Harm reductionist Temple Kirk facilitates needle exchanges with the HIV Alliance

Temple Kirk carefully packed boxes of unused needles, Narcan, fentanyl testing strips, sharps containers, gauze pads, and Band-Aids into the back of their truck. Kirk is a harm reduction worker with Eugene Oregon’s Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Alliance. 

Kirk facilitates both mobile syringe exchanges throughout Lane County and an onsite resource distribution program at the patio outside of the HIV Alliance office on City View Street. Through exchanges, drug injection users can pick up supplies, to avoid using needles that have already been used. Clients can also be referred to rehabilitation programs and support services. They receive information about medications (Suboxone and Methadone), which treat opioid addiction. 

“People are going to seek pleasure and seek to escape pain. That’s just part of being human,” Kirk said. “In the environment we have today street drugs are rampant, and unsafe use of those drugs can spread all sorts of diseases, especially HIV and Hepatitis C. Harm reduction to me means the practice of helping people reduce the harm in their pleasure-seeking and pain avoidance behaviors.” 

Kirk first got into harm reduction and peer support services work 11 years ago, when working at the Gender Health Center in Sacramento, California. They became a part of a pilot program called “TNECKS,” a program specifically focused on providing free clean needles to the trans and gender-nonconforming community that utilize hormone replacement therapy, as well as for people who inject street drugs. 

“I had a lot of patience, empathy, and love for the people we served. Harm reduction work isn’t really easy work,” Kirk said. “So, you know, finding good people who have the empathy and compassion to provide stellar service, while also having a thick enough skin that the hard and sad things we see on the streets every day don’t break us.”

They moved to Oregon in 2021 and have worked at HIV Alliance for eight months. Kirk also enjoys performing as “Temple the Bard” in comedy and folk music shows. 

“If I’m frustrated with art, I can take solace in harm reduction work and my coworkers and my community, and if I’m frustrated with harm reduction work, I can take solace in my art,” Kirk said. “I’m lucky that both are rarely frustrating at the same time.”

Kirk explained the stigma around harm reduction practices, referencing abstinence-only drug prevention policies.

“The main misconception is that if people didn’t have access to safe injection supplies they wouldn’t inject, or if they didn’t have access to drug use supplies they wouldn’t use the medicine,” Kirk said. “People are going to seek pleasure and seek to avoid pain. Period. No matter how much somebody of a puritanical mindset might say that’s not the case, they’re just not scientifically informed with that.”

According to Kirk, there is a societal assumption that people who inject drugs are usually houseless or lead unfulfilling lives.

“We also serve business owners who have been using opiates for years or decades and thrive in the community. They just happen to have chronic pain issues, and they can’t get pain medication through their doctors,” Kirk said. “I didn’t know how many folks here in the community are just amazing, thriving, tax-paying members of society, who rely on heroin and/or sometimes fentanyl.”

Kirk described the main challenge of their work as being verbal communication skills. They described ways to approach situations in which a client has “an oppositional defiance.”

“‘Hey, my friend I am so sorry, but we really need this door area clear so people can get in and out,” Kirk said. “May I help you move to a more comfortable place to sit down? I really think you’ll be happier over here than right in front of the door. Can we help you with that?’ That is far more effective than saying ‘hey you got to move. You can’t be here.’”

Kirk described their job as being rewarding and fulfilling.

“At HIV Alliance, it is a reward whenever a client takes steps to better their life or connect with a peer case manager or a harm reduction specialist that will help them make positive changes in their lives,” Kirk said. “This can be as small as someone choosing to smoke a street substance rather than inject it. If someone is interested in getting into a detox or rehab program as opposed to using that’s a triumph.”

| Made in Dr. Peter Laufer’s Feature Writing I course at University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication |