I'm Austin, the Collective's Baycare Outreach Peer for Polk County. I'm part of a team of five people who go out into the field and work directly with people who have harm in their life that can be reduced. That could mean sex workers who don't have adequate access to condoms, people who use drugs who have to share or reuse needles, or someone experiencing homelessness who has a hard time walking everywhere and can't afford a bus pass. Through their mutual interaction with us, we can connect them with the resources of the Collective and improve their health and safety in a direct way. Our job as peers is to meet participants where they're at: at their house, on the street, in a motel, or at an encampment. We also connect people with health/recovery resources and other services, and perform basic woundcare when necessary. 

By distributing Narcan, condoms, HIV tests, safe injection supplies, and other supplies we are directly impacting the spread of infectious diseases in the community and reducing the number of fatal overdoses. I believe very strongly in reducing harm, on a personal moral level as well as on a broader social level. If someone is alive today because their friends had access to Narcan, we've done our job. If someone injects their drugs more safely and avoids contracting HIV, we've done our job. Each of these victories contribute overall to a healthier community for everyone. 

Everyone at the Collective strives to spread this philosophy throughout our society, so that hopefully we can all invest more in this kind of basic prevention and solve problems before they get much worse and compound on each other. I want to live in a world where everyone practices safer sex and no one shares needles, not only because I care about other people but because I want to minimize my own exposure to disease and I understand that when trajedy strikes one person it ripples out and really strikes all of us. This is definitely the best job I've had.