What steps can communities take to incorporate health equity in overdose prevention? The following summary provides concrete examples of thoughtful approaches to applying health equity in overdose prevention at the local level to address rising rates of overdose. Case studies were drawn from overdose prevention coalitions participating in the California Overdose Prevention Network (COPN) Accelerator 4.0 Program. These can serve as models for other coalitions and organizations across the country.

University of Kansas has created curriculm on the importance of maintenance within a coalition. This covers what needs to be maintained, and how to maintain your work successfully. The curriculum explores some alternatives to simple maintenance -- coalition growth, for example, or changing direction, and even ending. But the key point about maintenance is that it won't happen all by itself. It takes effort -- conscious, planned, and ongoing.

A Division for Advancing Prevention and Treatment (ADAPT) supports the National High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program by operationalizing the National HIDTA Prevention Strategy. ADAPT and HIDTA has created curriculum for implementing and evaluating substance use prevention practices within communities and has created videos to assist communities with keeping up to date with advances in prevention science. Their video library has s variety of trainings and technical webinars to cultivate, nurture, and support implementation of their prevention programming and curriculum.

The National High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program has developed the Prevention Intervention Resource Center (PIRC). PIRC serves as a repository for publicly available resources for HIDTA communities to advance their evidence-based prevention programming. They have free curriculum available that includes: Sharing Substance-Related Information with Youth 11-18: Integrating the Best Available Evidence to Prevent Unintended Harm, Developing a Communications Plan, Developing Messaging Messaging through Mass Media, and so much more. 

The Overdose Lifeline is a non profit overdose prevention organization based in Indiana that has informational pages on harm reduction and also has free youth focused educational programs like Aaron's Place: Exchange and Camp Mariposa.

Faith in Harm Reduction is a non-profit organization that fosters opportunities for the co-creation of spiritual community and relationship building in partnership with people who use drugs and other harm reduction community leaders. Through the hosting of events and a growing national network of Faith in Harm Reduction leaders who provide peer to peer support, information sharing, and spiritual care for the harm reduction movement, Faith in Harm Reduction strengthens spiritual resources for harm reduction and intersectional healing and justice movements.

The California Youth Opioid Response (YOR California) is pleased to announce 43 grant awards for the third round of State Opioid Response (SOR) funding of $12 million, subsequent to a statewide RFA process, and over 70 applications.

YOR California seeks to strengthen capacity and access to prevention, treatment, and recovery services, as well as access points to Medication-Assisted Treatment, for youth (ages 12-24) and their families. This opportunity is also designed to foster the creation, coordination and strengthening of local level multi-system networks and to encourage the development of new partnerships between agencies that touch youth.

YOR California is a joint effort by the California Institute for Behavioral Health Solutions and Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. and funded by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), Community Services Division, Federal Grants Branch that supports funding community-based organizations throughout California, whose efforts spanning the continuum of prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery services for youth.

This website is an great example of how local coalitions in California can communicate how to access naloxone, treatment, and other resources locally.

This document is to assist community leaders, local and regional organizers, non-profit groups, law enforcement, public health, and members of the public in understanding and navigating effective strategies to prevent opioid overdose in their communities.

Harm Reduction Hacks is a comprehensive microsite and resource to guide organizations developing new and/or with existing syringe services programs (SSPs) in program design, implementation, and organizational sustainability. This resource was developed through the CDC-funded National Harm Reduction Technical Assistance Center.

When considering a strategy like harm reduction vending machines it is critical to understand community context and to get buy-in from staff, key community stakeholders, partners, and program participants. To help with this, Bloomberg American Health Initiative fellows Callie Kaplan, Zach Kosinski, Nicole Barnes and Erin Russell, under the guidance of Dr. Susan Sherman, created a readiness toolkit to support agencies, community-based organizations, and advocacy groups to make informed decisions about the use of harm reduction vending machines in their communities.

This brief provides a condensed version of the guide created with Youth Opioid Response California and California AfterSchool Network, to provide information on various strategies co-designed across sectors to support substance use prevention and creating hubs at schools and other community sites to promote whole child, whole family, and whole community health and wellbeing.

On Friday, September 16, 2022, the California AfterSchool Network (CAN) successfully convened CA practitioners and educators in California’s Golden Opportunity: Promoting Child & Community Wellness Through Cross-Sector Expanded Learning Partnerships event. This culminating virtual event of the Whole Child Health & Wellness Community of Practice, was funded by Youth Opioid Response (YOR) California. The purpose of the virtual event was to create awareness about California’s Golden Opportunity for multi-sector partnerships with California’s Expanded Learning Programs that promote health, and mental health, and increase access to substance use intervention and treatment for children, youth, and families. Resources from the convening can be found here.

"The California AfterSchool Network (CAN) is an organization that exists to make a difference in the health and well-being of children, youth, their families, and their communities by strengthening access to high-quality Out-of-School Time (OST) programs.

This brief provides a condensed version of the guide created with Youth Opioid Response California and California AfterSchool Network, to provide information on various strategies co-designed across sectors to support substance use prevention and creating hubs at schools and other community sites to promote whole child, whole family, and whole community health and wellbeing.

In this blog post by Jeff Davis, the Executive Director of California AfterSchool Network, speaks on the opportunities to partner with expanded learning programs in California to support the whole child, whole family, and community wellness.

This video is in Spanish and is an animated naloxone training and informational video that OD Free Marin created for sharing with community members to provide information on naloxone and responding to an overdose.

This video is an animated naloxone training and informational video that OD Free Marin created for sharing with community members to provide information on naloxone and responding to an overdose.

What steps can communities take to engage youth in overdose prevention? The following summary provides concrete examples of data-driven strategies to address rising rates of overdose among youth. Case studies were drawn from overdose prevention coalitions participating in the California Overdose Prevention Network (COPN) Accelerator 3.0 Program. These can serve as models for other coalitions and organizations across the country.