HELP/PSI Health and Wellness Center at CitiWide Harm Reduction
  Featuring CitiWide's Executive Director, Robert Cordero (left) and Paul Vitale, HELP/PSI's President and CEO (right)
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.
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Annual Report 2011
 THIS PAST YEAR was a time of transformation at CitiWide Harm Reduction. Starting with our 15th anniversary celebration and the renaming of our syringe exchange to the Brian Weil Syringe Access Program- in honor of CitiWide’s founder who passed away in 1996- we embarked upon a strategic planning process to create a roadmap for our efforts to improve the lives of active drug users. The result of vigorous input from stakeholders is an ambitious 3-year plan to become a leading and sustainable harm reduction program that meets the complex needs of the program participants we serve who are impacted by homelessness, addiction, illness, and, oftentimes, isolation.
Please enjoy the beautiful stories of CitiWide’s participants and our community partners in this 2011 annual report as we work together to improve the health, social and economic status of active drug users in New York City. Your continued support is vital to making this happen each and every day at CitiWide…
CitiWide Harm Reduction Strategic Plan 2011-2013
 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.
This is CitiWide
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.
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Did you know?
- Syringe exchange is cost effective: HIV treatment costs roughly $40,000 a year, while a clean syringe costs ten cents.
- 75% of CitiWide participants are initially homeless or unstabily housed at the time of enrollment.
- CitiWide HOME program saves the city money: Average rent on an apartment for participants is $1,100 monthly, while an average SRO unit costs $1,500.
- The Bronx leads New York City in new cases of HIV infection from needle-sharing among drug users.
- HIV and Hepatitis C related deaths are highest among African-Americans and Latinos, among injection drug users, and for Bronx residents.
- An estimated 135,000 injection drug users and over 100,000 people living with HIV/AIDS live in New York City.
- Together we have the power to ACT.
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