October 18th 2019 fundraiser details for syringe/community outreach services available here: https://www.facebook.com/events/487985678446723/
Southside volunteers will be hanging out if you want to learn more about harm reduction, start volunteering, or if you just want to grab a drink! Eastlake will be donating 20% of all sales between 6 and 11PM to Southside!
Eastlake has kombucha, soda, and beer and is located in the Midtown Global Market, so if beer isn’t your thing there are tons of other options around!
Please also RSVP at the link below!
*************************************************************************************
More about Southside Harm Reduction Services can be found at http://www.southsideharmreduction.org/.
Based in South Minneapolis, Southside Harm Reduction Services works within a harm reduction framework to promote the human rights to health, safety, autonomy, and agency among people who use substances. We do:
- naloxone, clean syringe & works delivery;
- street outreach;
- skillshares to spread knowledge & resources throughout the community.
We believe in the right to health, safety and autonomy. We work to protect these rights among people who use substances. We facilitate conversations in communities about substance use and promote harm reduction principles. Embracing a harm reduction framework means we strive to:
- understand that people who use our services know what they need for their health,
- make available our services as low-barrier as possible, and
- destigmatize, validate, and acknowledge the humanity of all people who use drugs.
We follow the general Harm Reduction principles outlined by the Harm Reduction Coalition, and also Healing-Centered Harm Reduction (principles developed by Reframe Health & Justice)
SHRS aims to serve people that might not otherwise be able to or want to access syringe services.
We are always working to lower and remove barriers that prevent people from accessing our services. We deliver supplies directly to anyone in the Twin Cities free of charge, have street outreach teams, and rely on peer exchanges to reach those who need our services. Southside acts as a stepping stone to other services that people may want or need. Lowering the barriers to our services increases people’s access to medical, chemical, and other services.
Who are we?
Today, we are a group of people living and working in South Minneapolis who believe that people who use drugs deserve to be safe, healthy, and be able to make decisions about their own bodies and what to do with it.
We all have a relationship to drugs and alcohol. Some of us use drugs every day. Some of us drink. Some of us are sober and active in the Recovery community. Some of us are alcohol & drug counselors. Some of us hate counselors. Some of us are in recovery, but not sober. We respect peoples’ lifestyle choices. We view drugs as part of the human experience and it fits into everyone’s life a bit differently.
We all come from different backgrounds and have different skill sets and different amounts of time to commit to SHRS. All are welcome and encouraged to come as they are. We value everyone’s input and contributions.
Principles of Harm Reduction
From Harm Reduction Coalition:
- Accepts, for better and or worse, that licit and illicit drug use is part of our world and chooses to work to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignore or condemn them.
- Understands drug use as a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe abuse to total abstinence, and acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others.
- Establishes quality of individual and community life and well-being–not necessarily cessation of all drug use–as the criteria for successful interventions and policies.
- Calls for the non-judgmental, non-coercive provision of services and resources to people who use drugs and the communities in which they live in order to assist them in reducing attendant harm.
- Ensures that drug users and those with a history of drug use routinely have a real voice in the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them.
- Affirms drugs users themselves as the primary agents of reducing the harms of their drug use, and seeks to empower users to share information and support each other in strategies which meet their actual conditions of use.
- Recognizes that the realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past trauma, sex-based discrimination and other social inequalities affect both people’s vulnerability to and capacity for effectively dealing with drug-related harm.
- Does not attempt to minimize or ignore the real and tragic harm and danger associated with licit and illicit drug use.
Healing Centered Harm Reduction
From Reframe Health and Justice:
- Acknowledges harm to be an integral part of the human experience and that experiencing harm is one of the many ways our lives, minds, and hearts adapt to the world;
- Recognizes that harm happens on both an interpersonal and an institutional level, and that holistic approaches seek to reduce the harm perpetuated by both;
- Understands that people perceive and experience the world differently; what is harmful or traumatic for one may be an act of resilience to another and these perceptions can evolve over time;
- Puts forth that harm is often a result of the lengths some people must go to survive; a survival which is compromised by institutional harm and violence;
- Honors the many ways that survival and healing look without condemning or glorifying how people survive and heal;
- Values holding space and time for connection, learning, unlearning, elevation, and liberation;
- Centers shared, individual, and intersecting experiences of colonization, anti-Blackness and racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, ableism and other oppressions;
- Supports holistic, tailored approaches to restoration and reparation as well as practical strategies to reduce harm and increase access to resources;
- Elevates community-based, inter-generational and cultural approaches to resilience that are led by the people most impacted by the issue at hand; and
- Holds systems of power and privilege accountable and addresses power imbalances through transformative justice models that prioritize restoration over punishment, rather than relying on violent and exploitative state-sponsored systems.
Syringe clean-up safety
Wondering how you can safely clean up found syringes? See below, and click for more info from the Southwest Recovery Alliance:
Click here to submit a syringe clean-up request to Southside.
Get supplies
We provide:
- New, sterile syringes, cottons, cookers, other necessary equipment
- Naloxone (commonly called “Narcan”)
- Fentanyl test strips
- Referrals and recommendations for other resources and community organizations
Set up a delivery today: Text or call us at (612) 615-9725 to get naloxone, clean syringes, and works, Monday through Thursday, within our delivery area. If you live outside our range, contact us to make a plan for meeting up within it.
DELIVERY UPDATE: Starting Sept 23rd, SHRS will operate within a strict delivery area that will include the city of Minneapolis, Midway, and the Rosedale mall area. We hope this won’t be forever. But for now, we have to limit our range due to our growing demand. As demand has grown, our funds and capacity have not. We want to be up-front about what we are able to provide right now. This boundary will also allow us time to work on developing a sustainable capacity to serve as many people as possible. We do not want to exclude you. If you live outside our range, let’s make a plan to meet within our new range! We can also help you connect with another exchange service, and you’re welcome to come to one of our pop-up exchanges in South Minneapolis (coming soon! Watch our website or Facebook for details). If you’re interested in volunteering or offering your feedback, we want to hear from you! Sign up to volunteer on our website, send us an email, or call/text our number. We apologize for the inconvenience this causes. Your understanding during this process is greatly appreciated.
WeedPress: The Paper Trail 
Leave a comment