Southwest Recovery Harm Reduction Alliance

07/28/2026

Today is World Hepatitis Day!

Sharing is caring except when it comes to injection equipment.

According to the CDC, the hepatitis C virus can survive in dried blood on surfaces and injection equipment for up to 6 weeks. That's why it's important to never share syringes, cookers, cottons, tourniquets (ties), water, or other injection equipment. Using sterile syringes and unused injection supplies every time is one of the best ways to prevent hepatitis C transmission.

This is why syringe service programs play such a vital role in hepatitis C prevention and elimination!

This World Hepatitis Day, let's break down the barriers that stand between us and a hepatitis-free future. Together, we can:

Ensure everyone has the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about hepatitis prevention, testing, treatment, and vaccination.

Advocate for the resources and services communities need to prevent, test for, and treat viral hepatitis.

End stigma by treating everyone with dignity, respect, and compassion.

Recognize that eliminating viral hepatitis is not only possible it's achievable when we work together.

Share your food, share knowledge, share your love, but not your works.

07/28/2026

We are a week away from our next Community Night. On Monday, August 3rd from 6pm-8pm.

Instead of our usual skillshare or educational training this month, we invite all to join us for our fourth annual night of artful remembrance as we make pieces/art to remember those we've lost to overdose and the war on drugs, as International Overdose Awareness Day is August 31st. We can use what you/we create at our SSP (syringe service program) vigil, and we can display your creations at our partners' International Overdose Awareness Day event in Mesa on August 31st, or take it home- whatever you want to do, we support.

If you don't feel like or want to make art, you're welcome to come hang out, share space, and/or pack harm redux kits. We'll have pizza, drinks, snacks, and, of course, safer use supplies.

August 3rd, Monday, 6 pm-8 pm
First UCC Church Phx, classroom 5
1407 N. 2nd St8th

07/24/2026

For the past seven years, every Tuesday, we've shown up in the same place!

What started as an outreach site became so much more than that. It became a place where trust was built, where people knew they would be welcomed without judgment, and where relationships grew over years.

The folx who frequent the site are people we know by name. We know their stories. We know their pets. We've celebrated victories together, grieved losses together, and walked alongside one another through some of life's hardest moments. They are our community, our neighbors.

Sadly, the building where we've operated our Tuesday fixed site is being sold, which means our longtime Tuesday site is coming to an end. We are heartbroken to lose a space that has allowed us to provide consistent, low-barrier overdose and disease prevention services. But what worries us most is the possibility of leaving our community without a familiar, trusted place to access life-affirming and lifesaving resources.

We're committed to staying in this neighborhood. The majority of the folx we serve access our services by foot, so we really want to stay in the area. Right now, we're looking for a new location nearby so we can continue serving the people who rely on us.

We are asking for your support in finding our new home in the area of 27th Ave and Indian School or nearby.

Do you know of a business that supports overdose and disease prevention and might be willing to let us use a portion of a parking lot, covered parking, or another outdoor or indoor space for a few hours each week?

Do you work for a social service organization, faith community, or other agency that believes everyone deserves access to overdose and disease prevention services and wants to provide access?

If yes, we'd love to connect with you!

Message us or send an email to [email protected]

If you dont have a lead please share this post so we can reach more potential possibilities.

07/15/2026

As much of the country saw a decline in overdose deaths, those of us on the ground in Phoenix and other parts of Arizona were witnessing a very different reality. The New York Times piece covers what we in AZ knew and saw: preventable fatal overdoses began to rise in our community. The deadly combination of extreme heat, displacement, and the iron law of prohibition impacting the illicit drug supply, alongside structural and systemic issues, culminated in deadly outcomes for people who use drugs in AZ.

Our Executive Director was interviewed alongside other local voices here in Phoenix. Her quote, “that’s not public health, that's not public safety,” was a response to the reporter's question about the recently passed City of Phoenix Park Ordinance, which restricts food distribution and medical treatment, bans SSP, and explicitly criminalizes intramuscular naloxone distribution in Phoenix city parks. This was passed knowingly at a time when our fatal overdose rates were peaking, btw.

Yet it speaks to a broader trend that those who work in harm redux are experiencing. We know what saves lives; we know what the evidence says. And yet the interventions known to save lives are being rolled back, defunded, or restricted.

We deserve better. These deaths are not inevitable. They are preventable.

Nationally, overdose deaths are falling. But not in Arizona.

07/08/2026

It was 112°F in Phoenix today.

