LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition (KyHRC) has partnered with international nonprofit Vital Strategies to launch a campaign in Louisville. The campaign aims to make the life-saving drug, Naloxone, also known as Narcan, more accessible to Black communities.
Drug overdose deaths in Kentucky have been on the decline. However, there has been a rise in Black communities.
Shreeta Waldon, the executive director of KyHRC, has been sounding the alarm. To combat the growing issue, the nonprofit has focused its efforts on reaching Black Kentuckians.
“We can’t keep applying the same route and the same engagement activities on a community that lacks trust in health care systems and everything under that,” Waldon said.
The coalition is part of Vital Strategies’ new campaign, ‘You Have the Power to Save Lives.’ Waldon participated in its recent launch.
“This campaign gave us an opportunity to lay a real-life look at what’s happening in our community, the people who are impacted,” Waldon said.
The goal of the campaign is to educate people about Naloxone and get it into more hands, particularly within Black communities.
“We need more interventions and conversations about the overdose crisis and how it impacts the Black community, and the need for Naloxone to be more readily available without barriers, without shame and stigma for Black residents,” said Gloria Malone, the senior manager of multimedia strategies at Vital Strategies.
Louisville is one of seven cities where the campaign will occur. Residents may see advertising for it, such as it being displayed on a billboard.
“We have a lot of work to do here, especially in this moment,” said Dave Lucas, who oversees Vital Strategies’ overdose prevention program initiatives in Kentucky. “It feels like this is a really important kind of campaign to keep going for as long as possible and allow the community to sort of pick it up and make it their own.”
Waldon said partnering with organizations on the ground, like KyHRC, is a crucial part of addressing the issue.
“You don’t get to talk about harm reduction without having us at the table, and that was probably one of the biggest takeaways for me when I was asked to be a part of this amazing campaign, was you don’t get to make a decision and judge the work that we do in harm reduction without my voice being at the table,” Waldon said.
It’s also a way to bring more awareness to the work the coalition does in a time of uncertainty with federal funding cuts.
On the campaign’s website, people can learn where to get Naloxone and listen to testimonials.
