HARM REDUCTION COALITION OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY

The Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County is an organization dedicated to providing services to people who use drugs, sex workers, and people experiencing homelessness. We operate a needs-based Syringe Service Program and engage in COVID-19 prevention and response efforts that serve our entire County. Our organization is founded on abolitionist, anti-racist, and non-hierarchical values. We center ourselves around the leadership of people who use drugs. We value worker autonomy and control and are committed to paying all staff a fair and equal wage.

We emphatically decry the war on drugs and seek to mitigate the trauma it has caused to our participants and to ourselves. Our organization was built to overcome the structural violence that keeps drug users in isolation and with a lack of access to basic resources. We know that drug users and sex-workers have the right to safe supply, housing, and compassionate, low-barrier, evidence-based care. We commit to advocating for those rights and keeping them centered in all of our work.