Harm Reduction Hacks in Focus: Space Hacks
Space Management—Mobile Services Specific
There are 9 hacks in this section
Making Mobile Services Safer, Smarter, and More Grounded
Because the street is someone’s space, too
Mobile harm reduction services bring care directly to where it’s needed most—but that mobility comes with its own set of challenges and responsibilities. From prepping for shifts and managing supplies, to maintaining personal safety and setting clear boundaries in the field, this section shares tested strategies from seasoned outreach workers. Whether you’re walking with a backpack, driving a van, or delivering to doorsteps, these hacks help keep mobile services trauma-informed, equitable, and rooted in the values of dignity and mutual trust.
Hacks for Mobile Shift Prep
Posted in Space Management—Mobile Services Specific.
This refers to the groundwork that must be laid before services take place, and should be updated regularly/at least once a year regarding what supplies are needed.
Hacks for Personal Safety and Boundaries During Mobile Outreach
Posted in Space Management—Mobile Services Specific.
Personal safety during mobile outreach has a slightly different dynamic than brick and mortar spots with walls and lots of people. Mobile outreach by definition takes place on the street, in peoples campsites, in trap houses, and in other environments where misconduct is simply more likely.
Hacks for Vehicular Outreach
Posted in Space Management—Mobile Services Specific.
Running harm reduction services from a vehicle adds mobility and reach—but also comes with its own set of logistical challenges. From packing and maintenance to mapping routes and finding parking, thoughtful planning helps keep things smooth and sustainable. Make sure the bags and/or vehicles are packed leaving enough time for transiting to your locations. Create […]
Hacks for Outreach On-Foot/Backpack
Posted in Space Management—Mobile Services Specific.
Street outreach is one of the most direct and personal ways to connect with people who might not otherwise engage with services. Often done on foot and out of backpacks, this work requires careful preparation, deep respect for people’s space, and a strong sense of safety and teamwork.
Hacks for Harm Reduction Home Delivery
Posted in Space Management—Mobile Services Specific.
Home delivery can be one of the most meaningful and trusted forms of harm reduction—bringing care directly to people in the places they feel safest. It also requires a high level of discretion, respect, and planning to protect confidentiality and ensure safety for both participants and workers.
Hacks for Bicycle and Other Alt Vehicle Service Delivery
Posted in Space Management—Mobile Services Specific.
Using bikes, carts, or other alternative vehicles for outreach offers flexibility, low costs, and a smaller environmental footprint. While the core principles remain the same as other forms of mobile harm reduction, there are a few extra considerations to keep things rolling smoothly.
Service and Supply Management Hacks for Mobile Services
Posted in Space Management—Mobile Services Specific.
OGs repeatedly report that ineffective management of supplies is the number one potential flashpoint for escalated situations during harm reduction services, because it can make people feel like they are treated unfairly. Because of this harm reduction leaders had special suggestions for managing services and supplies during mobile service delivery.
A Note About Mobile Trauma-Informed Service Delivery
Posted in Space Management—Mobile Services Specific.
“Trauma-informed care” is somewhat more complex in mobile harm reduction delivery because workers don’t have complete control over the environment in which they’re working.
Hacks for Training & Cross-Training for De-Escalation
Posted in Space Management—Mobile Services Specific.
It may seem odd to think of training or cross-training as have anything at all to do with handling escalated situations in harm reduction spaces, but in fact, it is invaluable for all staff to be trained and cross-trained.
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“People who cause harm are often also survivors of harm. If we want to address the roots of violence, we have to honour both truths.”
Danielle Sered -
"Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free."
Thich Nhat Hanh -
“Boundaries help me to give all that I can and still come back tomorrow.”
-
"I describe my experiences as a nurse volunteer at the overdose prevention site as “being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.” And that’s exactly where I want to be as a nurse: working outside the system to make a real difference in people’s lives, showing up in the community when it matters most and challenging rules that directly contribute to the overdose crisis, and exposing government inaction by being part of the solution on the ground. For me, this is what nursing is all about."
Marilou Gagnon -
"Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone."
Fred Rogers -
"We don’t need to professionalize the people closest to the crisis. We need to recognise them as professionals already.”
Jules Netherland -
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
Audre Lorde -
"One of the most important things we can do as advocates is to define & make concrete the vague terms used by politicians. What does it mean to “take a public health approach”? What you mean when you say “treatment”? Politicians rarely know. Our job is to make it plain for them."
Jonathan Giftos -
"What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured."
