Point Defiance Aids Projects

Point Defiance AIDS Projects (PDAP) is a non-profit organization that works to ensure disease prevention and harm reduction is possible on a local and national level. PDAP is dedicated to the creation, expansion and continued existence of syringe exchange programs as a proven method of stopping the transmission of blood-borne pathogens in the injecting drug using community.

Locally, the Tacoma Needle Exchange operates as a community health outreach project offering a variety of client based services such as care coordination, insurance enrollment, wound care clinics, and safer injection education.

As interest in syringe exchange as a public health model spread across the country, TNE and other emerging SEPs were overwhelmed with technical assistance and information requests. It became clear the growing network of SEPs needed a source for low cost syringes. To meet these needs, PDAP expanded services nationally, forming the North American Syringe Exchange Network (NASEN) in 1993.