Mission:

The mission of Needlepoint Sanctuary is to realize the meaning of the word sanctuary within our community and to reduce the harms associated with drug use, poverty, and social inequality.

Syringe Access and Disposal Program

Since 2018 Needlepoint Sanctuary of Maine has operated a Syringe Service and Disposal Program. Today our program provides services to over a thousand people throughout the state. Our offices are located in Bangor, ME. We provide a combination of brick-and-mortar and mobile services throughout the city of Bangor. Our syringe services program includes:

  • Access to sterile syringes to reduce the spread of Hepatitis and HIV

  • Rapid testing and referral services for HIV & Hepatitis

  • Wound care and referral to wound-care service providers

  • Certified Intentional Peer Support Specialists on site providing peer support services

  • Our overdose prevention and naloxone distribution program

  • Community Clean Ups

  • and more!

Harm-reduction Education and Training

Education is at the center of our work. Our trainings include practical guides for overdose prevention, for understanding stigma, and our outreach model. We believe that these practical skillsets are incomplete if not considered in light existing social and political realities. We believe that for a harm reduction programs to be fully grounded in best practice, they must understand the history of the harm reduction movement, and informed by the direct experience of current and former drug users.

We believe that the war on drugs is a war on the people, in particular some of the most marginalized among us.

We center this understanding in all of our work.

Collaboration

We thrive on collaboration! We believe that the work of community care is made easier with many hands- and that no one organization, entity, or individual has all the answers.

We are proud to partner with organizations in Bangor, in Maine, and across the country.

Our collaboration policy is that if you are sincere in your desire to be of service, we will work with you- please reach out. Some examples of community partnerships we engage in are:

  • Community Clean Ups

  • Educational Events

  • Testing and vaccination clinics

  • Free medical clinics

  • Advocacy coalitions

Drug User Advocacy

We are committed to striving for the minimization of the harms associated with substance use as well as the policies regulating substance use, possession, and the associated deadly forms of stigma that are an everyday feature of the lives of drug users.

We are committed to the pursuit of liberation for all marginalized and oppressed peoples. We believe that the liberation of one is tied up in the liberation of all.

As Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said.:

“ There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in.”

Every day we strive to provide the highest quality of services to our community with an understanding that the causes of harm in our communities are systemic.

Winter Emergency Services

Recognizing the deadly impact of Maine winters on unhoused community members are have partnered with the Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor to operate an emergency warming center during the winter months. Notifications of our winter warming center will be posted on our social media pages and sent out through email: please fill out the contact us form and include your interest in the warming center if you would like to be involved.

Contact

Feel free to contact us with any questions.

Email
needlepointsanctuary@gmail.com

Phone
207-307-7588