NEED needs your help!
We have run out of money to operate and are almost out of needles. Anyone who is able to, we ask that you please make a tax-deductible donation. Any amount helps.
If you'd like to help, please feel free to send a check to:
NEED- Berkeley Needle Exchange
830 University Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94710
You may also drop off cash or checks at any of our three sites, email donations@berkeleyneed.org or call 510-984-2316 for more information. A Paypal donation button will be available shortly!
All About NEED
Based in Berkeley, California, NEED (Needle Emergency Exchange Distribution) is unique among needle exchange programs because we are a volunteer-based collective. We started in September 1990 by a group of HIV+ persons, people in recovery, and health activists as an underground program operating out of a baby carriage on the corner of Hearst and San Pablo Avenues. Presently we field a staff of ten to fifteen volunteers at three sites per week in different Berkeley neighborhoods.
Currently, we operate from a blue van at three neighborhoods sites each week. We offer free, anonymous services in a client-centered manner, and we are dedicated to the prevention of infectious diseases and to improving the physical, spiritual and political health of drug users. We run a wound care clinic out of the back of our van on Thursdays, which was founded in response to client input expressing an urgent need for on-site access to simple procedures, supplies and information which could prevent painful and debilitating hospital stays, limb loss or death. Recently, we began an overdose prevention and education component to address the rising number of overdoses among injection drug users. All three of our sites offer free, anonymous Hepatitis A, B & C testing and (through a collaboration with the Berkeley Free Clinic) counseling and treatment if appropriate.
NEED SERVICES
On Thursdays, the city of Berkeley Health Department does free HIV testing in a white van across the street from our site, and all three of our sites offer free, anonymous Hepatitis testing and vaccination, through a collaboration with the Berkeley Free Clinic. We provide information and referrals for medical, housing, social support and treatment programs.
Exchange/Distribution Sites:
TUESDAYS
Time: 4-6pm
Location: Long Haul Infoshop
3124 Shattuck Ave. @ Woolsey St. (2 blocks east of Ashby Ave.)
Additional Services:
* Overdose prevention training
THURSDAYS
Time: 6-8pm
Location: Hearst Street @ San Pablo Ave. (1 block north of University Ave.)
Additional Services:
* Overdose prevention training
* Wound care clinic
* Oral HIV testing in van across the street (run by the City of Berkeley)
SUNDAYS
Time: 6-8pm
Location: 2340 Durant Ave @ Dana (1 block west of Telegraph), across the street from the Berkeley Free Clinic
Additional Services:
* Overdose prevention training
* HIV testing at the Berkeley Free Clinic: 5-7pm
* Hepatitis testing & vaccinations
Numbers
In an average week NEED exchanges 11,834 syringes per week with 49 persons. However, there still is a commonly reported fear by clients of being targeted by police while traveling to or from an exchange site. The result is that at least 60% of clients served by NEED are “secondary exchangers,” or individuals who come and exchange syringes for themselves and others who are unable to come to site. According to a NEED client input survey, made possible by the California Endowment (2004), our average participant exchanges syringes for 5 other persons, meaning NEED actually serves closer to 245 people in an average week. We have been able use secondary exchange as an effective way to reach out to communities which were previously inaccessible to harm reduction efforts. Aggregate utilization data show that NEED exchanges over 600,000 syringes annually!
HIV in Berkeley: With an incidence of 29.6 cases per 100,000 population for a three-year average, Berkeley has reported AIDS rates higher than either Alameda County (27.7/100,000) or California (22.1/100,000). While Berkeley has 7.7% of the total Alameda County population, 10% of AIDS cases reside in Berkeley. Berkeley was second only to Oakland in the number of people reported with AIDS in the major cities of Alameda County. Intravenous drug users comprise over 25% if living AIDS cases and comprise over 20% of new HIV infections in Berkeley.
NEED Now and Then — A Timeline
* September 1990: Needle Exchange in Berkeley starts
* July 4, 1991: Berkeley P.D. arrest NEED volunteers
* 1992: NEED members acquitted on needle exchange charges
* 1992: City of Berkeley begins partial funding
* 1994: NEED abandons limits on exchanges
* 1995: NEED starts second site in Southside
* 1996: Pete Wilson vetoes exchange bills for 3rd time
* 1997: NEED begins home delivery & 3rd site
* 1998: NEED/HRC puts on hepatitis and wound care forums
* 1999: Really Cool NEED van purchased
* 2000: Wound Care Clinic created and begun in NEED van
* 2000: Legislature legalizes needle exchange
* 2001: Initiated overdose prevention and response education project
* 2004: Funding levels fall below cost of supplies
* 2005: Funding level remains flat, demand for services and costs rise
* 2007: NEED receives a 3-year, $75,000/year grant from the State Office of AIDS for new program funding.
* June 2008: State Office of AIDS funding has not been released to NEED. The organization has run out of money and have very few needles left to operate. NEED asks community members to help them continue to provide services while awaiting delayed funding.
