Leading Trans Organizations Provide One Year of Free Gender-Affirming Care for Black Trans Lives

Four of the country’s leading trans-founded and trans-led organizations, Plume, YouAreEssential, For The Gworls, and Point of Pride, announce the first grantees of the HRT Access Fund, a first-of-its-kind effort created in July 2020 to provide gender-affirming care for trans folks in need. The fund has so far raised $50,000 in its initial round—the largest amount ever raised for gender-affirming hormone therapy—all of which will go to support Black trans lives, some of the most vulnerable within the trans community.

Twenty-three Black trans recipients will receive one year of free gender-affirming hormone therapy from Plume, which includes personal consultations, lab monitoring, letters of support, and home delivery of their hormone medications. Prescriptions and travel vouchers for lab appointments will be distributed and covered by the HRT Access Fund.

“Thanks to many generous donors, including the cornerstone donor, For the Gworls, this is the largest amount of funding ever raised for gender-affirming care and it was led by Black trans organizations,” says Soltan Bryce, head of growth at Plume. “It’s a testament to how far the trans community has come in raising awareness around life-saving hormone therapy, especially for those within the Black trans community, who are particularly vulnerable to inadequate resources and limited access to care.”

Research has shown that gender-affirming care saves lives and is a medical necessity, yet, due to cost and access barriers, many trans people cannot access the life-saving hormone therapy they need. The barriers to care are proportionally higher for Black trans individuals who are reported to experience greater levels of discrimination, unemployment, and homelessness than their white trans counterparts.

“We created this fund to save lives and in six months we’re already making a profound impact within the Black trans community,” says Ashlee Marie Preston, founder of YouAreEssential. “We still have a long way to go in breaking down the systemic racial and antitransgender barriers that affect our Black trans communities, but I’m encouraged by the immense support we’ve already received through the HRT Access Fund. I look forward to continued efforts aimed at providing critical care for our trans siblings in need.”

— Source: Plume

Grant Program to Focus on Harm Reduction

RIZE Massachusetts, an independent nonprofit foundation working to end the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts, announces the creation of the Harm Reduction Training (HaRT) Scholars program and $250,000 in grant support for Master of Social Work degree programs at Boston College, Bridgewater State University, and Simmons University.

The specialized internship program—the first of its kind in the country—will develop a pipeline of social workers who are trained in harm reduction, a clinical approach to preventing deaths and improving care for people suffering from opioid use disorder. The two-year grant program will support paid internships and specialized training for a total of 32 HaRT Scholars at the three schools. The model has the potential to be scaled and replicated nationally.

“Harm reduction, much like opioid use disorder itself, is often stigmatized by people who are unfamiliar with its scope and the evidence that demonstrates its positive, life-saving impact,” says Julie Burns, president and CEO of RIZE Massachusetts. “We are pleased to partner with these three outstanding schools of social work as they incorporate harm reduction education and training into their curricula for the next generation of social workers who will serve on the front lines of the opioid epidemic.”

“Social workers are on the front lines of fighting the opioid epidemic, and the HaRT Scholars program is a meaningful way to empower them to offer more pathways to treatment and recovery,” says Massachusetts Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders. “This is another important step for the Commonwealth in providing compassionate, integrated behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment for our residents who need it.”

Harm reduction is an approach that focuses on reducing the negative consequences of drug use and supporting individuals in embracing any positive change in their lives and health. The interventions can include a range of services such as syringe exchange, overdose education, naloxone distribution, and drug checking. Harm reduction itself should not be seen as a way to end opioid use, but rather as a survival plan that keeps people alive and safe until they decide to move onto a clinical treatment phase, and then hopefully, onto full recovery.

“Our organization is in strong support of the HaRT Scholars program,” says Rebekah Gewirtz, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers Massachusetts Chapter. “RIZE has set a precedent to better educate social workers in harm reduction, and the field will benefit from this forward-thinking, innovative approach. These three exceptional learning institutions will better prepare their graduate students with the harm reduction skills essential to promoting the value of client and community self-determination.”

Harm reduction services, especially when integrated with access to clinical addiction treatment programs, can prevent death and improve care for people living with opioid use disorder. Additionally, findings from RIZE’s Enabling Health: Enhancing Harm Reduction and Saving Lives grant program identified a need to augment harm reduction services throughout the substance use disorder continuum, but found that many providers, including social workers, do not receive the proper training and specialized education for utilizing harm reduction approaches in their practice.

“We are so excited about being a RIZE grant recipient. This is a ‘win’ for our public university, our students, faculty, and agencies,” says Carol E. Bonner, associate dean of Bridgewater State University’s School of Social Work. “The need for better trained social work professionals in harm reduction and other substance use disorder practices has been a longstanding issue. Bravo to RIZE for supporting students and agencies through this unique, rich, and timely opportunity to enhance competence in the practice of our graduates.”

The HaRT Scholars program will increase the clinical presence at harm reduction organizations to improve linkages to behavioral health and medical treatment. In order to increase the presence of racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse social workers in the work of harm reduction, each participating university will specifically promote internships to Black, Indigenous, and people of color students.

— Source: RIZE Massachusetts

George C. McFarland, MSW, Joins Evon Medics as Advisor

Evon Medics announces community engagement and social work consultant George C. McFarland, MSW, has joined the advisory board of the company in a formal advisory role. McFarland is currently the president and CEO of McFarland & Associates, a management consulting firm established in Montgomery County, MD, in 1989.

“Mr. McFarland's network and experience working with numerous federal, state, and community organizations throughout the United States to improve the quality of life in communities affected by health and social determined risks would be valuable to Evon Medics as we continue to engage these underserved populations in our clinical trials,” says Charles Nwaokobia, chief operating officer of Evon Medics. “We are also excited about the opportunity to leverage his wealth of experience managing over $100 million in grants and contracts to promote health and human development.”

McFarland holds both BA and Master of Social Work degrees from Howard University with an emphasis on social policy, economics, and research. Over the past three decades, McFarland & Associates has served as both a prime contractor and subcontractor to many of the nation’s foremost research and service firms throughout the United States. McFarland is a graduate of the United States Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Program designed to foster minority business ownership and growth. He is also a graduate of Leadership Maryland, a statewide leadership training institute that brings together a collaboration of business leaders and practitioners to help solve problems unique to the state of Maryland. For more than 25 years, McFarland has served on the Board of Directors for So Others Might Eat, a local homeless organization that provides shelter, food, education, and training to more than 13,000 residents of the District of Columbia annually.

Evon Medics is a Maryland-based medical devices and neuroscience research company founded in April 2013 by Johns Hopkins–trained physicians. The company develops therapeutics and devices for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, opioid use disorder, traumatic brain injury, chronic pain, and other chronic neurological diseases that have remained elusive to treatment.

— Source: Evon Medics