The Puerto Rico Project
The Puerto Rico Project
Food is one of our most basic rights as humans. We aim to support local businesses and provide a hot, fresh meal to each individual we encounter during outreach. We typically offer one hot meal (sandwich, rice and beans, pizza, etc.), a bottle of water, and a few pieces of fruit to about 50 people each week.
We offer a variety of harm reduction services that meet our participants where they are at. These include our syringe service program, injection alternative kits, drug testing, safer sex supplies, Naloxone access and education, and plan B.
Everyone deserves to feel clean. Offering showers to our community restores dignity and fosters inclusion. Access to hot showers is a form of harm reduction. For our unhoused community members, access to a shower can be lifesaving by preventing the spread of infection.
Many of the folks we serve are unhoused and often request supplies such as tents, tarps, batteries, winter gear, and other crucial items that provide shelter.
During times when funding is available, we have provided one-time direct assistance for folks in emergency situations. This includes rental assistance, costs of medications, groceries, and other essential, time-sensitive financial needs.
People who use drugs (PWUD) who are being released from incarceration face a substantial risk of overdose in the 72 hours following their release.
Syringe service programs reduce the risk of infection and transmission of HIV. We provide our participants with as many new syringes as they’ll use. We also offer sharps containers, which allow our participants to safely dispose of used syringes.
People who are experiencing homelessness or housing instability often face social exclusion, judgment, dehumanization, and barriers to services. Combating these harmful, stigmatizing patterns requires education, empathy, and systemic change that priorities human dignity, equity, and social justice. One of our participants once told us that “people act like we’re contagious, and addiction is not contagious.” The Puerto Rico Project is a grassroots organization that addresses our participants’ most basic needs to restore dignity and promote well-being in communities affected by stigma and harm. We serve our community by asking what they need. Our organization includes and amplifies the voices of people who use drugs to ensure our services are effective, competent, and relevant for the people we aim to serve.
PRP is a Latina-led harm reduction outreach organization dedicated to reducing fatal overdose in the Chicago community. We serve the community with dignity and respect with a goal of reducing harm among people who use drugs (PWUD).
Harm Reduction began for and by people who use drugs, sex workers, and other marginalized groups to reduce infectious disease and the harms associated with substance use. Since its inception, Harm Reduction has grown into an avenue for social justice, fighting for the rights of people who use drugs (PWUDs), that have been targeted and marginalized by a racist and classist war on drugs. Our core principles include but are not limited to tearing down social inequities, changing harmful legislation, and ensuring that people who use drugs are involved with developing the policies and interventions that affect them every step of the way. Harm Reduction has been scientifically proven to be the most effective HIV risk reduction effort to date.
Our primary purpose is to provide supplies that reduce harm and prevent fatal overdose. We distribute harm reduction supplies including syringes access, injection alternative kits, safer sex supplies, hygiene items, food, water, winter gear, and other crucial items.
We provide services at various locations on the West and South sides of Chicago. Our sites vary by need, but we are currently servicing folks on the West and South sides in Humboldt Park, Back of the Yards, Little Village, and North Lawndale. Our current operation is weekly outreach every Friday night beginning around 6 pm. When the warmer season begins, we will transition to mobile shower outreach Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week – exact hours TBD!
Please contact us using the contact form.
