E10: Meet Sonoran Prevention Works (2018 Innovation Grants Minisode Miniseries Episode 4)

In episode four of our minisode miniseries, we sit down with Haley Coles from ACLU from Sonoran Prevention Works (SPW). SPW received a $125,000 grant to support advocacy and education for syringe access programs – a proven harm reduction strategy in response to the opioid crisis and rising hepatitis-C and HIV infection rates. 

Specifically, Sonoran Prevention Works is working to transform the response to the opioid crisis away from a perspective of pure criminalization to a framework focused on public health – and they are doing so by partnering with the University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson, Creosote Partners and Shot in the Dark to destigmatize syringe access programs and understand the comprehensive needs of people who inject drugs. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is also working with Sonoran Prevention Works to implement a needle stick prevention program and to educate law enforcement on injection drug use.

Listen today and learn what Haley means when she says “…it’s not about overdose. At the end of the day what kills people is stigma.”

Sonoran Prevention Works website: https://spwaz.org/

Sonoran Prevention Works Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sonoranpreventionworks/
2018 Innovation Grants web page: http://vitalysthealth.org/grants-2018/

Previous Innovation Grants minisodes:

1. Flower & Bullets Collective: https://goo.gl/Z8hzky
2. Ndee Bikiyaa (the People’s Farm): https://goo.gl/uCcLCK
3. ACLU Demand to Learn: https://gl/WFS8wG