As part of its comprehensive approach on opioid awareness, the Long Beach Health Department is hosting a series of free educational workshops with a focus on harm reduction and public safety training.
The Department’s Harm Reduction Program will host free workshops from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Main Health Facility (2525 Grand Ave.) on the following Saturdays: Aug. 16, Sept. 13 and Oct. 11.
The curriculum for each workshop will be the same, with each event offering a comprehensive look of the opioid crisis in Long Beach, an introduction to harm reduction principles and guidance on how to administer Narcan and use fentanyl test strips.
Attendees will be granted access to free Narcan, fentanyl test strips and educational items, and can receive additional resources through Health Department staff. Those who are interested in attending are encouraged to register online, though it is not required to attend.
Harm reduction principles offer a more preventative way to address drug use by reducing negative consequences while analyzing the risks associated with drug use through education, resources and practical tools.
The workshops and harm reduction materials are funded through California Opioid Settlements, which provides financial support for cities and counties to address the opioid crisis.
In March, the City began its Youth Opioid Awareness Campaign to empower local youth (ages 14-24) to explore multimedia storytelling workshops centered on opioid awareness education through October. The following month, the City released its inaugural Opioid Overdose Report, a statistical deep dive into opioid-related overdoses and deaths in Long Beach from 2018 to 2022.
To learn more about the Harm Reduction Program and to explore upcoming events, visit longbeach.gov/harmreduction.
