Editorial Pieces from the Bridge Beyond Team
Prevention Point provides sterile syringes for Philadelphia community
September 16th, 2022
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Written by Jeffrey Bobb
This article was edited on 9/16 to reflect proper verbiage around individuals experiencing substance use disorders. The publishers sincerely apologize for this error.
Philadelphia Prevention Point is a harm reduction center that provides clean syringes for those in the Philadelphia community.
“Our mission is to promote health, empowerment and safety for communities affected by drug use and poverty,” said Hilary Disch, the communications coordinator at Philadelphia Prevention Point. “We want to make sure that people are empowered to make decisions for themselves. So rather than place expectations on them about where they should be on the spectrum of their drug use, we let them decide for themselves what healthier decisions look like.”
According to the Philadelphia Prevention Point website, the organization was started in 1991 to provide syringes in North Philadelphia.
“We go about our mission by providing over 20 programs,” Disch said. “We did begin as a syringe program as a response to the HIV AIDS crisis in the early 90s. But since then, we have expanded a lot.”
Philadelphia Prevention Point has provided for “nearly 25,000 individuals every year,” according to Disch. The way the program works, according to Disch, is that for one used syringe someone brings in, a sterile syringe is given. Also, Disch explained, emergency packs are given to those who do not have any used syringes.
“At this point we're bringing in more used syringes than we're distributing,” Disch said. “That’s because our participants bring them back and other organizations bring us syringes to dispose of for them. We are disposing millions of syringes and getting them off the street.”
Also, as a part of their services, Philadelphia Prevention Point provides support for sex workers. According to Disch, they provide sex workers not only sterile syringes, but also HIV testing, free condoms and safer sex supplies.
“People who engage in that work are at high risk,” Disch said. “They don’t always know if the person paying them has HIV or another infection or disease. Some sex workers have a substance use disorder. So, we believe sex work is work, and people who engage in sex work are as human as anybody else and deserve to stay safe and healthy.”
Philadelphia Prevention Point has done a great deal to help prevent the spread of diseases like AIDS by providing sterile syringes. This gives homeless people, sex workers and individuals with substance use disorders in Philadelphia the support they need.
Valley Youth House provides first LGBTQ+ youth housing in Philadelphia
June 1st, 2022
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Written by Jeffrey Bobb
The Valley Youth House is an organization located within Pennsylvania addressing the issue of
homeless adolescents.
One of the programs that is a part of the Valley Youth House organization is called the Pride
Host Homes Program. This provides homeless LGBTQ+ people from ages 18 to 25 in
Philadelphia a place to stay for up to six months, according to their websites.
“40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ+,” “55% become homeless due to family rejection,”
and “80% report being harassed due to their identity.” While family rejection and
estrangement are one of the major reasons, according to Z Cornelius, age 36, the Pride
program supervisor, it also is tied to the United States history of racial oppression.
“In Philadelphia specifically people that we help tend to be Black and Brown, mostly Black,”
Cornelius said. “And you can trace that back to the reasons for that, like disenfranchisement
and economic disenfranchisement, back to the transatlantic slave trade and colonization in
general. But the way that it is currently showing up is that people of color, specifically Black
people, have less wealth and don’t have the resources to continue to care for their children
past the minimum required by the law, so past like 18.”
Cornelius explained that the program, despite starting in March 2020, is the longest running
housing program for young LGBTQ+ people in Philadelphia.
“Within two weeks everything shut down due to COVID,” Cornelius said when discussing the
impact of COVID-19 on the program. “Didn’t get a lot of buy in from hosts. We’ve only had
three hosts sign up in the almost two years we have been doing this, and we have been
getting interest from dozens of people but only three people have gone all the way.
“And we’ve only housed four young people due to this. I do believe that if it weren’t for the
pandemic, it would have been a lot more successful a program, but because of the pandemic
it caused a lot of problems.”
In this program, LGBTQ+ people experiencing homelessness are provided a living space with
an adult, called a host, who provides resources and support, according to the Valley Youth
House website.
“Its way less involvement than foster care, but a little more involvement than Airbnb,”
Cornelius said. “Often hosts end up providing a little more support than that, so like emotional
support, food.”
To become a host, Cornelius explained, one first fills out an application, goes through a
process of background checks and is interviewed.
“After that we invite them to a three-hour training that was co-created with young people in
the development of this program which covers topics like privilege, power, and bias,”
Cornelius said on the process of becoming a host.
The organization’s first shelter was in Lehigh Valley, Pa, and now has grown into over 300
residential sites, according to the Valley Youth House website.
It has 10 independent programs and subprograms in Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties,
according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 88% of those who had
finished this program had their own housing, “64% graduated from high school or obtained a
GED, and 72% had full or part-time employment.”
It is evident that Valley Youth House has, and continues to provide essential services for
homeless adolescents. They are the first to give support to homeless LGBTQ+ people in the
Philadelphia community.