Wow, what an AWESOME school year! Can you believe that we’re already heading into July? I feel like it was just yesterday that our team was planning our “back to school” schedule and getting prepared for our bookings from ALL over BC. To say the least, NaloxHome has had some (well, a lot of) success this school year. We’ve made relationships with new school districts (hi, SD40, SD42, SD41, and more!), we’ve grown our team, we’ve won some NIIICE funding, and we’ve reached countless young adults with naloxone training. Unfortunately, these “successes” really just point to the sad reality that there is a dire need for our services. In a time where BC’s leading cause of death for people aged 10-59 is drug poisoning, you would expect that overdose prevention, recognition and response would be smack in the middle of our high-school curriculum. Shockingly, it’s not even there at all!

On to the impact: DRUM ROLL PLEASE…. we have now reached 16,000 BC youth with our workshops! That’s a whole lot of young people. I like to think that each of those 16,000 youth are now holders of this lifesaving knowledge, and they have the potential to tell a friend, who will tell a friend, who will tell a friend, and so on. Ripples, hey?

Imagine this: The only thing that one of the students (Kai) really learned in their NaloxHome presentation was that one of the symptoms of overdose was blue-ish-toned fingernails in light skinned individuals. Maybe they tuned the rest out. Now cut to grad camping, when Kai and all of their friends go off-the-grid to celebrate the end of grade 12. They didn’t realize it, but one of their friends (Joey) brought a drug they purchased. Everyone thought Joey was napping and snoring, but Kai went over to check on them. They noticed Joey’s blue finger tips, and remembered NaloxHome’s presentation. Another one of these students (Blake) also got a NaloxHome presentation in their class, and they learned about the importance of carrying naloxone. Together, these Kai and Blake a) recognize Joeys overdose, b) called 911, and c) used naloxone, saving Joey’s life.

Really, the situations like these are endless. There is such power in knowledge. Especially when this knowledge is translated in a youth-to-youth, accessible format. Personally, I don’t think there should be any barriers in accessing harm reduction or health promotion education. Radical, I know.

Teachers — if you are looking to have us in your classrooms for the 2024-25 school year, reach out! Click that box in the top right corner that says “CONTACT US” and my lovely admin staff will get back to you right away.

And as I reflect on the success we’ve had in the last school year, I really just reflect on the “why” behind this whole thing. It’s our friends like Harley Cartwright, Reese Mueller, Logan Williams, Sidney McIntyre Starko, and so many more who give us the momentum to keep our relentless, trailblazing drug education and naloxone training going. If proper drug education and naloxone training had existed in the BC Curriculum since the time the overdose crisis was declared, there would be no need for us — and our aforementioned friends could be alive. Every overdose death is a policy failure.

Stay safe, carry naloxone, practice compassion.

Chloe