Mission Statement

  The Vermont Harm Reduction Coalition (VHRC) is committed to reducing behavioral and drug-related harm among individuals and communities by initiating and promoting harm reduction education, training, resources, and community organizing throughout the state.  VHRC seeks to empower consumers, clients, and providers by fostering alternative models to traditional treatment.

  The Vermont Harm Reduction Coalition is an advocacy group that believes in every individuals right to health and well being as well as the competency to protect and help themselves, their loved ones, and their communities.

 We neither condone nor condemn drug use.

    May 6, 2000

The Vermont Harm Reduction Coalition is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing drug related harm among all people.  We will provide education and prevention programs for drug users, those suffering from drug addiction and/or Hepatitis, HIV  and AIDS.

It is our purpose and intent to provide drug users with as many treatment options as possible.  This will empower the patient to make informed decisions and participate responsibly and fully in the treatment of his/her own choice and to aid in the healing process.

It is not the intent of The Vermont Harm Reduction Coalition to support any one idea or ideology.  It is our intent to provide up to date and relevant information so the individual can make an informed decision on their own account for their own well-being. 

VHRC will embrace all public health policies and strategies aimed at helping drug users reduce the harm they do to themselves and to others.  Our ideology is based on a philosophy of compassion and respect for the individual.

We feel that any reduction in harm is a step in the right direction. Quality of life and well-being are criteria for measuring success not reduction in the consumption of drugs.

Drug policies (including counseling and other social services) must be pragmatic, realistic, informed by and relevant to the individuals and communities most affected by drug-related harm. Harm reduction practice involves a prioritization of goals, in which immediate and realizable goals take priority when dealing with users who cannot be realistically expected to cease their drug use in the near future (for whatever reason), but it does not conflict with an eventual goal of abstention. It is simply neutral regarding the long-term goal of intervention.

Harm reduction interventions are non-directive and involve a collaboration and exchange of ideas between the participant and the service provider. The agenda belongs to the participant. The service provider facilitates the agenda with the participant; she or he does not implement it upon the participant. Harm reduction recognizes that behavior change is a multi-stage process that is not necessarily linear.

Harm reduction interventions view the participant as capable of taking a greater degree of control in their own lives. It praises even the smallest accomplishment toward self-efficacy and validates the participant's current attempts. It prioritizes the remaining risks and points toward realistic steps to achieve the participant's goals.

Harm reduction strategies are as varied as the mechanisms which contribute to drug-related harm.

Harm reduction practice means bringing services to where people are at, as well as increasing access to services by reducing impediments such as bureaucracy, location and hours.

Participants must be incorporated in the planning and evaluation of services and programs. Peer educators and participant self-organization should be given support, training and technical assistance.

The Vermont Harm Reduction Coalition
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