PROGRAMS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT:
Our Community
We are grateful for a community of advocates that is committed to promoting the health, dignity, security,and autonomy of pregnant people, parents, and families.
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We invite you to learn more about the organizations that inform our work and affirm our values:
The mission of the Bexar County NAS Collaborative is to support individuals and families impacted by NAS through collaborative education, research, and clinical practice.
Bold Futures leads policy change, research, place-based organizing, and culture shift by and for women and people of color in New Mexico. Bold Futures centers the lived experiences and expertise of those most impacted by an issue, engaging with people at the intersection of their identities.
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We work to build communities where all have what we need to make real decisions about our own bodies and lives, and all have room to live with respect and dignity.
OUR MISSION is to organize and activate a radically inclusive community of doulas and birthkeepers to provide full spectrum C.A.R.E. to all. Cornerstone doulas and birthkeepers champion equitable access to safe, supported and dignified care for all communities throughout the reproductive lifespan. Our collective C.A.R.E. is focused on closing gaps in disparate maternal and infant health outcomes, increasing reproductive health equity and creating positive change in all reproductive health outcomes — and as a result, our society at large.
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Cornerstone Doulas & Birthkeepers C.A.R.E:​
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C: Care, Connection, Community.
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A: Authenticity, Access, Advocacy.
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R: Relevant, Reliable, Reputable.
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E: Excellence, Expertise, Equity.
Our Labor & Birth Doula Training includes a KNOW YOUR RIGHTS training in collaboration with Birth Monopoly. Every person who takes our Labor & Birth Doula Training leaves with the exclusive certification: Rights Informed Birth Advocate. Train with a program that equips you with the tools to advocate. Cornerstone Doula Trainings + Birth Monopoly: Together, we are shifting paradigms by putting the power back in the hands of birthing people and their families.
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DanceSafe is a 501(c)(3) public health organization promoting health and safety within the nightlife and electronic music community.
DanceSafe has two fundamental operating principles: harm reduction and peer-based, popular education. Combining these two principles has enabled us to create successful, peer-based educational programs to reduce drug misuse and empower young people to make healthy, informed lifestyle choices.
We are known for bringing adulterant screening (a.k.a., “pill testing,” “drug checking”) to the rave and nightlife community in the U.S., and for distributing unbiased educational literature describing the effects and risks associated with the use of various drugs.
We neither condone nor condemn drug use. Rather, we provide a non-judgmental perspective to help support people who use drugs in making informed decisions about their health and safety.
The Drug Policy Alliance envisions a just society in which the use and regulation of drugs are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights, in which people are no longer punished for what they put into their own bodies but only for crimes committed against others, and in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more.
Our mission is to advance those policies and attitudes that best reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition, and to promote the sovereignty of individuals over their minds and bodies.
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Our supporters are individuals who believe the war on drugs must end. Together we work to ensure that our nation’s drug policies no longer arrest, incarcerate, disenfranchise and otherwise harm millions – particularly young people and people of color who are disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.
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Our Values & Priorities
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Extensively reducing the role of criminalization in drug policy, so that people are no longer punished for what they put into their bodies
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Advocating for responsible and equitable legal regulation of marijuana to reduce the harms caused by prohibition and bring in new sources of tax revenue
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Promoting health–centered drug policies by advocating for services such as treatment on demand, supervised consumption services, drug maintenance therapies, and syringe access programs
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Empowering youth, parents and educators with honest, reality-based drug education that moves beyond inaccurate, fear-based messages and zero-tolerance policies
“Whatever They Do, I’m her Comfort, I’m her Protector": A Report on the Child Welfare and Foster System by Movement for Family Power
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The child welfare and foster system holds perhaps the greatest power a state can exercise over its people: the power to forcibly take children away from parents and permanently sever parent- child relationships.… Read More
Inspired by elephants who give birth within a circle of support, we envision a world where all people have a circle of support for the entire perinatal period.
Birth justice occurs when everyone is equally capable of self-determination during the perinatal period, when their self-determination is supported and amplified. To achieve this we will need both the HOW and the WHAT of birth justice. We will need strategies for tackling systems of power and oppression and we will need strategies for change and resilience. We will also need expertise in health systems, legal systems and the perinatal period.
Elephant Circle is here to help you expand your capacity to bring about birth justice.
Children’s and Women’s Health Centre of British Columbia - Fir Square Combined Care Unit
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In January 2003, BC Women’s Hospital opened the Fir Square program, which provides maternity care for women struggling with substance misuse. Women are admitted to the unit for withdrawal management and stabilization. Length of stay ranges from one day to several months, depending on the woman’s degree of instability. Women can be admitted several times during their pregnancy based on their needs and commitment to participating in the program.
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Following a harm-reduction approach, the program’s goals are to reduce the substance use and risky behaviour of the women and to have more women go home with their babies postpartum. Women are at different stages of readiness to change their lifestyle; therefore, they guide their own care planning.
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A multidisciplinary team is available to support these women. The team consists of nurses, physicians, a senior practice leader, a dietitian, a social worker, an alcohol and drug counsellor, an infant development worker, a spiritual care worker, music and recreational therapists, and a reproductive mental health psychiatrist.
ARTICLE:
Rooming-in compared with standard care for newborns of mothers using methadone or heroin by Ronald R. Abrahams, MD CCFP FCFPC
Harm Reduction Coalition is a national advocacy and capacity-building organization that promotes the health and dignity of individuals and communities impacted by drug use.
