Ashley New York Times LTE on Narcan Saving Lives in Nightclubs

“When I worked in some of New York City’s largest clubs in the early 2000s, I saw the importance of keeping Narcan on hand. At venues where we didn’t have it, people who overdosed were often sneaked out back doors and left by dumpsters until a private ambulance service arrived,” says Outreach Coordinator Ashley Lynch in a letter to the editor published today in The New York Times.

“At more proactive places that stocked Narcan and wanted employees to be trained on how to use it, overdoses were reversed inside even before paramedics arrived. It was the responsible thing to do”.

Alliance for Positive Change Statement on FDA’s Approval of OTC Narcan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 29, 2023

Contacts: Sophie Crumpacker, sophie@anatgerstein.com, 347-361-7128 // Lauren Mannerberg, lauren@anatgerstein.com, 929-553-7702

(New York, NY)- Alliance for Positive Change issued the following statement in response to today’s announcement by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to make Narcan, a medication that rapidly reverses opioid overdoses, available over the counter:

“Alliance for Positive Change applauds the Federal Drug Administration’s decision to make Narcan available without a prescription. In New York City, the overdose crisis has reached historic levels—2,668 individuals died of a drug overdose in 2021, an increase of 78 percent since 2019 and 27 percent since 2020. We know that getting this safe and easy-to-use medication into the hands of more New Yorkers will save lives.

However, people who do not have the resources to purchase Narcan will likely continue to face barriers to accessing it. We hope that over-the-counter Narcan will be covered by private and public insurance plans, and that this decision motivates local and federal leaders to invest in programs that provide free harm reduction resources in communities most impacted by the overdose crisis. At the Alliance LES Harm Reduction Center, we are proud to provide free Narcan trainings and kits to equip thousands of people to administer it in the event of an overdose. Community providers like Alliance will continue to play a critical role in providing free, culturally competent, nonjudgmental harm reduction services, including Narcan.

Finally, Narcan is just one tool in a suite of harm reduction options that are often misunderstood or stigmatized. We hope this decision will lead to expanded access to other evidence-based interventions, like fentanyl test strips and syringe exchanges.”

About Alliance for Positive Change

Alliance for Positive Change is a leading multiservice organization that provides low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic conditions with access to quality health care, housing, harm reduction, coaching, and our renowned peer training and job placement program that cultivates leadership and economic mobility. Alliance opened in 1991, at the height of the HIV crisis—a welcoming community of transformation and opportunity. Today, we deliver on the promise of Positive Change with services and resources that equip people to navigate systemic inequities and achieve health and well-being. Learn about all the ways we inspire Positive Change at www.alliance.nyc.

Honoring Transgender Awareness Week: Spotlight on Alliance’s Lexii Foxx

“I’ve been doing prevention training since way before I knew it was called that,” says Lexii Foxx, a Peer intern with Alliance for Positive Change. Lexii credits her intersectionality and personal journey with making her a strong ally for New Yorkers in need.

“Sometimes it’s just really hard for transwomen to feel they’re being understood. I’m black, queer, and trans, so that’s a lot of intersectionality,” Lexii says. Her identity makes her an authentic voice as she provides help to a plethora of New Yorkers. At Alliance, Lexii works with almost 30 people a week, while also helping co-facilitate women’s groups at Alliance.

Growing up in a conservative town in North Carolina, Lexii notes, “My family loved me, but was literally embarrassed to have me be around at family events.”

She knew she was a woman from a young age. She dropped out of high school to live in a small house with dozens of friends she met at a drag show. They called themselves the “Chanelles/Thug Misses,” and worked as escorts for survival.

Lexii lived in dozens of states in her teens and twenties, working as a model and a sex worker, all while teaching her friends about safer sex.

Transgender Awareness Week is a week when transgender people and their allies take action to bring attention to the community by educating the public about who transgender people are, sharing their stories and experiences, and advancing advocacy around the issues of prejudice, discrimination, and violence that affect the transgender community. For Lexii, this means “educating children on who LGBTQ+ people are, and breaking that generational stigma.”

“I believe you have to start at the root, which is our kids, and help young trans kids out, make them confident in their true selves. And if they want to transition young, make it easier for them.”

It also means decriminalizing sex work, which makes transgender women disproportionate targets of violence. 2021 is already the deadliest year on record for transgender people in America, with 45 reported murders, according to the Human Rights Campaign, disproportionately amongst Black and Latinx people.

Decriminalizing sex work is also a barrier to services. “Being a sex worker helped me reach out to other sex workers, helping them get tested, use condoms, and get access to counseling,” Lexii says.

Lexii was involved in helping people before she joined Alliance, but says that “Alliance is the best thing that has happened for me. I feel like I am a confident woman walking out the door to start every day because of Alliance.”

Lexii started working with Alliance when she was referred from the Peer program.

Lexii Foxx

“She’s amazing, and she’s going to do amazing work,” says Malika Minott, Prevention Assistant Manager at Alliance, and also a graduate of Alliance’s PATH to Jobs peer-training program. “Lexii opened herself up to our work and participated in workshops, trainings, and now, she does wellness checks, reminder calls, therapeutic check-ins, and really invests in people’s lives as a Peer.”

Working for leaders like Malika at Alliance has fueled and refreshed Lexii, and allowed her to be a shining star and public health educator. “I’ve noticed that everyone at Alliance goes the extra mile for their clients,” Lexii says. “I feel like I’ve found family here.”

Transgender awareness is essential to Lexii because people who don’t know openly trans people “are afraid of us, or have a stigma against us due to negative media, TV shows, and movies that make a mockery of us. The fact is, we are human and we deserve to coexist in life.”

To Lexii, it’s not just on members of the LGBTQ+ community to support transgender people. “Cisgender people who have platforms should offer them to us and help with job readiness. Help us have the same opportunities as anyone else,” she says.

Transgender Awareness Week takes place from November 13-19, leading up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, a day to memorialize those who have been killed as a result of transphobia. Please join Alliance in our efforts to support and honor those lost on this day and throughout the year.

WABC Radio: Al Ostapeck on this year’s International Overdose Awareness Day

On the eve of International Awareness Day, Assistant Manager of Harm Reduction at Alliance LES Harm Reduction Center Al Ostapeck spoke to WABC Radio’s Dominic Carter. Dominic shared very moving, personal stories and Al discussed the importance of in-person harm reduction services that connect people to services that start with—but go far beyond—harm reduction.

As Al said, “We all fall down in life, do you get back up?” Since 1990, Alliance has helped New Yorkers living with HIV and other chronic health conditions get back up.

WFUV Cityscape features Alliance’s Floyd Mitchell

Alliance harm reduction coordinator Floyd Mitchell spoke with WFUV’s Cityscape about the surge in opioid use, and how Alliance’s work has become even more vital. While social distance requirements have made it difficult to keep some program participants involved on a path to positive change, Floyd and his colleagues are adapting to ensure we keep promoting positive change.

Alliance’s Floyd Mitchell in Gotham Gazette

“I know what it’s like to be on the front lines of an infectious disease,” Floyd Mitchell, a harm reduction counselor at Alliance for Positive Change writes for the Gotham Gazette. “This time, it’s the twin tragedy of the dramatic rise in overdose deaths amid the pandemic due to the anxiety and isolation of life during lockdown.”

Beginning his career in harm reduction at the height of the HIV epidemic in the 1980’s, Floyd has seen it all, and understands the measures we must all take to support our neighbors battling substance use in these difficult times.