Kim Powers

Kim Powers

Interviewed on September 6, 2022 over Zoom

Recorded by Deborah Chassler

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Summary: Kim provided a lot of information about her personal history and her experience of harm reduction. Kim described how harm reduction started in the HIV/AIDS era and shifted and grew over time. She thought that it started to be called harm reduction in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Kim was emphatic that harm reduction is about taking care of each other. That was a key theme of her history.
The first step was learning safe practices. Drug users and sex workers learned how to take care of each other with these practices. Next came political organizing, especially as people realized that not only was it important to use clean needles: they realized that they should be able to obtain clean needles themselves. They organized to push for needle exchanges.
Kim talked about how the many rules surrounded treatment were undesirable. Once oxycodone was introduced everything changed. It confused the harm reduction community. And then fentanyl caused another shift – people just kept dying and they did not have any way to intervene.

Harm reduction means connecting with someone without an agenda. Kim noted that “when we do it, it isn’t always documented.” Harm reduction can and does happen outside of formal structures. Kim described that they started pushing for safe injection sites in 2017. The goal was for the drug using community to take responsibility for making sure people don’t die. That’s what it is – watching out for people. Kim is interested in creating personal safe injection sites. That includes teaching parents how to watch their kids, how to talk about it in the household because the kid is using and if you ignore it the kid will die, so make home their safe injection site. Give mom the Narcan. People will use no matter what you tell them.
Kim talked about her personal shift. She grew into roles where she could talk to professionals, policy makers, and so on, and continued to be about to she talk to people who are using. Kim was clear that prefers the work with people who are using. She also knows she has the voice and the knowledge and an important message to convey. She doesn’t like police that but she knows she has to work with them because they play such an important role.

Kim said she thinks it is important to training people to supervise each other. People who are using can supervise each other and save lives. She currently has money and support from RIZE to do this work and pay other people to continue to bring harm reduction to people. Also, people who don’t use can supervise. She wants to train people to do this. Underground. She wants to make sure people don’t
use alone.
Themes: LOVE and connections with each other are what saves all of us. We are about protecting each other. We made changes. We make a difference in each other’s lives. And we are still losing people to fentanyl

Interviewer: Deborah Chassler

Interview language: English

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