By Kyli Rodriguez-Cayro, Content Manager, Overdose Prevention Program
Every year since 2001, communities and organizations around the world have recognized International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31 as a time to both honor loved ones who lost their lives to overdose and to raise awareness about the overdose crisis.
To mark the day, Vital Strategies and hundreds of organizations across the United States are mounting community events and rallying support for harm reduction services, such as naloxone to reverse overdoses, safer drug use supplies and more.
For the second year in a row, Vital Strategies is mailing out more than 200 “DIY Boxes” to groups in 12 states that are hosting events. The DIY boxes offer a menu of campaign content and products to display and distribute. These include banners and leaflets, as well as digital resources such as an interactive online overdose memorial and state-level videos on the overdose crisis. They will be used at rallies, memorial vigils and events held at firehouses, community centers, health clinics and harm reduction centers.
Among the events Vital Strategies is supporting:
- Newark, New Jersey: The Newark Public Library will set up a table with DIY Box materials so patrons can learn more about harm reduction. The library will also hand out naloxone and fentanyl test strips free of charge, and encourage people to fill out “I support harm reduction because…” cards to help create a future display.
- Louisville, Kentucky: Grassroots organization VOCAL-KY, a Vital Strategies partner, will host their third Annual Overdose Awareness Day Rally and March on Aug. 31, beginning at Injustice Square and ending at the Muhammad Ali Center. The city’s Big Four Bridge, a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Ohio River, will be lit up in purple for the evening, and the rally will feature harm reduction advocates and community partners. For those in attendance there will be free naloxone and fentanyl test strips, HIV/HCV testing, and links to services and additional information.
- Clinton, North Carolina: At the Coharie Tribal Center in Sampson County, the United Katehnuaka Longhouse is organizing a community social focused on overdose prevention and awareness. Convening Native people from across the region, the social will honor loved ones who have passed due to overdose, and feature traditional song and dance as well as speakers addressing the overdose crisis in their communities.
This International Overdose Awareness Day, Vital Strategies renews its call for access to five specific interventions, as described in Vital’s award-winning “Support Harm Reduction” multimedia campaign:
- Naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses
- Drug checking resources, including fentanyl test strips
- Safer drug use supplies, such as sterile syringes
- Overdose prevention centers for supervised use, and;
- Methadone and buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder.
In 2023, for the third consecutive year, more than 100,000 people died from a drug overdose in the United States. This underscores the need for widespread access to lifesaving harm reduction services, compassionate care, and increased funding for community programs that support people who use drugs.
On Overdose Awareness Day—and every other day of the year—Vital Strategies is committed to honoring the lives of those lost to overdose, advocating for proven health-oriented, supportive services rather than punitive responses against people who use drugs, and continuing to not only increase understanding of the overdose crisis, but also to be part of the solution through taking action.
About Vital Strategies’ Overdose Prevention Program
Vital’s Overdose Prevention Program works to strengthen and scale evidence-based, data-driven policies and interventions to create equitable and sustainable reductions in overdose deaths. Work across seven U.S. states is supported by funding from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Overdose Prevention Initiative, launched in 2018, and by targeted investments from other partners. Learn more here.