In partnership with Vital Strategies and the Patricia Kind Family Foundation, the Scattergood Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of the Community Health Capacity Initiative (CHCI), a new $440,000+ investment in strengthening grassroots harm reduction organizations across Pennsylvania.
Harm reduction organizations provide critical, community-based services to people who use drugs, often while operating with limited resources and responding to complex needs. CHCI recognizes that sustaining this work requires investing not only in programs and services, but also in the organizations and people that make them possible.
CHCI pairs flexible grant funding with individualized capacity-building support. Participating organizations will identify their own priorities and receive tailored coaching, training, and technical assistance to strengthen areas such as leadership, operations, fundraising, communications, and long-term sustainability.
Capacity-building support will be coordinated by the Public Health Impact Hub at the University of Pennsylvania, which works with public health and community-based organizations to strengthen the skills, systems, and infrastructure needed to advance their missions. The Impact Hub will work directly with each CHCI organization to assess its strengths and needs and develop an individualized capacity-building plan.
Through CHCI, we aim to strengthen not only individual organizations, but also the broader harm reduction ecosystem across Pennsylvania by creating opportunities for organizations to learn from one another, build connections, and identify shared challenges and opportunities.
We are excited to welcome the CHCI cohort, representing organizations working in communities across Pennsylvania:
FAVOR Western PA — Westmoreland County
FAVOR Western PA empowers individuals and families affected by substance and alcohol use disorders through peer-led recovery support, stigma reduction, and community-based services that expand pathways to recovery.
Lancaster Harm Reduction Project — Lancaster, PA
Lancaster Harm Reduction Project provides supplies, information, and services that reduce harms associated with drug use while connecting individuals who want to reduce or stop their drug use with appropriate treatment and support.
North Philly Project — Philadelphia, PA
North Philly Project works to improve wellness in underserved and marginalized communities by connecting residents to resources, opportunity, and hope, with a focus on harm reduction education and addressing longstanding racial and health disparities related to substance use.
Operation in My Backyard — Philadelphia, PA
Operation in My Backyard provides outreach, education, and advocacy for people impacted by substance use disorders, including weekly outreach in Kensington offering safer-use supplies, meals, hygiene products, basic necessities, and connections to health care and treatment.
PA Groundhogs — Statewide, Pennsylvania
PA Groundhogs provides no-to-low-cost drug checking services and technology designed to identify emerging substances and reduce public health risks associated with Pennsylvania’s changing illicit drug supply.
PA Harm Reduction Network (PAHRN) — Statewide, Pennsylvania
PAHRN advances harm reduction as a cornerstone of public health through advocacy, education, training, technical assistance, and resources for service providers, community organizations, and policymakers across Pennsylvania.
Project SAFE — Philadelphia, PA
Project SAFE is a grassroots, peer-based harm reduction collective organizing with and providing services to women, queer, and trans individuals, particularly people living and working in Kensington’s street economies.
South Philly Punks with Lunch — Philadelphia, PA
South Philly Punks with Lunch is a grassroots, volunteer-led organization providing low-barrier access to food, safer-use supplies, medical and survival resources, overdose prevention education, and mutual aid through street-based outreach in South Philadelphia.
The Everywhere Project — Philadelphia, PA
The Everywhere Project expands access to harm reduction resources and education, including food, clothing, safer-use supplies, naloxone and overdose reversal training, fentanyl test strips, and community outreach in Center City and Kensington.
Additional organizations may join the initiative at a later date.
By investing in these organizations as partners and recognizing the expertise, relationships, and leadership they already bring to their communities, CHCI aims to strengthen not only individual organizations, but the broader harm reduction ecosystem across Pennsylvania.
We look forward to sharing more about the participating organizations, what they learn through the initiative, and how this work can inform future investments in a strong, sustainable, community-led harm reduction field.