Five days a week four volunteers pile into an old moving truck in an effort to supply active drug users with harm reduction services in various parts of Austin. The non-profit organization in charge of providing the resources needed is called the Austin Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC). “Harm reduction services” is jargon. Translate this for us. What do they provide? Clean needles and other equipment so that drug users who won’t quit have a better chance of being protected against HIV.” You really want to avoid jargon whenever you can.
Good that you did a map, but we need a caption .What is the map showing us? Don’t assume the reader knows. I also would not plunk it in the emiddle of the story. I’d put it at the end.
Inside the truck, which The truck is painted all-white and has no without a logo of any kind,. Inside, there is a there’s a table that contains the many supplies AHRC avoid the acronym who does the administering? Volunteers? administer for free. Each item is intended to promote safe sex and safer injection and smoking practices for people living with an addiction.
While some of the items offered can be found at a local drugstore, such as condoms or rubbing alcohol pads, volunteers make others, or donate them. others are either made by volunteers or donated. AHRC Volunteers? Staffers? offers pouches of saline or sterile water, depending on a person’s preference for making a solution with the substance, as well as tiny cotton balls. what solution? what substance? Remember, we’re not IV drug users so we don’t know what you’re talking about. Slow down and explain. This is for shooting, right?
Mouth pieces are also available.They that act as a filter and protect against any sharp edges that may be on a pipe. Using non-dispensing metal bottle caps and twist ties, volunteers make ‘cookers,’ in which one Drug users apply applies heat under the cap with the substance inside it , using and uses the twist tie to protect their fingers from being burned. not burn their fingers. This is for smoking crack?
Far Left: Condoms, lubricant
Top Left: Mouth pieces
Bottom Left: Cotton balls
Top Right: Cookers
Bottom Right: Saline, sterile water, and more cookers
Far Right: Rubbing alcohol and tourniquets
In the back of the truck, there are a few old car seats to accommodate those in need of wound care services or HIV and Hepatitus C testing provided by a registered nurse that is usually onsite. They also teach people with a substance disorder jargon – they teach addicts how to use Naloxone, which is an opiate antagonist – what is an “opiate antagonist”? Can’t we simply say: “it’s another drug, but one that reverses the drug overdoses and has been credited with saving how many lives? Tell us. Naloxone has been in the news a lot…. that reverses opiate drug overdoses. The hope is that addicts he or she will never be without Naloxone. The volunteer group provides addicts with two doses. Volunteers also teach others, friends or companions of the addicts, how to inject Naloxone when it’s needed. , which the volunteer group AHRC provides two doses of, and that they teach someone else how to inject it in an emergency to prevent an overdose.
“We’ve had this truck since 1998,” said Robert Love, who has been with the organization for more than 20 over twenty years. “When we first found it, it was completely covered in graffiti.” This quote is out of context. You need it right after the paragraph above, where you explain how the truck is plain and unmarked. A better quote here would be him telling us why Naloxone is so important. This is also a good place to stop and write a nut graph. Who funds this organization? How much Naloxone and other supplies does it dispense each month?year? Stop and locate the reader with some information/reporting about the scope of the drug problem in Austin.
Love is hesitant to attract too much attention from anyone who that isn’t there to use the services.
The subtlety of the truck’s appearance in addition to the fact that AHRC volunteers go to the same areas each week. This way, addicts can find them. goes to the same areas each week allows it to be easy to find for those that rely on the services, but still remain somewhat elusive.
James Walker, AHRC coordinator, said revealed that one major bone of contention is the fact that people can drop off used needles in return for new ones. Whose “bone of contention” is this? You need to help us out here. Is this legal or illegal? Does the city require training or a permit? Does any health org? What does functioning within a gray area of the law mean?
“The police are not a monolithic entity. Policies and opinions vary greatly,” Walker said. “But we function in a sort of gray area within the law.”
While the mobile outreach program itself doesn’t do anything illegal, Each used needle has the potential to be considered a different possession charge. Every two weeks or so, a medical waste company picks up used needles from the organization’s office in east Austin.
Used needles in the AHRC truck
“Being out here every day means refraining from judgement. Harm reduction is seat belts on cars, sexual education, and clean needles,” Walker said. continues, “Everyone that uses drugs is a community member and what we provide is a service for the community.”
For one volunteer named Lynden Martens, having such a service here in Austin sheds light on the fact that not every user is given the same education and resources AHRC provides.
“I have a really good friend who uses and it would help her a lot to have something like a mobile outreach program,” Martins said. “But recognizing the problem is all part of the process of treating addiction like the understated epidemic that it is.” Again, what are the statistics? Where would you research this, do you think?
Even when a city has a needle exchange, it may not operate the same way as AHRC. According to Martins, there are plenty of ‘underground’ needle exchanges in Texas that unlike AHRC, do not have a website or nearly as public an image. R
People are given the choice to remain anonymous other than their demographic for grant purposes Who allows these groups to “remain anonymous? The passive voice obscures your reporting. Other than grants and fundraisers, AHRC gets support from local businesses. One such place is Texas City Thrift, which provides educational brochures about Hepatitis C, condoms, and lubricant.
Josh Leibowitz, the treasurer for the organization, takes note of the increase in awareness.
“There’s definitely been a climate change in terms of national discourse,” Josh Leibowitz said. “People are finally starting to care.”
October 20, 2016 at 11:36 pm
Sarah, you really have a potentially very very good story here. You need to bear down and do more reporting – get stats on drugs in Austin and in Texas. Tell us exactly how these needle exchange-type programs work. This one is obviously licenses or recognized in some way, but by whom or what? The State Health Dept? City Health Dept? Where are the addicts? It’s great that you got such terrific access to the staffers/volunteers (?) with this group, but you can’t write a story about drug addiction without interviewing drug addicts. Did you go along on any of the days they were working? Were you able to talk to the people they help? I’ve also made some suggestions/comments in the story itself. Generally, journalistic style means short, direct sentences and paragraphs written in the active voice. Using the passive voice obscures the actor (we don’t know how policies get made or who makes them when we write n the passive voice). If you wanted to dig deeper and revise this story, I would love to see it in Hilltop Views. Nice work on an important story, but it needs more reporting.