Harm Reduction Works-HRW
Harm Reduction Works-HRW is a project of HRH413 and was founded in Northampton, MA in March of 2019. A national launch happened at the Drug Policy Alliance conference November 7, 2019. HRH413 developed Harm Reduction Works-HRW in response to the need for a harm reduction based alternative to abstinence only self-help/mutual aid groups. This is NOT in opposition to abstinence only groups. Harm Reduction Works-HRW is really for anyone who wants to know more about harm reduction and how it might help, for any reason regardless of their using or drinking history. This includes people with long term abstinence based recovery who actively participate in other groups such as 12 step. We say this explicitly because the typical narrative mistakenly places harm reduction in opposition to abstinence.
The model has proven to be highly flexible. The advent of Covid, necessitated moving online. HRW meetings are exercise driven. These exercises have been comprised of news articles, portions of podcasts, book excerpts, videos, poetry etc. Online meetings also allowed for prominent local and national harm reduction leaders to share their work with people from all over the country. Notably, one evolution born by the move online, was the ability for people to share and trade stories of their work and how they came to harm reduction. We began calling these narratives “Harm Reduction Origin Stories”. Because harm reduction has not been documented well and pioneering leaders in the movement are retired or have died there is great possibility of the loss of decades of harm reduction wisdom and history. It became clear, one way HRW can function is education via spoken history, giving newer harm reductionists access to past and present leaders of the movement.
Beyond The Heroes Journey could not be more appropriate for our project! We are attempting to re-work the narrative of drug use, addiction, recovery and the broken system that is called “treatment”. The story of the “Pheonix rising from the ashes” is so prevalent in these spaces and it is dangerous. We are excited to use the framework of the Storyteller’s institute to continue to shape our project, record a podcast and see what else we can accomplish together!
Meghan McLamore Hetfield
Harm Reduction Works is an MDOCS partner in our Community Co-Creation Initiative. They will be present and participating in the Storytellers’ Institute from May 30th through June 10th.
Albie Park (he/him/yall) was one of the original counselors of The Stonewall Project, founded by Michael Siever and the first outpatient harm reduction treatment programs in San Francisco. Trained as a social worker, he has over 20 years experience in harm reduction. His Master’s culminating project from San Francisco State examined existing recovery self-help/mutual aid groups (the vast majority of which are abstinence only) with the goal of creating a harm reduction group for gay men who used speed (At the time this was the focus population of The Stonewall Project). Before he could put the plan into action he began traveling with his husband eventually landing in Western MA. He and Jess revived the idea of a harm reduction group within a few months of working together. After some trial and error, his project became Harm Reduction Works-HRW, a fully scripted, replicable, harm reduction self-help/mutual aid group.
Meghan McLamore Hetfield (She/Her) is a Nationally Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist, Addiction Recovery Coach and Certified Recovery Peer Advocate with a commitment to ending the racist war on drugs and advocating for the rights of humans who use them. She has been meeting people where “they’re at” in their various stages of mental health, substance use and recovery since 2012 and attempting to normalize treating them with compassionate care, dignity and respect.
As a Trainer, Consultant, Subject Matter Expert and Public Speaker Meghan delivers original training and education opportunities to communities, agencies, orgs and professionals in the US with an emphasis on Harm Reduction and Peer Support.
As an organizer for Harm Reduction Works-HRW (a scripted Mutual Aid support group) she has helped to start, develop and implement three regular weekly online meetings including one for Family and Loved Ones. These meetings are the first of its’ kind and open to anyone interested in learning about and or practicing Harm Reduction for any reason.
Meghan is currently living on the unceded land of the Munsee-Lenape people now referred to as New Yorks’ Hudson Valley region where she is also a Certified Mushroom Foraging Guide sharing her joy of wild spaces and the plants, animals, fungi and healing found there.
