The SOAR Initiative

New funding requirements and regulations are changing what harm reduction organizations can purchase with grant dollars, but they are not changing what our community needs.

At The SOAR Initiative, we are committed to continuing to provide people with the tools they need to stay alive and make informed decisions about their health. That includes drug-checking test strips, safe-use supplies, wound care supplies, hygiene items, food, water, and other basic necessities that some funding sources will no longer allow us to purchase.
The need did not disappear because a funding rule changed.

People who use drugs still deserve safety, autonomy, dignity, and respect. They still deserve access to information about what may be in the drug supply. They still deserve supplies that reduce infection, prevent overdose, and help keep them alive.

We refuse to abandon people simply because the things they need are no longer considered an allowable expense. That means we need our community more than ever.

Donations to SOAR help us purchase the supplies that restricted funding cannot cover. Every dollar of unrestricted funding gives us the ability to respond to what people actually need, not just what a grant says we are allowed to provide.

Harm reduction saves lives. Direct services save lives. When funding restrictions create gaps, we will continue doing everything we can to fill them.

People cannot recover, heal, reconnect, or simply live another day if they are dead.

Please consider donating to The SOAR Initiative and helping us keep people alive.
You can also donate by clicking this link

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=77VZ67ASJ2QVY

People who use drugs have basic human rights. Full stop.

People who use drugs are part of our families, our communities, and our society. Their lives matter. Their dignity matters. Their autonomy matters. They deserve healthcare, housing, safety, compassion, and the right to exist without being criminalized, dehumanized, or discarded.

S*x workers do not need to be “saved” or “rescued.” They need rights. They need safety. They need autonomy. They deserve the same basic human rights as everyone else.

And let’s be very clear about direct services: when harm reduction programs are stripped away, people do not suddenly stop using drugs. They lose access to naloxone, sterile supplies, wound care, testing supplies, food, water, connection, and people who will show up for them without judgment.

When we stop providing direct services, people die.

Human rights are not something people earn through sobriety, abstinence, employment, respectability, or compliance.

They are human rights because people are human.

Safety. Outreach. Autonomy. Respect.

That is the work and we will not apologize for doing it.

*xWorkerRights *xWorkIsWork *xWork

A message from The SOAR Initiative:

The SOAR Initiative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

That means we do not endorse or oppose political candidates or political parties, and we do not use SOAR to campaign for anyone running for office.

What it does NOT mean is that we have to be quiet.

We can advocate. We can organize. We can show up at public meetings. We can call out harmful policies. We can educate elected officials. We can demand better systems. We can speak loudly about the decisions that impact people who use drugs, people in recovery, people experiencing homelessness, and every community we serve.

And we will.

Our staff, board members, volunteers, and supporters are individuals with their own political beliefs. They are allowed to vote, protest, organize, support candidates, and participate in politics in their personal lives. Their personal political views do not automatically represent The SOAR Initiative.

SOAR is nonpartisan.

We are not neutral.

We will never be neutral about policies that increase overdose deaths.

We will never be neutral about people being denied healthcare, housing, dignity, or basic human rights.

We will never be neutral when people who use drugs are criminalized, dehumanized, abandoned, or treated as disposable.

Our loyalty is not to a political party.

Our loyalty is to people.

Our name says exactly what we stand for:

Safety. Outreach. Autonomy. Respect.

Safety means keeping people alive.

Outreach means meeting people where they are.

Autonomy means respecting people’s right to make decisions about their own lives and bodies.

Respect means recognizing the humanity and dignity of every single person we serve.

Those values do not change depending on who is in office, what political party is in power, or whether speaking up makes someone uncomfortable.

Being a 501(c)(3) does not require silence, cowardice, or looking the other way while harmful policies hurt the people we serve.

We know the difference between partisan politics and advocacy.

And we will not allow anyone to weaponize our nonprofit status as an excuse to tell us to sit down, shut up, or stop fighting for our community.

Safety. Outreach. Autonomy. Respect. Always.

Today, on International Overdose Awareness Day, we remember.

We remember our friends. Our colleagues. Our family members. Our neighbors. The people we loved and the people we served. We remember their names, their laughter, their stories, and the spaces they left behind.

At The SOAR Initiative, we believe every preventable overdose death represents a policy failure. People are not dying because we lack the tools to keep them alive. They are dying while evidence-based harm reduction remains underfunded, criminalized, stigmatized, restricted, and increasingly under attack.

Today, we gathered to honor the people we have lost along the way.

This is a somber day for us. International Overdose Awareness Day will never be one of our favorite days. There is nothing celebratory about looking around and realizing how many people should still be standing beside us.

It is a day we honor and cherish because their lives mattered.

They were more than statistics. More than an overdose. More than a substance they used. They were parents, children, siblings, partners, coworkers, advocates and friends. They were complicated, beautiful human beings who deserved the opportunity to still be here.

It hurts to watch harm reduction organizations and the work we do come under attack at a time when these services are needed so desperately. But we will not stop.

We will keep showing up.

We will keep putting naloxone into people’s hands. We will keep providing tools that help people stay safer. We will keep meeting people where they are without judgment or conditions. We will keep fighting policies that prioritize punishment over people’s lives.

We will continue doing this work in honor of every person we couldn’t bring home.

Today, we carry their names with us.

Tomorrow, we keep fighting like hell for the people who are still here.

💜 In remembrance. In grief. In love. In action.

Rontae Bass, a member of our Butler/Hamilton County outreach team, had the honor of representing The SOAR Initiative at the Overdose Awareness event at Washington Park in Cincinnati, hosted by our friends at the Addiction Services Council and the African American Engagement Workgroup.

Today, and throughout Overdose Awareness Month, we honor the people who should still be here. We remember their names, their laughter, their stories, and the lives they lived. They were loved. They mattered. They were more than the way they died.

We also refuse to separate overdose deaths from the systems and policies that have contributed to them. Decades of a racist, ableist, and classist War on Drugs have prioritized punishment, stigma, and criminalization over health, dignity, evidence, and human life.

Overdose is preventable. Every overdose death is a policy failure.

We will keep showing up. We will keep putting naloxone and harm reduction supplies directly into people’s hands. We will keep fighting stigma. We will keep demanding policies that value the lives of people who use drugs.

For those we have lost, and for those who are still here. 💜 We are holding space.

💜 SOAR ON GOOD DAY DAYTON! 💜

Our ED Tonja had the opportunity to join Good Day Dayton to talk about the work The SOAR Initiative is doing in Dayton, Montgomery County, and across Ohio to prevent overdose and keep people alive.

We talked about free naloxone, overdose prevention education, harm reduction, and making lifesaving resources accessible to the people who need them.

At SOAR, we believe something very simple: EVERY LIFE HAS VALUE. Harm reduction meets people where they are, without judgment, shame, or barriers, and gives people the tools and information they need to stay alive.

Every naloxone kit in someone’s hands is another opportunity to reverse an overdose. Every conversation about safer use is an opportunity to prevent one. And every person we keep alive has another chance at tomorrow.

Thank you to Good Day Dayton and Dayton 24/7 Now for giving SOAR the opportunity to talk about this work and helping us reach more people in our community. 💜

🎥 Watch our Good Day Dayton segment here:
https://dayton247now.com/good-day-dayton/soar-initiative-offers-free-overdose-reversal-medication-and-prevention-education

Please WATCH, SHARE, and help us spread the word. Someone in your circle may need this information today.

SOAR Initiative offers free overdose-reversal medication and prevention education DAYTON, Ohio (WKEF) -- August is Overdose Awareness Month, a time to focus on prevention, connect people with resources, and highlight tools that can help save