Overview of the Guide

This guide was written by Raffi Balian and Cheryl White, whose many years of experience in harm reduction, drug user activism, and organizational leadership have made them invaluable experts on working with people who use drugs.

This is the third guide book in a series aimed to provide practical, hands-on guidance for harm reduction and drug user organizations. This guide lays out a series of strategies to address the challenges faced by organizations that want to hire people who use drugs or who are on methadone or buprenorphine treatment.

Chapter 1 provides real examples and reasons why hiring and organizing people who use drugs, including those living with HIV and hepatitis C, will help improve the programs developed by harm reduction providers and activist groups. It also outlines common problems faced by employees who use drugs.

Chapter 2 offers a wide range of harm reduction policies that organizations can adopt for the workplace. Establishing and adhering to set guidelines is crucial for successfully working with staff and volunteers who use drugs.

Chapter 3 builds on the previous chapters by offering strategies to sustain projects that employ people who use drugs. Strategies focus on recruitment, training, supervision, support, evaluation, conflict resolution, and boundary maintenance.

Chapter 4 takes an in-depth look at two initiatives in Toronto, Canada, that successfully employ and organize drug users: the first is an award-winning harm reduction project run by and for drug users; the second is an initiative to provide homeless crack users with safer smoking equipment and important health information. Both have been praised by health experts and government officials.