Narcare is a student-led national non-profit organization that is dedicated to community empowerment to address the opioid crisis across the nation. Our efforts are guided by the fact that overdose deaths are preventable. Our goal is to provide everyone, especially students, with everything they need to prevent an overdose death. This includes access to Narcan  — a drug that can reverse an overdose —  and knowledge pertaining to opioid harm-reduction strategies. Despite its well-known and obvious effectiveness, most people do not have access to Narcan. That is why advocacy for easy access to Narcan is central to our work.   

To achieve our goals, we use a community-centric approach and provide entities such as businesses, homeless shelters, food banks, and residential and academic institutions with Narcan. Opioid overdoses are often the culmination of larger issues, such as poverty, addiction disorders, deteriorating mental health, and the homelessness crisis. Therefore, we collaborate with organizations that are addressing these issues, such as local and state government agencies, universities, health clinics, ethnic-based health boards, homeless shelters, and many more. 

We hope to counter the despair and apathy associated with the seemingly inexorable opioid overdose crisis by creating spaces where people can share their experiences with the opioid crisis. In today’s age of misinformation, victim-blaming, and xenophobia, it is critical to remember that overdose deaths are preventable. By empowering students, community members, businesses, and organizations with Narcan and overdose prevention awareness, we can reduce this needless loss of lives.