer educators to run programming.
• Had 1,300+ secondary distributions through its SSP.
• Provided risk reduction supplies, general and menstrual hygiene kits, wound care kits, over 15,000 doses of nasal naloxone, 5,925 fentanyl test strips, 20 xylazine test strips and 590 overdose reversals reports.
• Provided and expanded services, including referrals for substance use management safety plan creation, food delivery, connections to housing and emergency hotel coverage, medical referrals, transportation, legal and insurance assistance, and employment skill-building and referrals.

Tennessee

• Enhanced SSPs.
• Built collaboration with harm reduction programs in northwest and southeast Nashville.
• Created an advisory committee made up of several community partners to improve and enhance harm reduction services for PWUD and people with substance use disorder in the high-impact areas of Davidson County and Nashville.
• Hired a full-time peer navigator to help implement a linkage to care mechanism in efforts to prevent opioid overdose deaths and prescription misuse.

Minnesota

• Successfully connected 33 people to MOUD and other treatment services through its linkage to care program.
• Through its peer navigator, conducted hundreds of conversations about harm reduction goal setting and built trust in the community, facilitating a safe space to talk openly about use.

Ohio

• Expanded its team to include a certified peer recovery support specialist to offer linkage to care.
• Started a weekly harm reduction focused support group meeting called the Safer Use Society.
• Connected nearly 150 individuals to social support and outside referrals for clothing, food, transportation, assistance, treatment and more.
• Provide services to in-person program participants in greater Cleveland and virtually across the state through its online harm reduction supplies distribution program.

Massachusetts

• Hired a reentry and recovery peer who began meeting one on one with justice-involved members to assist with connection, navigation and support.
• Built a partnership with the local House of Connections, developing regular schedules at the Reentry Center and within recovery groups.
• Created a support group for members who are navigating the justice system and recovery to assist in connection and peer engagement.

New York

• Provided numerous supplies of Narcan, fentanyl test strips and xylazine test strips in its outreach services to the underserved areas in the Bronx and surrounding communities.
• Bases the success of its program on keeping individuals safe and meeting them “where they are” in an empathetic and nonjudgmental manner.