Partner Spotlight | Ruby Moon, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
For Ruby Moon, harm reduction is deeply personal. Her daughter was struggling with addiction, and nothing she had been taught about helping people with addiction felt right. “I’d only been taught tough love,” Moon said. “As a mom, it didn’t feel right that somehow I had to feel guilty about giving her money for a […]
Partner Spotlight | Erin Yanke, Outside the Frame
Outside the Frame serves young people experiencing houselessness or housing insecurity, teaching them to produce narrative and documentary films on issues they care about. The experience can be deeply profound for a group of people who are typically invisible to society — and who have learned to use that invisibility as a shield. But first […]
Partner Spotlight | Dane Zahner, HIV Alliance
Joining the HIV Alliance as a prevention manager was a natural transition for Dane Zahner. His background was in retail management, but he was already on the board of HIV Alliance and deeply committed to its mission of supporting people living with HIV/AIDS and preventing new HIV infections. As a gay man and a recovering […]
Partner Spotlight | Paul Gonzales, Bay Area First Step
Like many people, Paul Gonzales was a skeptic of harm reduction. As someone in recovery, his personal journey followed a strict 12-step abstinence model. That experience didn’t align with his organization’s new line of work at the time — distributing safer injection kits to help reduce the spread of infections. “OK, we’re enabling people, getting […]
Join Our Monthly Learning Collaboratives
Learning Collaboratives are a new offering from the Save Lives Oregon initiative designed to foster connection and growth for people engaged in harm reduction work. The monthly sessions are a space where service providers and peers can come together to share knowledge, strategies, and support.
Save Lives Oregon Impact Report: January 2024
The Save Lives Oregon Impact Report: January 2024 provides an overview of our initiative’s collaborative work to date with partners across Oregon and Tribal communities to reduce substance use related harm. It emphasizes the importance of our collective efforts in creating communities that are both safer and healthier. The report highlights include: Engaging 881 initiative […]
Oregon schools, colleges and universities now eligible to receive no-cost overdose reversal kits through the Save Lives Oregon Harm Reduction Clearinghouse
Students deserve to be safe and healthy at school. Recognizing the critical need for immediate response tools in emergencies, the Save Lives Oregon initiative will now offer eligible schools, colleges, universities and school-based health centers (SBHCs) overdose reversal kits through its Harm Reduction Clearinghouse. This is an important step in providing our educators and school […]
Partner Spotlight: Sgt. Eric Dotson | Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office
Eric Dotson’s favorite part of his job at a correctional facility in Clatsop County was getting to know the people there. “The benefit of working in a correctional facility is that you see the same people every day for weeks or months. You get to know them, hear their stories, and understand their struggles.” As […]
Partner Spotlight: Fernando Peña | NW Instituto Latino
In February 2021, a dream that so many people had worked towards finally came to fruition: Northwest Instituto Latino opened their doors to their recovery drop-in center in Southeast Portland. The center provides a breadth of harm reduction and recovery services that are designed by and for Latinos recovering from substance use disorder in Oregon—the […]
Partner Spotlight: O’Nesha Cochran | Miracles Club
At The Miracles Club, “miracle” isn’t just in the name—it’s what they strive to achieve every day. The Miracles Club is a peer-led recovery center in Portland providing culturally-specific harm reduction and recovery services to Black and African American people and all people experiencing oppression. O’Nesha Cochran is senior director of outreach and development at […]
