Creating effective policies in harm reduction work means grounding them in your mission, being thoughtful about their impact, and ensuring they’re both practical and inclusive. The tips below offer a starting point for organisations looking to build policies that reflect their values, meet external requirements, and genuinely support the people they serve and work with.

• Lead with your mission and values—Decide as an organization on your values and purpose and let those lead all of your policy decisions.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel—Look at, and reproduce where appropriate, policies from similar organizations.
• Double check the rules—Ensure your decisions can be upheld and meet all requirements by consulting experts such as lawyers, program officers, and/or insurers.
• Get buy-in—Policies work best when they are supported by the people they impact.
• Involve others—Whenever possible, ensure that the people primarily impacted by a policy are a part of creating them.
• Be realistic—Make policies practical and reasonable in the context of the realities, time, and resources of those impacted by them.
• Explain yourself—Explaining the reasons for a policy always ensures greater buy-in from the folks impacted by it.
• Choose a time—Create policies during the time your organization sets aside to focus on internal activities such as retreats or planning sessions.
• Be strategic—Choose what policies to enact and when, based on the needs and experiences of your organization.
• Have foresight—Try to anticipate the policies most critical to your work. You can base this on your experience or the experiences of existing organizations.
• Know your must-haves—Create the policies required by outside entities such as financial institutions, funders, or insurers.
• Don’t overdo it—Don’t bother creating a lot of policies about things that have not, and may never, occur in your agency (unless you are required to do so to meet a legal or contractual obligation).