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. -
"Between an uncontrolled escalation and passivity, there is a demanding road of responsibility that we must follow. "
Dominique de Villepin -
"Opponent’s of syringe service programs and harm reduction in general typically remark that it “sends the wrong message.” The message they are referring to is, “We love you and want you to be safe.”
Christopher Abert -
“As always, be transparent with participants about what you have, what you don't have, and/or what's for only special populations.”
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“Many of the harm reduction leaders interviewed talked about the importance of not having too many policies and involving your participants in the development of policies—especially those that impact them directly.”
-
"We have to be ready and able to reach clients where they are, not where we want them to be”
-
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
Martin Luther King Jr. -
“One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient.”
Charles M. Blow -
"If you question harm reduction works, I can’t help but wonder if you have ever actually seen what happens in these spaces. We promote health safety and dignity, and it works. It is simple, beautiful and changes peoples lives."
Haven Wheelock -
We need to play that game where we require politicians to finish every sentence denouncing supervised injection facilities with the phrase, “and that is why I think injecting alone in a McDonald’s bathroom is better.”
Jonathan Giftos -
"There isn’t a way things should be. There’s just what happens, and what we do."
Terry Pratchett -
"We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say "It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem." Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes."
Fred Rogers -
"The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma."
Judith Lewis Herman -
“Identify five things that you can see, four things that you can touch, three things that you can hear, two things that you can smell and one thing that you can taste.”
-
"Not all traumas are the result of what happened to you; some are the result of what didn’t happen for you"
Gabor Maté -
"Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone."
Fred Rogers -
"One of the problems that arises with the term “people who use drugs” is that it is intentionally pluralistic in its embrace of ALL people who use drugs—from recreationally to deeply problematically. This makes using it to talk about the things that especially impact people who are using drugs problematically very difficult. "
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“The bottom line is that overdose prevention sites — which exist in more than 100 cities around the world — offer compassion for fellow human beings,”
Mayor Jim Kenney -
“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.”
Thich Nhat Hanh -
“In general, it is antithetical to harm reduction best practices to call the police except under the most extreme life-or-death circumstances.”
- “People who cause harm are often also survivors of harm. If we want to address the roots of violence, we have to honour both truths.”
- "Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free."
- “Boundaries help me to give all that I can and still come back tomorrow.”
- "I describe my experiences as a nurse volunteer at the overdose prevention site as “being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.” And that’s exactly where I want to be as a nurse: working outside the system to make a real difference in people’s lives, showing up in the community when it matters most and challenging rules that directly contribute to the overdose crisis, and exposing government inaction by being part of the solution on the ground. For me, this is what nursing is all about."
- "Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone."
- "We don’t need to professionalize the people closest to the crisis. We need to recognise them as professionals already.”
- “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
- "One of the most important things we can do as advocates is to define & make concrete the vague terms used by politicians. What does it mean to “take a public health approach”? What you mean when you say “treatment”? Politicians rarely know. Our job is to make it plain for them."
- "What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured."
- "Between an uncontrolled escalation and passivity, there is a demanding road of responsibility that we must follow. "
- "Opponent’s of syringe service programs and harm reduction in general typically remark that it “sends the wrong message.” The message they are referring to is, “We love you and want you to be safe.”
- “As always, be transparent with participants about what you have, what you don't have, and/or what's for only special populations.”
- “Many of the harm reduction leaders interviewed talked about the importance of not having too many policies and involving your participants in the development of policies—especially those that impact them directly.”
- "We have to be ready and able to reach clients where they are, not where we want them to be”
- "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
- “One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient.”
- "If you question harm reduction works, I can’t help but wonder if you have ever actually seen what happens in these spaces. We promote health safety and dignity, and it works. It is simple, beautiful and changes peoples lives."
- We need to play that game where we require politicians to finish every sentence denouncing supervised injection facilities with the phrase, “and that is why I think injecting alone in a McDonald’s bathroom is better.”
- "There isn’t a way things should be. There’s just what happens, and what we do."
- "We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say "It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem." Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes."
- "The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma."
- “Identify five things that you can see, four things that you can touch, three things that you can hear, two things that you can smell and one thing that you can taste.”
- "Not all traumas are the result of what happened to you; some are the result of what didn’t happen for you"
- "Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone."
- "One of the problems that arises with the term “people who use drugs” is that it is intentionally pluralistic in its embrace of ALL people who use drugs—from recreationally to deeply problematically. This makes using it to talk about the things that especially impact people who are using drugs problematically very difficult. "
- “The bottom line is that overdose prevention sites — which exist in more than 100 cities around the world — offer compassion for fellow human beings,”
- “When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.”
- “In general, it is antithetical to harm reduction best practices to call the police except under the most extreme life-or-death circumstances.”