Our Mission

Since 1995, we’ve been 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. We work not only on-site but in the broader   community, to make everyone safer. In addition, we advocate for policies to   protect the rights of drug users, the homeless population and people living   with HIV/AIDS and/or hepatitis C.

People on society’s margins
are safe here. Often, they
transform their lives here, too.

Our Area

CitiWide Harm Reduction serves the South Bronx (as well as parts of Upper Manhattan). It’s a largely Puerto Rican and Black area, with among the highest rates of poverty, injection-drug use, HIV and hepatitis C in the city, as well as the nation. It has the highest number of AIDSrelated deaths in the city. And hepatitis C rates are twice that of the city at large.

Check out our Services page to find out how CitiWide provides clean syringes as only the start to improving lives of South Bronx drug users.

“People here meet you  
where you’re at, and  
they work with you.”

Juanita, CitiWide participant

Our Story

• 1995: Photographer, AIDS activist and drug user Brian Weil founds CitiWide inside La Resurrección United Methodist Church in the South Bronx.

• 1996: Weil dies at 41 of a heroin overdose.

• 1998: CitiWide starts community education and outreach services targeting local sex workers.

• 1999: Launches health services collaboration with Montefiore Medical Center.

• 2000: Initiates HIV rapid-testing program (giving results in 20 minutes), mental wellness services and holistic health and alternative therapies such as acupuncture and massage.

• 2002: Starts permanent housing placement program for people living with HIV/AIDS.

• 2004: Receives the Robin Hood Foundation’s Hero Award and starts a women’s peer HIV-prevention training program.

• 2005: Celebrates 10th anniversary and opens a new drop-in center space at 226 East 144th Street in the Bronx where participants can access clean syringes twelve hours a day, five days a week, plus meals, showers and an array of support groups, counseling and case management.

• 2005: Starts sex worker outreach and outreach to men and women in jails and prisons.

• 2009: Launches health services partnership with HELP/ PSI, a Bronx-based, state-licensed HIV primary-care provider.

• 2010: Celebrates 15th anniversary with an exhibit of photographs taken by CitiWide participants, in honor of Weil. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg proclaims July 8 CitiWide Harm Reduction Day.