Being outside, even briefly, is beyond being uncomfortable; it can be unbearable, and this type of heat can be particularly dangerous and deadly for our neighbors who live outside. And yes, neighbors who live outside; our unhoused community members are indeed neighbors if they live near you.

Our neighbors are living outside with barely any shade or protection and are experiencing heat injury, heat illness, and heat-related death. So, how can we take care of our neighbors?

Freezing water bottles and bringing them with you when you leave home is a simple act of care. Keep a few in your car. Hand them to people you pass. Check on the people around you.

It's pretty simple and can make a big difference. As multiple systems fail people simultaneously, we need each other more than ever. These are small acts of collective care, but multiplied across a community, they can make a difference.

07/05/2026

Just as a reminder, we don't have community night in July, but save the date for August 3rd. That Monday is our next bi-monthly Community Night from 6:00–8:00 PM. 

Instead of our usual skill share or educational training, we'll be gathering for our 4th Annual Night of Artful Remembrance in recognition of International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31.

This is a space for our community to come together through art, reflection, and shared connection as we commemorate, honor, and remember those we have lost to preventable overdose and the ongoing war on drugs. 

More deets soon!

06/27/2026

Today is National HIV Testing Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of HIV testing and encouraging everyone to get tested.

As a syringe service program (SSP), we are reminded of our roots today, as SSPs were a community-led response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Folks started distributing sterile syringes to people who inject drugs to reduce and prevent HIV transmission in their communities. Today, we are steadfast in carrying forward that legacy of caring for each other by offering HIV prevention supplies and rapid HIV and Hep C testing, all in one place with a whole lot of love.

So, get tested today, and remember PrEP and PEP are for everyone, SSPs are life-affirming and life-saving, and, of course, undetectable equals untransmittable.

06/17/2026

You may exist, but not here. You may receive aid, but not here. You may survive, but not in public view.

"They also argued that the permitting process is an unconstitutional prior restraint and that a state law allowing harm reduction programs like Valle del Sol’s trumps the city’s ordinance. They are asking the courts to prohibit the city from enforcing the ordinance. They also want the courts to declare that the state law allowing needle exchanges takes precedence over the city ordinance. They are asking for immediate relief, in the form of a preliminary injunction, while their case plays out in court.

Both organizations argued that their regular presence in parks, which would be greatly restricted or not possible under the permit process, is necessary for their work and builds trust with the people who use their services.

“Access to medical care should never depend on whether a person has a home,” said Kim Despres and Sister Adele O’Sullivan, CEO and founder of Circle the City, in a statement. “Circle the City is taking this action because we believe every member of our community deserves the opportunity to access medical care that is provided with dignity, compassion and respect.”

Circle the City and Valle del Sol are taking Phoenix to court over the ordinance, claiming it violates the First Amendment.

Learn more: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix-sued-again-over-parks-ordinance-restricting-homeless-aid-40675186/

06/05/2026

Feeding people should not be a crime.

Providing care should not be a crime.

Astonishingly, the Phoenix City Council thought it could pass a violent ordinance targeting acts of care and simply move on without accountability. When you criminalize feeding people, restrict mutual aid, ban evidence-based public health interventions (syringe service programs), and punish communities for responding to human need, people are going to push back.

Across the country, and here in Phoenix, we continue to see policies that criminalize survival while failing to address the conditions that create poverty, being unhoused, hunger, and overdose in the first place.

The ordinance, which goes into effect today, requires permits to distribute food or provide medical treatment in city parks.
Learn more: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix-sued-church-group-ordinance-limiting-homeless-aid-40671976/

06/02/2026

On June 2nd, 1975, approximately 100 s*x workers began an 8-day occupation at the Saint-Nizier Church in Lyon, France. The workers demanded an end to police harassment, fines, stigma, and the release of 10 s*x workers who had been imprisoned a few days earlier for soliciting. After 8 days of occupation, the police forcibly removed the workers from the church, but their impact sparked the start of an international movement.

We celebrate s*x workers today (and every day) and bring awareness to the stigma, discrimination, and bad laws that harm s*x workers. S*x workers should not have to fear or experience physical violence, state violence, and/or structural violence for their choice of labor.

Destigmatize and decriminalize s3x work. S*x workers play a vital role in our communities and economies. S*x work is an industry that generates income and sustains livelihoods for many people. Thus, by recognizing s*x workers' contributions, we acknowledge their economic agency and demand rights, not rescue.

Support s3x workers. End the whorearchy. Decrim s*x work. No bad whores just bad laws. Stop arresting hoes. Rights not rescue.