HIV Education & Prevention Project of Alameda County

HEPPAC has been able to create a program known as the East Bay MAT Expansion (EBME) which is now a template for Foundations such as Sierra Health Foundation to use as a low threshold approach for low barrier access to MAT in non clinical settings with focus on the African American community.

HEPPAC was the first in the East Bay to incorporate a Harm Reduction Vending Machine (HRVM) in an Emergency Room of a county hospital along with several Narcan Stand Box (NSB) full of Naloxone that was funded by a small Mini Grant. Due to the popularity and need of this service, funding has opened up in two counties to support ongoing efforts to supply people with Narcan, hygiene kits,Condoms,socks and other kits in this modality in efforts addressing a person's social determinants of health.

HEPPAC has been funded by the Board of Supervisors to increase Overdose Prevention activities by providing low barrier drug checking using the FTIR machine which can identify trace amounts of foreign substances such as Fentanyly in the unregulated drug supply. Doing this has increased the autonomy of persons who use drugs (PWUDs) to know what's going in their bodies and make informed decisions to prevent fatal opioid overdose.