Who We Are
We are a group of volunteers that are committed to reducing the harm of substance use in our community. We believe that this community has the power to work together to eliminate preventable deaths due to drug use.
We welcome participants of our program to attend meetings and to volunteer. Many of our volunteers have personal experience with addiction. Nothing about us without us.
What We Do
We meet people where they are, both figuratively and literally. We are here to listen and process the experience of addiction. We also provide material support for our community: we distribute naxolone, wound care supplies, and educational materials. We give people access to clean syringes and provide a proper place to dispose of used syringes and acquire new sharps containers.
Why We Do It
We understand that there are real and perceived barriers to accessing services in a medical model, and we are committed to low barrier, no questions asked, anonymous service for people who request supplies.
We live by the core principles of harm reduction. For better or worse there are activities that will happen whether we like it or not and we have an obligation to keep people safe whether it be in the form of a life jacket for swimming, a seat belt for driving, or clean single use syringes for using drugs. An expectation of abstinence is not safe and we let the individual determine what they need to reduce the harm from substance use.
Small positive changes can have profound effects on an individual. It can be the difference between chaos and a healthier life.
“…the Harm Reduction Coalition has filled a major void after the county began cutting back hours for syringe distribution at its Emeline health campus.”
- Dr. Arnold Leff, Retired Public Health Officer, Santa Cruz County (view full article here)