Prevention Institute has recently joined with the National Harm Reduction Technical Assistance Center (NHRTAC) to provide free help to anyone in the country providing (or planning to provide) substance misuse harm reduction services to their community. The goal of NHRTAC is to improve the capacity and performance of harm reduction programs throughout the United States by ensuring access to high-quality, comprehensive technical assistance. CDC established and expanded the NHRTAC in collaboration with SAMHSA to ensure comprehensive support of the integration of harm reduction strategies and principles across diverse community settings and within a treatment framework.
This TA Center will connect harm reduction programs to resources and experts that can help programs better serve their communities. Prevention Institute is lending our expertise in community-driven approaches to strengthen community assets and resources that prevent substance misuse and support long-term recovery. This includes addressing community trauma and building resilience, looking at how to incorporate racial justice and health equity focused approaches, and going upstream to improve community determinants of wellbeing such as economic conditions, social connection, and parks and open space.
Offering harm reduction services is an effective approach for preventing overdose, the spread of infectious disease, and other harms resulting from drug use. Recipients of TA may include syringe services programs, health departments, programs providing treatment for substance use disorder, as well as prevention and recovery programs.
Please visit the NHRTAC FAQ page for information and guidance on
- How to submit a TA request
- The network of eight TA providers participating in the program (along with their areas of expertise)
- Resources that TA providers have uploaded as part of ongoing TA they are already providing.
Please feel free to reach out to Ruben Cantu (ruben@preventioninstitute.org) or Zack Tarro (zachary@preventioninstitute.org) with any questions you may have about NHRTAC or how to get involved with requesting TA. Thank you!