Injury Prevention Initiatives for All

Our Overdose Prevention Program (OPP), operating in the United States, works to keep people healthy and families together through strategies that center a supportive and health-based response for people who are using drugs. We help address the stigma that prevents help-seeking behaviors which includes centering programs on men, women and children’s specific needs. Our work maintaining families includes supporting caretakers at risk of losing custody of their children with caring mobile services that literally meet beneficiaries where they are. Other efforts that focus on guaranteed income payments for new parents with substance use create a safety net to provide stability that supports the overall health and well-being of the family.

Philadelphia based harm reduction advocate and worker, Nicole and her friends. This image was part of Vital Strategies’ Overdose Prevention Initiative’s National Support Harm Reduction Campaign which was launched in February 2022 and was seen over 5 million times.

Vital Strategies is an implementing partner of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), a consortium carrying out proven road safety interventions in 15 countries and up to 30 cities around the world. Road crashes are the leading cause of death for young men and children and addressing it requires a comprehensive, evidence-based approach, which includes: strengthening legislation; improving key risky road behaviors with a focus on speeding; promoting infrastructure improvements and sustainable urban transportation; and advocating for improved vehicle safety standards.

On Nov. 17, the city of Buenos Aires carried out a tactical urban planning project aimed at redistributing the use of streets, gaining space for pedestrians, and achieving a real change in drivers’ behavior so that they adapt their speed to 20 km in school environments. Children and adults painted streets with messages calling for slower speeds and dedicated bike lanes.

As implementing partner of two urban-focused initiatives, the Partnership for Healthy Cities and Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety, Vital Strategies provides technical assistance to city governments on enacting NCD and injury prevention policies and programs that redress health inequities, specifically those experienced by women and children. Examples of such work include supporting the city of Freetown, Sierra Leone to prevent hypertension by supporting the women who prepare, sell, and purchase foods in local markets to lower the salt content in food, and the city of Santiago, Chile, where the city is poised to adopt a city-wide safe mobility strategy developed with a care approach.

Freetown, Sierra Leone: The city has trained market vendors to support a sodium-reduction campaign with tips for shoppers on how to cook with less salt, alongside information about NCDs.