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Outside In (organization)

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Outside In
Formation1968
Type501(c)(3)
Registration no.EIN 93-0567549
Headquarters1132 SW 13th Avenue
Location
  • Portland, Oregon, U.S.
Executive Director
Kiku Johnson[1]
Budget (2018)
about $12 million[2]
Staffabout 170 (2018)[2]
Websiteoutsidein.org
Exterior of "Outside In IDU Health Services" in March 2019 at 1219 SW Main St which hosts the needle exchange.[3]
Fentanyl pipe[4] (top) and methamphetamine pipe (bottom)[5] distributed by Outside In Drug Users Health Services[6]

Outside In is a medical and youth service nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon, United States that provides primary care and "wraparound services" for low income and homeless clients.[7] It also has several other programs such as needle exchange program for drug users, and eligibility restricted tattoo removal service. The needle exchange has been the cause of community objection as well as cancellation of insurance policy and donors declining to give. It has reported that in fiscal year 2015–2016, it has given out 988,399 needles which was 20,962 more needles than what was returned.[8] Founded in 1968 to serve youth, the organization has since continued to revise its services to meet the needs of its clients.[9][10] Its services as described in October 2014 include medical care, mobile medical vans, tattoo removal, housing, education, counseling, and job training.[11]

History

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Three founders, Dr. Charles Spray, Arnold Goldberg, and Mary Lu Zurcher founded Outside In in June 1968 and it was one of the earliest free clinics on the west coast.[9][12][13] The organization was founded to serve Portland's "alienated youth", some of whom were illegal drug users and most had mental health issues.[10] At its beginning, it operated out of a rented space at First Unitarian Church of Portland in downtown Portland.[10] Spray helped found the organization after learning that the Unitarian church's youth coffeehouse space, Charix, was in danger of being shut down by the city and a group that had successfully shut down the Crystal Ballroom music venue because of its association with the 1960s drug culture.[13] Outside In was told by its insurance carrier that all of the organization's policies would be cancelled if they were to start a needle exchange. It took the clinic a few years to find a replacement insurance carrier.[14] The needle exchange program started in July 1989 was the first authorized exchange in the United States. It was started as a pilot project involving 125 drug addicts. Bud Clark, the mayor at the time expressed concerns that it maybe seen by some as encouraging drug use.[15] In September 2002, Portland Business Journal reported some prospective donors refuse to donate to Outside In, because of its needle exchange program.[16]

Some of the group's early work involved staffing a 24-hour crisis hotline that was later spun off to form the Metro Crisis Intervention Service.[12]

In November 2017, two staff members were stabbed on the job;[17] as a result, in May 2018 the workers of Outside In voted to unionize, with Oregon AFSCME as their parent union.[2][18]

Willamette Week reported in April 2019 that Outside In employees are members of AFSCME along with a handful of other private nonprofits heavily funded by government contracts.[19]

In April 2019, Outside In announced the plan to add a second location in Gresham intended to provide services to "unique populations that are not well-served in other health care settings,". The location opened in September 2020.[7][20]

By 2023, the street on which the organization is located on has become the point of encampment congregation by homeless youth who rely on Outside In services.[21]

Services

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Outside In is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and a licensed mental health agency,[jargon][9] and also operates a needle exchange.[22] The syringe exchange, implemented in 1989, was the first one to be developed and the third to go into operation in the country.[23] The needle exchange program has been operating a fentanyl testing service on street drugs for about two years where subjects bring samples of their illegal drugs or drug residues from paraphernalia as told to Oregon Public Broadcasting. The article said drug possession remains strictly illegal.[24] They have also been handing out other supplies like glass pipes, tin foil and naloxone at its downtown Portland location.[6] In 2023, the organization self reported it served 969 youth with mental health care, drug and alcohol treatment, employment, education, job training, and housing.[25] Outside In's medical clinic provided primary care to 4,601 patients in 2023.[25] The same year, the group's syringe exchange furnished 1.14 million syringes to 3,157 clients.[25] The organization's harm reduction program has received over a million dollars from Measure 110 funding and an estimated 100 clients utilize it daily. Some of the funds are directed to the purchase of pipes, needles and other supplies.[26] After it started handing out smoking supplies in October 2022, its program manager reported this caused an 87% increase in monthly visit to the ham reduction services.[27]

