Join the CitiWide Harm Reduction community for a casino night benefit where you can play the craps table, roulette, blackjack & poker for a great cause. ENJOY mai tai cocktails, tasty polynesian food and limbo on a balmy night. ATTIRE hawaiian shirts, smoking jackets and vintage cocktail dresses - don't forget the cool sunglasses!
WHEN & WHERE Starting at 6:00 p.m., on the evening of Saturday, June 15th 2013, catch a wave to 226 East 144th Street(between Rider and Canal) Bronx, NY and hula your way to the 3rd floor to honor us with your presence. (Close to 2/4/5 subway stop at Grand Concourse & 149th Street • Parking garage available at 144th Street & Rider Ave.)
HOW IT WORKS All proceeds will benefit CitiWide Harm Reduction’s new 3rd floor drop-in center programs & services. Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. When you ARRIVE you will receive "play money". Additional PLAY money is available for a donation. Before the end of the night you can EXCHANGE the play money you have won for raffle tickets. We will then raffle off fun PRIZES from the Tiki gods.
TICKETS Tickets start at $25 per person. Table sponsorships start at $500 and event sponsorships start at $1,000. Visit citiwidehr.org to purchase event tickets and sponsorships online or call us directly at (718) 292-7718 ext 222. Download the Sponsor Form
Casino event production by: Big Eastern Casino Co. - bigeasterncasino.com
How NY Can Become National Model by Shifting Drug Policy from Criminalization to Public Health (drugpolicy.org)
Blueprint for a Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy
The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) and the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) jointly researched and drafted a Blueprint for a Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy. We examined New York’s current drug policies and reimagined how those policies could realize better health and public safety outcomes. Believing that good public policies should be developed in collaboration with those directly affected by them, we spent over a year holding community consultations with 500 New Yorkers across the state, asking how drug use and drug policies affected people and their neighborhoods and what should be done to move the state forward. We also met with experts, policymakers, and service providers and conducted an extensive review of the literature. The Blueprint is the result of these research activities and concludes that, by integrating the four pillars of prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and public safety, New York can establish a more coordinated, effective, and evidence-based approach to drug policy that will improve the health and safety of communities across the state.
Cheap, Easy, and Lifesaving—Naloxone Treatment for Overdose | Open Society Foundations (OSF)
How much does it cost to save a life?
That question got a clear and striking answer this week in the case of overdose from heroin in the United States. A studypublished in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that distribution of the overdose antidote naloxone—a safe, non-abusable, and inexpensive medicine—to one in five heroin users in the United States could prevent as many as 43,000 deaths. The cost of distribution would be equivalent to some of the cheapest, most effective, and most accepted medical interventions, like checking blood pressure at a doctor’s office.
The study used mathematical modeling to assess whether giving out naloxone was “worth it”—that is, to determine how much naloxone distribution would cost per “quality-adjusted” year of life gained. This is the measure used by economists and policymakers to compare health interventions and decide which ones are affordable. The naloxone study also investigated assumptions that patient advocates would rather not acknowledge—like whether it would be cheaper to let illegal drug users die, or to put them in jail. Those are ugly questions, but ones that certainly run through the minds of opponents of health services for drug users worldwide. The answer was that naloxone saves lives with costs far below what health or prison systems pay. For example, screening for cancer with colonoscopy costs over $50,000 per quality adjusted life year gained in the United States, and screening for HIV costs around $40,000.
Naloxone distribution saves lives for as little as $400.
The other question, of course, is whose lives are deemed worth saving. Drug overdose now kills more adults a year in the United States than motor vehicle accidents, or deaths from choking or accidental falls. Most of us have seen safety messages related to driving, choking, or minding our step, but naloxone and other measures to prevent overdose remain unknown to many at risk. As noted in an editorial in the same journal, co-authored by officials from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the FDA, making new and easy-to-use formulations of the medicine can help. However, action can be taken now to make the medicine available to heroin users—actions that will prevent thousands of needless deaths, and spare family and friends who may have to watch helplessly as their loved ones stop breathing.
CitiWide Harm Reduction Targets South Bronx & Harlem Communities with Rapid HCV Testing Program
CitiWide Harm Reduction (CitiWide), located in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York City, is an organization committed to improving the health, social and economic status of active drug users who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in New York City. Founded in 1995, CitiWide serves an area that has some of the highest rates of poverty, injection-drug use, HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) in New York City, as well as the nation. Its area also has the highest number of AIDS-related deaths in the city, and hepatitis C rates twice that of the city at large.
MAC AIDS Fund Highlights CitiWide Harm Reduction's Model
This edgy video was launched at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC. MAC AIDS Fund generously supports CitiWide's harm reduction services to address HIV/AIDS among injection drug users.
CitiWide Harm Reduction Annual Report 2012
Message from the Board of Directors & the Executive Director
July 2012 marks the mid-point of an ambitious 3-year plan to become a leading and sustainable harm reduction program that meets the complex needs of the CitiWide participants we serve who are impacted by homelessness, addiction, illness and, oftentimes, isolation. And we continue to advocate and innovate, as we adjust to the ever-changing funding, economic and policy environment.
CitiWide Harm Reduction is creating one of the most unique and effective harm reduction programs in the United States. Groundbreaking initiatives like the co-location of the HELP/PSI Health and Wellness Center and Evers Pharmacy are helping to dramatically increase access to prevention, care and treatment for CitiWide participants and the community. This year’s annual report highlights our achievements and our impact, which are only possible because of the selfless contributions of the Participant Advisory Board, the board of directors, volunteers, staff, peers, funders and community partners. These are our stories.
Richard Curtis, PhD Robert Cordero, MSW Chair, Board of Directors Executive Director
Syringe Exchange and Health Clinic for Drug Users Expands in Mott Haven
MOTT HAVEN — At certain hours, a visitor to the CitiWide Harm Reduction center on East 144th Street could be forgiven for mistaking the syringe exchange and health clinic for a clubhouse.
The center’s clients, most of them active drug users and many of them homeless and suffering from chronic illnesses, can shower, do laundry, watch TV or eat a hot meal at the site, in addition to receiving counseling, medical treatment and sterile syringes.
Beginning next week, they will also be able to fill their prescriptions at a new in-house pharmacy.
When construction finishes this summer on a 4,000-square-foot suite of offices and meeting rooms on the building’s third floor, clients will be able to check email, join support groups, dine at a mini-café and get free haircuts.
“We just want to make life a little easier for them,” said Roxanna Solano, a nurse at the center’s health clinic which opened last month and is run by HELP/PSI, a medical provider that specializes in treating drug users and people with HIV. Read more
Image: Edward Harris, a client at CitiWide Harm Reduction since 1996, said the center is "like home." (DNAinfo/Patrick Wall)
HELP/PSI Health and Wellness Center at CitiWide Harm Reduction
Congressman José Serrano Cuts The Ribbon At The Health Center Grand Opening
This edition of "Sex Drugs and Harm Reduction" puts the spotlight on the launching of our brand new HELP/PSI Health and Wellness Center at CitiWide Harm Reduction. Presenter Angela McKenzie sits down with CitiWide's Executive Director, Robert Cordero and Paul Vitale, HELP/PSI's President and CEO to discuss how this formidable partnership will improve the quality of life for CitiWide Participants and the South Bronx community. She also chats with CitiWide Participant Juan who resolves to remain clean and sober and believes that the services of the Health and Wellness Center will help him to achieve the physical and mental health he needs to achieve his goals. Today's podcast is hosted by Julie Pena, Director of Human Services at CitiWide.
Listen to the Podcast
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We are pleased to present the CitiWide Harm Reduction Strategic Plan 2011-2013 as a guide for our development over the next three years. We look forward to working together to achieve the vision of this strategic plan to become a leading and sustainable harm reduction model that meets the needs of marginalized active drug users.
You’re about to get a look at our world. It’s a world for drug users. They’re poor and sometimes homeless; black and Latino; many living with HIV and/or hepatitis C; gay, straight and transgender; trying to quit drugs or just trying to stay alive and healthy while they use. It’s a world that accepts people on their own terms and understands that change comes not from punishing people and shutting them out but loving them as they are. And it’s a world where clean syringes for injection-drug users, which are proven to prevent further HIV and hepatitis C infections, are just the start of how we take care of one another.
Join the CitiWide Harm Reduction community for a casino night benefit where you can play the craps table, roulette, blackjack & poker for a great cause. ENJOY mai tai cocktails, tasty polynesian food and limbo on a balmy night. ATTIRE hawaiian shirts, smoking jackets and vintage cocktail dresses - don't forget the cool sunglasses!
Casino event production by: Big Eastern Casino Co. - bigeasterncasino.com
MOTT HAVEN — At certain hours, a visitor to the CitiWide Harm Reduction center on East 144th Street could be forgiven for mistaking the syringe exchange and health clinic for a clubhouse.
Congressman José Serrano Cuts The Ribbon At The Health Center Grand Opening
