WE LOVE PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS

The NY Recovery Alliance is a peer led, grassroots Harm Reduction organization. In 2023, we will be focused on:

1. Love: Creating space where people who use drugs can experience dignified and respectful connection.
2. Decreasing HIV and fatal overdose: Increasing Harm Reduction outreach in the 14621, Genesee-Jefferson and Monroe Ave neighborhoods to stop the spread of HIV and increase naloxone distribution among people who use drugs as well as advocating for Overdose Prevention Centers (there has never been a fatal overdose in an OPC).
3. Eliminating Hepatitis C (HCV): Preventing new HCV transmission by expanding access to sterile supplies while advocating for affordable, point of care confirmatory HCV testing to implement a “90 minute test to cure” cascade.
4. Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Education: Increasing awareness about the co-occurring conditions that cause Substance Use Disorder (SUD), such as trauma, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), racialized criminalization, untreated mental health, and stigma.
5. Addressing syringe litter and public drug use: Advocating for Overdose Prevention Centers (OPC’s), which have been shown to reduce syringe litter by up to 80%. Advocating for Housing First as a proven response to reduce chronic homelessness.
6. Treatment for mental illness and SSUD: Demand increased funding for community mental health centers, Harm Reduction programs and evidence based SUD treatment centers (particularly methadone and buprenorphine). We need low barrier/high retention, on-demand treatment for everyone.
7. Ending encampments: Assist people living in encampments. Advocate for low-barrier (no abstinence or mental health requirement) emergency shelters and long-term supportive Housing First initiatives. Drastically increase the construction of public housing. Build public restrooms. Advocate for the decommodification of housing.
8. Building alliances: Working with other organizations that amplify the voices of, and build power among, people living with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) who are impacted by racialized drug policies, disease, poverty, housing insecurity, and incarceration.
9. Policy changes: Educating and advocating to decriminalize personal possession of drugs, decriminalize possession of buprenorphine, legalizing Overdose Prevention Centers, increase funding for the AIDS Institute Office of Drug User Health, facilitating quantitative and qualitative drug checking, and dismantling 150 years of racialized drug policies that engendered our syndemic of disease, overdose, incarceration and human rights abuses.