Our efforts advance harm reduction policies, practices and programs that address the adverse effects of drug use including overdose, HIV, hepatitis C, addiction, and incarceration. Recognizing that social inequality and injustice magnify drug-related harm and limit the voice of our most vulnerable communities, we work to uphold every individual’s right to health and well-being and their competence to participate in the public policy dialogue.
HYA exists to meet youth experiencing homelessness where they are, and to help them build healthier lives.
We believe that reducing harm is possible through the provision of accessible, non-judgmental outreach, one-on-one counseling, and medical and mental health care, as well as creative and educational workshops, syringe access and disposal, and accurate up-to-date referrals and information.
We strive to empower young homeless people to protect themselves, educate each other, reduce harm within the community, and when they are ready transition off the streets.
IHRC works to create health equity in Iowa communities through advocacy, education, and drug user health services.
We are committed to building power among people impacted by the war on drugs, including people who use drugs and communities of color; committed to acceptance of stigmatized and minoritized peoples and people who use drugs; and committed to dismantling systems of race, class, and gender-based privilege.
We believe that the existing systems of punishment and control, such as the Foster system are not designed to help families thrive. We believe in a total divestment from the foster system and investment in community. Thus, we will not advocate for reforms that simply recreate systems of surveillance, control and punishment of families.
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We believe that systems of oppression are intertwined, and that the foster system is no exception. We are committed to working with our allies across social movements, including but not limited to the fights for reproductive justice, racial justice, criminal justice, economic justice, disability justice, health care justice, drug policy reform, harm reduction, LGBTQI and immigration justice.
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We believe that the practice of political study, alongside organizers and community members, to collectively re-imagine a just society is a necessary component to liberation. Supporting a movement, is not theoretical, it is not magic, it is work. It means creating space for disagreement, consensus, as well as being constantly held accountable by those most affected by the social injustice.
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National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) is a non-profit organization that works to secure the human and civil rights, health and welfare of all people, focusing particularly on pregnant and parenting women, and those who are most likely to be targeted for state control and punishment - low income women, women of color, and drug-using women.
NPA brings together people who are interested in perinatal care to share to listen and learn from each other.
Our diverse membership is comprised of healthcare providers, parents & caregivers, educators, and service providers - all driven by their desire to support and advocate for babies and families at risk across the country.
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Our shared purpose is to give voice to the needs of pregnant people, infants, their families, and their healthcare providers so that collectively we can have the greatest positive impact on perinatal care in the United States.
At NPA we know that the language that we use shapes the way we think. We want to change the way we talk about pregnancy and substance use.
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We encourage you to download, print, and share these infographics with your community. We just ask that you please don't change the content or message in any way and please be sure to credit the NPA Workgroup on Perinatal Substance Use.
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If you are interested in adapting these materials for use by your program or agency, please contact Erika Goyer, NPA's Director of Communications and Perinatal Substance Use Co-Chair.
The Neonatal Quality Improvement Collaborative of Massachusetts (NeoQIC) is dedicated to improving the health outcomes of newborns throughout the state.
It is a voluntary organization of health care providers and institutions that support quality improvement in the health care of newborns through the open sharing of information and practices.
It seeks to foster a culture of continuous quality improvement among its members through the development of joint quality improvement projects and initiatives, promotion of evidence-based best practices, and support of education and training.
New England User's Union
Solidarity and social justice for drug users; both current and former.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION - This page is being built.
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NEXT Distro is a mail based syringe access program
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NNEPQIN
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Open Society Foundations https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/expecting-better-improving-health-and-rights-pregnant-women-who-use-drugs
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https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/impact-drug-policy-women
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People’s Harm Reduction Alliance (PHRA) Peer run Harm Reduction Services with locations in Seattle, Everett, and Bremerton, WA and Portland OR.
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Portland People's Outreach Project (PPOP) Peer run bike and drop in Harm Reduction services. A PHRA site.
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Project Nurture Is a program of comprehensive perinatal care for pregnant people with substance use. They provide peer doulas, which is our contact point with them.
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Provide Inc. Advocates for abortion access.
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Punx with Lunch Oakland, CA
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ReproAction Reproductive justice mainly on the east coast and Midwest.
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SheWay Inpatient treatment for pregnant and parenting people in Victoria, BC, Canada
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SIF MA NOW! Is a group of people who use drugs, medical and law enforcement professionals working to establish a safer consumption space in Boston.
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Sister Song Based in Atlanta, they focus on reproductive justice for BIPOC
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SisterReach Based in Memphis, they do reproductive justice work focusing on Black people, rural populations, and LGBTQIA+
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Sonoran Prevention works Harm Reduction Services in Phoenix, AZ
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Street Works Harm Reduction and health care for folks in Edmonton, AB, Canada with housing insecurity
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Tiwa Women Indigenous advocacy in NM
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Toronto Overdose Prevention Society Zoe Dodd created an illegal safer consumption space in a park in the middle of Toronto and defied them to arrest her.
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Urban Survivors Union Drug user union with chapters in NC, WA, and CA. One of my favorite of their campaigns is #reframetheblame, which seeks to end the harmful practice of prosecuting the friends and family of OD victims under drug induced homicide laws.
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VANDU Drug user union based in Vancouver, BC, Canada
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VOCAL-NY is comprised of and works with low income people to end HIV, mass incarceration, the drug war, and homelessness. (Not to be confused with an organization in Seattle who tried to hijack their name and co-opt the movement for their own milquetoast version of Harm Reduction.)
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Yes to SCS is a Seattle group working for safer consumption spaces.