I attended and participated in my first conference ever last Friday May 4th and had a blast!! We had been working on it for the last three months and it was worth every second of every meeting every single week! Of course we cannot take all the credit because we were just a small part of the whole thing. The Harm Reduction Coalition and the Peer Network along with the Aids Institute and several other awesome organizations deserve our praise too. This was the second PDSE conference to be put on and the first was in 2010. That actually brought about the Peer Network which is a collection of peers from all of the different drop-ins and syringe exchanges. The 2012 conference was an all day event from 9am to 5pm and then an after party from 6pm to 8pm. I honestly was worried I would be bored and tired and want to leave halfway through the day but I never even thought about it once !  It was a bit hot so I needed a few short outdoor air breaks but I stayed the entire day and seriously stayed afterwards hanging out in front of the church where it was held!
 

The theme was the past, present, and future of PDSE and the Peer Network. Hiawatha Collins was the MC, Terrell Jones was the host for the past, Liam Gibson was the host for the present, and I was the host for the future. And I DO NOT LIKE PUBLIC SPEAKING!! But they asked me and I agreed because I really believe in the cause and I know that I need to get over my fear especially since I am back in college now. It went great though and I am so glad that I did it! We also put on a 5 minute skit about overdose prevention and from the audience response I would have to say it was a great success! The idea for the skit was from a fellow peer from Users United named Louie Jones. Ian Jernigan and I wrote the actual skit with some outside help from Ty Webster, a good friend of The Space. I was the director while Andrea Stella was the peer on outreach and Ian Jernigan, Kathryn Villaverde, and Cindy Gindin were users. Eric Dorris was the one who overdosed right after being released from Rikers and Manny Gonzalez was our EMT. Everyone was AWESOME and I am so proud to have been a part of it!!
 

During the conference we heard from a number of important players in the harm reduction community. I learned how PDSE came to be and where we hope it will be in several years. Evan Goldstein spoke about the Good Samaritan Law which is such a wonderful law that protects those who call 911 during an overdose from being charged with possession of narcotics, which is the main reason people do not call. Moshey Moses, Terell Jones, and our own Andrea Stella about how they each began as a peer and moved on to a career in the harm reduction industry. I could go on for pages about everything I learned and those who spoke but I will just say this…thank you to EVERYONE that had a part in the 2012 Bi-Annual PDSE Harm Reduction Conference and especially to Narelle Ellendon from HRCo and to Anika Archip who was the event coordiantor that made sure EVERYTHING ran smoothly!! It truly was a memorable experience and I am already excited to help with the next one in 2014!
 

Or check out what we do on the streets:

The Space at Tompkins Fundraiser!

Meet The Space at Tompkins, a grassroots harm reduction organization that has been working with the transient homeless community around the East Village for the past two and a half years.  We’re an all volunteer staff and this meet and greet fundraiser is meant to introduce the East Village community to the work we’ve been doing and also get some people we work with replacement identification.

During times of homelessness, many people have their personal identification lost or stolen, and the process to replace it is arduous and expensive.  We’ve started this identification replacement service because something as simple as having a state ID can open doors to health care access, detox, job placement, housing, and the list goes on.  A New York State ID costs $9, and we usually need to replace people’s birth certificates in order to get their NYS IDs.  The whole process takes many man hours and costs roughly $40 a person.

Check out our website for more information www.thespaceattompkins.org, and any form of contribution (we love in-kind donations) is greatly appreciated.  Check out our IndieGoGo campaign (www.indiegogo.com/thespaceidproject) if you can’t make it on April 17th and want to contribute to this project directly.  All money goes to replacing IDs (no overhead, no salaries).

We look forward to meeting you! – Andréa Stella, Executive Director

If you know your social security number and are a US citizen, we can get you New York State Medicaid without having to go into the Medicaid office.  We’re working directly through a provider and most applications are approved in under a month.  Please contact Andréa at andrea@thespaceattompkins.org or 718.213.5206 if you think you might be eligible for New York State Medicaid and would like to apply.

