Offline Project - Leaflets to try and get pharmacies and needle exchange places to ha

[Mugz]

Hi,

I've had this idea in my head for a while now and haven't done anything about it so thought that if I created it as a project in this forum then it might motivate me to do more about it.

I am in the process of creating some hard reduction A5 sized leaflets that give tips and make people more aware of the dangers of IM and IV use when they go to pick up new pins and syringes from the needle exchange places around the world.

I will do this project with or without the help of people on bl, I would ideally love to have bluelight's logo and site address in the bottom right hand corner of all of the leaflets and a tiny bit of information about the site and it's harm reduction message too.

I think that this is a good project to do as it would be spreading the HR message more offline as well as the great work that continues online on the site.

If the owners and admin here are not particularly fond of me using the logo and having the site address displayed on the leaflets then that is fine, I'll do it without the leaflets, but with them would be a great way to direct more traffic from more people in need to the site to get help and join our community.

I'll post a draft of some ideas for the leaflets in the meantime, I welcome other people to think about doing a similar thing in your own areas.

I know that this will cost money to produce the leaflets for my area, but am hoping that it won't be too expensive and I will cover the costs involved.

Any suggestions and advice wouild be greatly appreiated.

I hope that I can get this project started soon and with the help of other bluelighters around the globe get this project going worldwide, with eventualy full 100% bluelight backing.


PM me if you would like to get involved but don't want to reply in this thread, am really looking forward to starting this idea up and making it a reality.

Mugz

 

[effie]

Have you spoken to any needle exchanges, Mugz? The one here already has leaflets which they hand out - Safer Injecting and various others from Exchange Supplies. I think your aim is a good one - leaflets giving HR info should be provided - but as you say it would cost money and the leaflets Exchange Supplies produce are excellent and already used, and there may be other leaflets available too Maybe have a talk with your local exchange and contact others across the country to ask whether they give out any printed information, and if not why not, and whether they would consider using a leaflet produced by you?

It is important to do background research before embarking on a project like this

 

[Mugz]

I figured that they probabyl already did leaflets and stuff, was just hoping that our ones would be better. If the owners of the site endorsed it and it had credible links to this site where there is a whole lot more information that just the basics then I think we will win the battle.

Good idea about talking to needle exchange places and asking them some questions about how they approach things like this.

It's all my head at the moment, has been for quite some time, I thought that creating a thread here about it would encourage me to actually get on with it and not let things stop me(procrastination for one)

When I get back from my week away I am going to head to some local needle exchange places and the addaction place too that provides drugs counselling and see what they have to say about me putting some leaflets up in their offices and in the waiting room.



If anyone has any input into a potential catchy but not cheesy design or some fundamental things that I cannot miss out then I would really appreciate some help with that. It's not going to be a one man job hopefully.

Thanks again for the input effie, talking to people is the way forward, my next step, although I would love to have a protoype leafley rready to show them when I meet so if anyone can help out with that then it would be great.

 

[effie]

I think the Exchange Supplies leaflets are excellent - not sure there is a need to fight a battle to try to beat them? If you still want to go ahead maybe you could look into collaborating with them? Again I'm not trying to shoot your project down just thinking realistically about it.

Bluelight has never endorsed anything in the past and not sure if it is something the owners would be interested in or not, but there was some talk about making "business card" type things, and a needle exchange would be an ideal place for something like that.

What content do you have in mind? How to IV, complications, IV vs IM, that sort of thing? How about chasing and plugging? Good to advocte alternatives to shooting. There's a lot of info in the IV megathread in the OD directory and quite a few mods with IV experience so we could help you with that - but I think do the groundwork first. Is there a need for this, what is already available, what sort of thing would needle exchanges want. Ideally talk to some people usind the exchange as well 0 do they have access to printed material, do they find it useful, is it available but not used by them and if not why not, if it is available and they use it what do they think of it, would they like something different, what would they particularly want info on, do they know about chasing/plugging, have they heard of Bluelight? Do a survey! One for staff/volunteers at the exchange and one for the clients. That way you can see where the gap in the market is, so to speak, and tailor your leaflet to fill that gap