07/11/2025
At a time when evidence-based harm reduction is under scrutiny and communities are confronting the human toll of overdose, HIV, and hepatitis C, this study could not come at a more critical moment.
Tapestry Health is proud to join Brown University and our regional partners in this groundbreaking initiative that centers the health, dignity, and lived and living experience of people who use drugs. For over 50 years, Tapestry has stood at the intersection of compassion and science, providing syringe access, overdose prevention, HIV and hepatitis C testing, and holistic care across Western Massachusetts.
Our participation in this project reinforces what we know to be true: harm reduction saves lives, connects people to care, and is one of the most effective public health strategies of our time. But it also affirms that the voices and data from our communities in Western Massachusetts, often overlooked in statewide and national policy discussions, deserve to inform the future of prevention and treatment strategies.
This moment demands that we act not with fear, but with fidelity to what works. Across the country, federal harm reduction strategies face risk from funding uncertainty to ideological resistance, even as evidence continues to show their profound impact on saving lives. Through this collaboration, we have an opportunity to not only strengthen programs locally and nationally, but to also show unequivocally, that harm reduction is healthcare.” - Mavis Nimoh, CEO of Tapestry Health
https://www.brown.edu/news/2025-11-04/drug-use-hiv-treatment?fbclid=IwY2xjawN7HY9icmlkETFEYVZkVGttNVBQbWpvcUlLc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHmXjNxvK_QDfUgUH3F_LzPKiZfNm1zRro3ikvo13SxF0OjIqMCu4Met-rsal
With a focus on Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont, a project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse will analyze trends in drug use and barriers to care with the goal of strengthening treatment.