On Thursday January 12 at 9am members of VOCAL and other methadone maintenance clients are gathering to meet with OASAS to try and come to an agreement with changes that need to be made at OTP, opiate treatment programs. VOCAL is a wonderful group made up of many people that have either have a history of drug use, are currently still using or know someone that is, or just care about the rights of those who cannot advocate for themselves. OASAS oversees all of the methadone clinics in New York State and are the only ones with the power to make any changes.

The two groups have had several meetings with each other about the findings of a survey that VOCAL took at various OTPs throughout the NYS area with 502 clients. This survey asked various questions regarding the care given by their clinic including how respectful they were treated by the staff and what kind of medical treatment was available. On top of the fact that more clinics are needed upstate and in Staten Island, the most important findings were significant problems with hepatitis C (HCV), bupenorphine, overdose prevention and the need for harm reduction and access to clean syringes. 87% of those interviewed said they would like a syringe exchange in their clinic. The most serious of these is the need for HCV testing, treatment and information. Most people are tested initially but are not given their viral load when found positive and they do not know to ask for it. This is very important because you may test positive but have a viral load too low to be detected or your load may be so high that immediate treatment is necessary. HCV is so widespread that approximately 75-90% of people on methadone programs are infected. So naturally the two should go hand in hand.

If you are on methadone or are interested, please join us at this meeting:

 
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 9:00am

501 7th Avenue, 8th Floor (between 37th & 38th Street)

It starts at 9am and ends around 11:30am. It will include video conferencing from members in Albany that cannot make it to NYC.

This is Sammy Thompson. Though I knew him the better part of a decade and he was one of my closest friends, I never knew his last name. Nor, I think, did anyone else I recall ever meeting. He was one of eight kids to die last December in a squat-fire in New Orleans, New Orleans’ deadliest fire in 30 years. Although he had been the longest to live in New Orleans, his was the last body to be identified at the morgue.

This article, that a mutual friend sent me, has thus far been the most in-depth account of what actually occurred that horrible night, as well as being the first feature I’ve read that actually attempts to understand the squatter life-style.. to get inside the minds of these kids and try and figure out what it is that makes us choose to turn our back on traditional society and instead reinvent our own destiny.  For anyone seeking to understand streetkids or even get a better understanding of who we’re trying to help here at The Space At Tompkins, this article is a MUST READ.

http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.1/danelle_morton_new_orleans_squat_fire.php

R.I.P. Sammy.. We all love and miss you.

-Ian, Stephanie, and all your other friends who i know are thinking of you..

There was a meeting this afternoon at the Drug Policy Alliance with different agencies and community members who are interested in getting the Good Samaritan 911 law publicly recognized.  VOCAL‘s Jeremy Saunders headed up most of the meeting, and the blog title came from part of the talk today.  Essentially we’re trying to raise awareness of this new law that should make it easier for individuals to call 911 and report an overdose without needing to worry about legal ramifications when the authorities show up.  I’ve been drowning a bit finishing my Master’s, and it was a real breath of fresh air to see so many important members of the harm reduction community come together today, right before the holidays, to start putting an action plan together.  I’ve been stuck in this super academic bubble for the past few weeks and feel like I’ve forgotten that it’s even possible for important information to be given back to the communities who need it most.  More information to come in the New Year about getting the Good Samaritan law.

Fred Wright from VOCAL (Voices of Community Activists & Leaders) stopped by The Space today to discuss some of the work VOCAL is currently doing.  Of the many fights they’re fighting, there is a march against police brutality happening NOW at Zuccotti Park.  Last Friday a VOCAL member was assaulted by police while at Occupy Wall Street, here’s the article. Check out VOCAL’s twitter (@vocalnewyork) and FB page to stay up to date on their actions.  We all signed off to join direct actions with VOCAL, as long as they’ll bail us out if we get arrested.

Now we’ll have to have a BBQ or I’ll have to learn how to cook.