Scholarship Funding OAD21

💜 We NEED YOUR Help to fund Scholarships to our Overdose Awareness Day 2021 Event. Your donation will help bring members of our community together to share in ritual, remembrance and celebration of life for ALL those we’ve lost to overdose. This comes in the context of  the 93,000+ lives lost to overdose due to the failure of our systems to act during a global pandemic.

We believe one of the most important aspects of this event is the inclusion of people who use drugs from our national network. Due to the pandemic, there have been very few in person events to mourn the loss of loved ones. This will be an opportunity for collective healing, and that simply cannot happen without our community present. In the spirit of this, we are asking for donations so that we may provide folks with scholarships to attend. Too often, public events drawing awareness to the crisis of overdose & adulterated supply cater to those with the most resources and recognition in the recovery movement. For our event, we want to bring together the folks at the “front lines” of the overdose crisis, who are impacted by drug policy failures on a daily basis. Help us get our communities to this important healing and grieving space while accommodating their various access needs. 

This year's theme, #BeyondNaloxone is about bringing focus to interventions that don’t first require a person to be at death's door to receive them. It goes beyond basic overdose reversal and brings innovations such as drug checking, methadone reform and overdose prevention sites to the forefront of the public health response. If we are going to END the OVERDOSE Crisis, we must move #BeyondNaloxone.

Help us fund scholarships to our 2021 "Overdose Awareness Day: Beyond Naloxone" event. Additional contributions spanning beyond the cost of airfare and accommodations may be used to enhance the in person and virtual experience.

To give you an idea of what funds will be going towards (for example):

 -$5 donation - cover harm reduction supply kit including OAD21 mask

-$15 donation - cover OAD21 t-shirt

-$25 donation - cover uber/lyft transportation costs

-$50 donation - cover childcare during the events

-$100 donation - cover a stipend for local folks who would not otherwise be able to attend

-$1000 donation - cover airfare and accommodations for up to 2 participants

-$5000 donation - cover the cost of airfare and accommodations including stipend for up to 8 participants

This 2 Evening OAD21 Event is hosted by:  North Carolina Survivors Union, P.A.I.N., Drug Policy Alliance, GC Stop, Urban Survivors Union, National Harm Reduction Coalition Faith in Harm Reduction, Truth Pharm, United Church of Christ, NC Council of Churches, MAT Support & Awareness, Answer Detroit and Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition.

Schedule of Events: 

August 30th 2021, Day 1 Event: An Evening of Remembrance and Celebration 

To kick off our two-evening event, faith leaders from Faith in Harm Reduction and associated faith networks will lead a non-denominational ceremony in collaboration with Truth Pharm. Many of those we lost during the pandemic never had a ceremony. Consequently, we will take this opportunity to honor lives lost through the calling of names, the creation of various types of memorials and a paper lantern release. Speaking from personal experience, we know how crucial ritual and ceremony are in coping with loss and trauma. Our community needs this opportunity to mourn. 

August 31st 2021, Day 2 Event: Mobilizing to End Overdose

During our evening two festivities, we will call on leaders from around the country to move “Beyond Naloxone.” NCSU will host public health and harm reduction experts discussing drug checking, safe consumption spaces, methadone reform, and drug decriminalization/legalization. Notable in-person and virtual attendees, respectively, will include celebrated author and harm reductionist Maia Szalavitz conducting a book signing and Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance Kassandra Frederique speaking about drug policy. In addition, the event will have live music and food for attendees to enjoy, a visual representation of lives lost and more. At the end of the event, we will conduct a naming ceremony with Nan Goldin for the FTIR device, including a live drug checking demonstration followed by releasing of the paper lanterns. 

Thank you for helping make this possible!