On Friday and Saturday, OSI’s Addiction and Health Equity program held the first of its Advocacy and Leadership training sessions, intended to help build the field of advocates around the state and increase the representation of people with lived experience with addiction in policy conversations.
The training, held in Frederick, Maryland, included a welcome from Scott Nolen, director of OSI’s Addiction and Health Equity program (pictured), a keynote address from Robert Childs of the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, and sessions on The War on Drugs – History and Ongoing Effects, The Science of Substance Use and Effective Treatments, Increasing Access to Treatment, An Introduction to Harm Reduction, and Advocacy ABCs.
Among the OSI-Baltimore grantees presenting were Rajani Gudlavalleti and Harriet Smith from the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition, Ellen Weber of the Legal Action Center, and Nancy Rosen-Cohen and Susan Pompa of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency – Maryland, along with OSI-Baltimore staff and Dr. Maggie Sweeney of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The next training will be held in Easton, Maryland on Dec. 6 and 7. If you are interested in participating, apply here.