Harm Reduction Community Minister Fellowship
Program Overview
The Harm Reduction Community Ministry Fellowship is a 9 month-long leadership and formation program designed for individuals who are called to integrate harm reduction principles with spiritual care, community organizing, and justice work. This fellowship supports leaders in building spiritual responses to the intersecting issues of substance use, criminalization, and systemic oppression, while fostering spaces of belonging, safety, and dignity.
Rooted in harm reduction ethics, liberation theology, and transformative justice, the fellowship provides space for deep learning, spiritual formation, and practical skill-building. Fellows will join a cohort of diverse leaders—clergy, chaplains, lay leaders, and harm reduction practitioners—committed to creating sacred spaces of care that resist stigma and honor the autonomy and resilience of all people.
Core Goals
The fellowship is grounded in the belief that spiritual communities have a critical role in advancing harm reduction as a life-affirming, justice-oriented practice. Our goals include:
Formation & Learning – Equip fellows with theological, ethical, and practical frameworks that center harm reduction, healing justice, and community care.
Leadership Development – Strengthen fellows’ capacity to serve as spiritual caregivers, advocates, and organizers in their communities.
Community & Solidarity – Build a supportive network of spirit-rooted harm reduction leaders for ongoing mutual aid and collaboration.
Public Witness – Advance a narrative shift in faith spaces, affirming harm reduction as sacred work that aligns with justice, compassion, and dignity.
These goals take shape over the year through a set of shared curricular themes:
Harm Reduction as a Spiritual and Ethical Framework
Spiritual Care with People Who Use Drugs & People Who Do Sex Work
Healing Justice, Trauma, and Grief Work
Anti-Carceral and Anti-Stigma Practices in Faith Communities
Theological Reflection for Liberation and Justice
Building Sustainable, Community-Based Ministries