Sarah Mackin
Sarah Mackin
Interviewed on August 30, 2022 over Zoom
Recorded by Corinne Beaugard
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Sarah was sitting in her office while we spoke. The walls behind here were covered in posters, notes, and artifacts. Sarah is the director of AHOPE, a syringe exchange located on Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, where she has been for the past 12 years. She began working in harm reduction after college, inspired to do something because she saw her friends and community members suffering. She was trained by old school outreach workers and activists who worked under different circumstances, when there was no legal syringe or naloxone distribution.
She expressed her grief, anger, and exhaustion. The challenges are somewhat different from those in the 1990s and early 2000s, but the magnitude of need is unwavering. She spoke in war metaphors, referring to work as a battle and outsiders as “civilians.” The war is against the poor and drug users and the unhoused and fueled by inadequate funding, stigma and discrimination, contaminated drug supply, and COVID. She described a recent hurdle. In the early days of the COVID pandemic, everyone on the frontlines was faced with unprecedented challenges. Unlike their colleagues, though, the staff at AHOPE were left to fend for themselves. They did not receive adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), they did not get up to date information on best practices, and they worked overtime with no acknowledgment. Existing on the fringes of Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) typically suits AHOPE just fine. In this case, though, it reinforced the disenfranchisement of drug users and the people who show up to work for them.
Sarah talked about her work as a life’s work, rather than a job with professional obligations and work hours. The staff at AHOPE support each other through life and work, which are closer to one thing in this case because the people who “do” harm reduction work and the people who “receive” harm reduction are often the same. The soul of harm reduction and community’s struggle to thrive exists in this intersection. This dual belonging engenders greater depth of compassion and trust. Yet, individual and team challenges that arise from trauma and addiction are heavily laden burdens. Death of colleagues and friends make the work harder but also impossible to leave.
She aspires to bring the ethos and grit of her predecessors into the current landscape of harm reduction and keep the soul of harm reduction alive, amidst its increasing popularity and funding.
Sarah explained she feels pressure to live up to the great work of the harm reductionists who did the heavy lifting, who put their mental and physical safety on the line. Despite the profound labor, she feels guilty, like she is failing her predecessors and the people she serves. This feeling likely stems from the Herculean task to keep AHOPE and its community afloat amidst the onslaught of challenges. Despite her anxieties, Sarah is part of the bedrock of harm reduction in Boston.
Interviewer: Corinne Beaugard
Interview language: English
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