Harm Reduction Action Center (HRAC)

HRAC also provides services including sterile syringes, tourniquets, alcohol wipes, tubes of sterile water, metal heroin cookers, and more to drug users to prevent the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C and to reduce the risk of fatal overdoses. ³

In 2021, HRAC signed a letter organized by the National Harm Reduction Coalition (NHRC) that opposed “enforcement-first, criminalization approach to drug policy” and claimed criminalization of drug usage has made the United States the “greatest incarcerator in the world.” ⁴

Leadership

Lisa Raville is the executive director of HRAC as of 2024. She has worked in several roles with HRAC since first joining the organization in 2009. Prior to joining HRAC, Raville was an AmeriCorps VISTA working at an AIDS-related agency. She is the secretary of the board of directors of the left-of-center Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. ⁵

Activities and Funding

Harm Reduction Action Center (HRAC) claims to be the largest health-based organization in Colorado that works with drug users ⁶ through “harm reduction,” a process it claims it meant to provide drugs and life services to users “where they are” to minimize health and social impacts associated with drug use. ^{7 8}

HRAC provides sterile syringes, tourniquets, alcohol wipes, tubes of sterile water, metal heroin cookers, and more to drug users in order of prevent the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C and to reduce the risk of fatal overdoses. ³ The group also runs mobile exchange programs to deliver supplies to drug users who cannot visit a fixed site. ⁹

Since 2002, HRAC has provided education and services for drug users that inject drugs. Beginning in 2020, smokers of crack, methamphetamine, and fentanyl have been integrated into HRAC’s services. ¹⁰

Projects

The Harm Reduction Action Center (HRAC) provides fentanyl test strips, the opioid overdose-reversal drug Naloxone, and overdose-prevention information to its enrolled participants. ² The group opposes Denver Ordinance Sec. 24-157, which prohibits “needle exchange programs” within 1,000 feet of any elementary and/or secondary school.” ¹¹

HRAC has received funding and opioid-reversal drugs from the State of Colorado. ¹² It also runs the Syringe Access table, a project that manages a list of locations for various injection sits across the nation, which provides syringes to participants and promotes other services such as Medicaid enrollment and overdose-reversal medication Narcan training. ^{9 13}

As of December 2024, HRAC has a pending contract with the City of Denver to purchase a permanent facility and provide its services to at least 4,000 drug users per year. ^{10 14} In 2023, HRAC director Lisa Raville opposed the Colorado legislature’s decision not to approve supervised drug-use sites across the state. ¹⁵

In 2021, HRAC signed a letter from the National Harm Reduction Coalition (NHRC) that claimed the “enforcement-first, criminalization approach to drug policy” and the criminalization of drugs has made the United States the “greatest incarcerator in the world.” ⁴

HRAC has produced drug exemption cards to make members of its program exempt from Colorado drug paraphernalia laws. ¹⁶ It also sells t-shirts and other clothing that calls for an end to the war on drugs, says “you can’t overdose by touching fentanyl,” “uprooting the drug war,” “harm reduction means life,” and that “I love people who use drugs.” ¹⁷

According to a 2020 report published by the government of Denver, Colorado, Colorado Nonprofit Development Center (CNDC) has done business as the Harm Reduction Action Center for some projects. ¹⁸

Anti-Racism Activism

Harm Reduction Action Center (HRAC) claims to support anti-racism action plans with its goals and vision centered around Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) throughout its platform, website, contractual agreements, and grant proposals. ¹⁹

HRAC claims to prioritize a “diverse applicant pool,” or the process of hiring staff, volunteer and internships specifically from minority pool of applicants. In its hiring process, HRAC claims to includes questions to assess individuals’ “racial equity lens” and understanding the “social determinants of health and racial equity.” ¹⁹

The organization has also claimed to promote visual representation of minorities in its materials. According to its website, this includes highlighting ethnic minority, Spanish-speaking, and immigrant drug users; staffing public-facing roles with ethnic minority workers; and actively seeking ethnic minority partnerships, affiliates, and leadership. ¹⁹

HRAC focuses its resources on majority-minority communities, prioritizes the concept of racial equity infrastructure and practice, prioritizes opportunities by grantors who “display equitable principles,” and hosts racial-equity orientation processes for its staff. ¹⁹

Funding

Harm Reduction Action Center is a project of the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center (CNDC). ¹  In 2022, Harm Reduction Action Center received $1,686,676 from CNDC for its operations. ¹

HRAC received $1,499,745 from CNDC in 2021 ²⁰ and $1,285,850 from CNDC in 2020 for its operations. ²¹

Since 2017, HRAC has received additional funding from the Bachmann Strauss Family Fund, Caring for Denver Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, Drug Policy Alliance, Edwards Lifesciences Foundation, For The Girls, the Oscar G and Elsa S Mayer Family Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, ²² the Marigold Project, ²³ and the M A C AIDS Fund. ²⁴