Injection kit given out by the Outside In IDU Health Services to drug addicts

Community objection

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The needle exchange program offered through Outside In and Multnomah County was the subject of a grievance by the adjacent neighborhood Goose Hollow Foothills League due to concerns that needles handed out by Outside In are littered in Goose Hollow by its drug addict clients. The neighborhood association sent a letter on the matter of needles and other supplies given out by Outside In to a Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran in February 2018. This letter was published in part in Portland Tribune

"We are drowning in the needles put out into the community by Multnomah County," said a letter complaining about the health department program that was sent to Commissioner Sharon Meieran by the Goose Hollow Foothills League last month. "Our residents are picking up hundreds of needles each week," the letter states. "Our neighborhood has experienced a shocking increase in unsafe and unsanitary levels of needles since MCHD started this program ... while keeping drug addicts safer, MCHD is risking the health of thousands more with this program. "Our neighborhood is also filled with bloody cotton balls and feces-covered wipes that were given out at Outside In," added the letter, which was signed by Tracy Prince, the league's vice chair. "It is humane and necessary to hand out these items, but MCHD should put a plan in place so that these items aren't disposed of in our neighborhoods."[28]

In May 2019, a Portland activist Brandon Farley who believes the needle exchange add to a city's addiction and homelessness problems dumped out syringe caps and dirty syringes on the sidewalk in front of the Outside In's needle exchange in what he calls as an "act of civil disobedience".[29] The harm reduction program's policy of prohibiting drug use within three blocks from facilities while handing out paraphernalia has drawn criticism from neighbors and businesses in October 2024. Critics have complained drug use is being pushed into neighborhoods.[30] Outside In did not comment what steps are taken to ensure the three block rule is being enforced.[31] The posted sign at the site asks clients to not use or deal drugs within three blocks of the site. The facility stops just short of allowing drug use on site.[26]

Age restricted services

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Some of the services offered are eligibility restricted to clients 16–24 years of age.[32]

Job training

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"Bespoke" is bicycle-powered smoothie cart set up in Portland's O'Bryant Square that gives homeless youth on-the-job training.[33]

In 2005 the organization set up Virginia Woof, a non-profit dog daycare centre to provide training and employment for their clients. It operates in two locations.[34][35]

Auxiliary services

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In addition to the fixed location clinic, Outside In's medical clinic operates two medical outreach vans and a school-based health center at Milwaukie High School.[34][36][better source needed]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Leadership". Outside In. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  2. ^ a b c "At Outside In, an overwhelming vote to unionize". nwLaborPress. 22 May 2018.
  3. ^ Teig, Randy (27 April 2017). "Neighborhood Training Community Response to Livability Issues" (PDF). Bureau of Police, Portland Oregon. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 April 2019. Multnomah County is the governmental body that funds the exchange program. There are five documented needle exchanges on the Multnomah County web pege:i. outside in 1219 sw Main st .......
  4. ^ Ciccarone, Daniel; Holm, Nicole; Ondocsin, Jeff; Schlosser, Allison; Fessel, Jason; Cowan, Amanda; Mars, Sarah G. (2022-05-20). "Innovation and adaptation: The rise of a fentanyl smoking culture in San Francisco". PLOS ONE. 19 (5): e0303403. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0303403. PMC 11111043. PMID 38776268. Fentanyl can be smoked on foil or with a glass pipe (e.g. the 'hammer' pipe
  5. ^ "Controlled substances". Master-at-arms NAVEDTRA 12740. Naval Education and Training Program Development. 1994. p. 7-28.
  6. ^ a b "Portland drug users are getting free supplies, whether Multnomah County distributes them or not". kgw.com. 2023-07-11. Retrieved 2024-05-09. said Haven Wheelock, Outside In's harm reduction manager. She said they hand out smoking supplies like glass pipes, tin foil and straws
  7. ^ a b Carson, Teresa (April 4, 2019). "Outside In plans Gresham clinic". Portland Tribune.
  8. ^ Hewitt, Lyndsey (April 18, 2017). "Spike in discarded syringes littering Portland". Portland Tribune. Archived from the original on December 29, 2018. Retrieved October 20, 2019. Outside In separately reports that during fiscal year 2015-2016, of the 988,399 needles issued, 967,437 were returned — a difference of 20,962 needles.
  9. ^ a b c "About Us". Outside In. Archived from the original on November 22, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  10. ^ a b c Turner, Kernan R. (July 24, 1969). "Outside-In Director Can Cite Ear-Ringing Drug Statistics". The Register-Guard. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  11. ^ Ritchie, Rachel (October 23, 2014). "Lifetime Achievement: Kathy Oliver of Outside In". Portland Monthly. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Outside In Clinic celebrates 20 Years of Health, Social Services". The Oregonian. September 9, 1988.
  13. ^ a b Olsen, Polina (2012). "Outside In From the Ground Up". Portland in the 1960s: Stories from the Counterculture. Charleston, SC: The History Press. pp. 77–79. ISBN 9781609494711.
  14. ^ Sparling, Zane (July 3, 2018). "Outside In's longtime director wraps up job". Portland Tribune. Archived from the original on 2024-11-04. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  15. ^ Lambert, Bruce (1988-06-10). "Addicts in Portland, Ore., Will Get Free Hypodermic Needles (Published 1988)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  16. ^ Cook, Dan (September 1, 2002). "Youths and more?". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  17. ^ "Two wounded in stabbing at Portland nonprofit". KGW.
  18. ^ McCullough, Mark (23 May 2018). "128 Oregon Workers Say Yes to AFSCME". AFSCME. Retrieved 2019-04-09.
  19. ^ Furlan, Elise (April 17, 2019). "A Nonprofit Aiding Refugees Epitomizes Portland Values. What Happens When Its Workers Want a Union?". Willamette Week. Retrieved September 24, 2019. Employees at Central City Concern, Volunteers of America, Outside In, and Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare, all private nonprofits heavily funded by government contracts, are also AFSCME members.
  20. ^ Carson, Teresa (September 8, 2020). "Medical clinic for families in need opens in east Portland". Portland Tribune. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  21. ^ "Police clear large homeless camp in downtown Portland that was a magnet for homeless youth". kgw.com. 2023-08-21. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  22. ^ Korn, Peter (June 12, 2004). "Life-saving overdose drug gains street cred". Portland Tribune. Archived from the original on April 23, 2019. Outside In runs a downtown needle exchange for drug addicts
  23. ^ Hugh Barton; Susan Thompson; Sarah Burgess; Marcus Grant, eds. (2015). The Routledge Handbook of Planning for Health and Well-Being. Routledge. ISBN 9781317542391.
  24. ^ Foden-Vencil, Kristian (September 26, 2019). "Authorities Support Program To Check Purity Of Street Drugs". Oregon Public Broadcasting. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  25. ^ a b c "2023 Impact Report" (PDF). Outside In. Retrieved October 10, 2024.
  26. ^ a b Riddle, Katia (2024-02-21). "How Oregon turned on its own trailblazing drug law: 'Not the utopia we were promised'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  27. ^ "Here's What Multnomah County Leaders Had to Say About Its Suspended Harm Reduction Program". Willamette Week. 2023-07-12. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  28. ^ Budnick, Nick (March 8, 2018). "Used syringes litter Portland as needle exchanges grow". Portland Tribune. Archived from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  29. ^ May 20, Alex Zielinski •; Pm, 2019 at 6:33. "Guy Dumps Syringes Outside Portland Needle Exchange Office". Portland Mercury. Retrieved 2019-10-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  30. ^ Knapp, Debora; Gazaway (October 7, 2024). "Outside In's drug use policy draws criticism from neighbors, businesses". KATU.
  31. ^ Girsch, Emily (2024-10-07). "Drug use policy outside Portland harm reduction center draws criticism". KATU. Retrieved 2024-10-10.
  32. ^ "Young Adult Services". OutsideIn. Retrieved 2019-10-20. WHO IS ELIGIBLE 16 through 24 year-olds
  33. ^ Binder, Melissa (September 23, 2014). "Homeless Youth Get Job Experience Making Bike-Powered Smoothies for 'Social Juice-stice'". The Oregonian. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  34. ^ a b Sparling, Zane (3 July 2018). "Outside In's longtime director wraps up job". Portland Tribune. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  35. ^ Balas, Monique (13 November 2011). "Pet Talk: Day care serves dogs, trains people". The Oregonian. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  36. ^ "Medical Services". Outside In. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
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