Harm Reduction is a philosophy and set of practices that can assist individuals be safer and be applied to make organizations/systems less harmful. For individuals, harm reduction expands choices, increases access, and promotes opportunities to assist people be safer particularly when engaging in culturally stigmatized behaviors—such as drug use and sex.

Harm reduction practice is engaged with on two levels–the individual (where we change our routines, share suggestions, and gather and distribute tools for increasing safety) and the institutional (where we change policy and systems to support safety and decrease violence and marginalization). 

At the INDIVIDUAL LEVEL:

Harm reduction expands choices, increases access, and promotes opportunities to assist people be safer when engaged in stigmatized and criminalized behaviors—such as drug use and trading sex. 

At the INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL:

Harm reduction aims to shift organizations/systems (and our broader culture) to be safer for both individuals and communities. Society, and the systems within it, have historically increased harm to people who use drugs or engage in sex work through oppressive policy and stigmatizing culture.

Harm reduction is about:

• meeting people where they’re at, but not leaving them there

• avoiding placing judgment on individuals

• acknowledging the significance of any positive change

• engaging in radical love