[Training Opportunity] Harm Reduction Training Institute

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Maia Feinman-Welcher

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Mar 31, 2026, 1:34:04 PMMar 31
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Maia Feinman-Welcher, MPH (she/hers)

mfeinma...@sfsu.edu

Program Coordinator

Department of Public Health 

San Francisco State University

 

 

 

From: Dieterich, Cristy (DPH) <cristy.d...@sfdph.org>
Date: Monday, March 30, 2026 at 1:58 PM
To:
Subject: Trainings - Fw: HRTI Newsletter (April and May 2026)

 

From: DPH-Harm Reduction Training Institute <HR...@sfdph.org>
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2026 1:33 PM

 

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Spring is here, and so is a fresh lineup of trainings! 

 

Whether you're here for the annual training requirement or just curious about what we have to offer, we think you'll find something worth showing up for. Our spring offerings are designed to deepen your skills and strengthen your practice working alongside people experiencing homelessness, people who use drugs, and other communities that need us at our best.

 

New This Season: Frontline Worker Support Group

 

This work is meaningful, and it's also heavy. That's why we're so excited to have launched a dedicated space just for you. Our Frontline Worker Support Group meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month from 2:00–3:30pm. It is a drop-in, judgment-free space to process the emotional weight of this work - vicarious trauma, burnout, and boundaries - while also exploring how to bridge what we learn in trainings into everyday practice. The group is facilitated by trained clinicians Maurice Byrd (Harm Reduction Therapy Center) and Savannah O'Neill (Facente Consulting). Registration is required to receive your calendar invite, but once you're in, just show up when you can. 

 

 

 

 

This highly participatory session will focus on workshopping practical ways providers can integrate to their practice the six principles of harm reduction. Trainees will engage with each other to unpack real life case scenarios and will have the opportunity to collectively review and analyze how to effectively consistently infuse harm reduction to their case interventions.

Prerequisites: Foundations of Harm Reduction training in the last 6 months. Direct service work for the past year.

Facilitator: National Harm Reduction Coalition

Training Objectives:

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

 

  • Identify three ways they can concretely integrate the six principles of harm reduction to their practice.
  • List three harm reduction strategies to tackle potential challenges that may come up when working with participants who use drugs.
  • Develop an awareness to recognize when they are effectively infusing harm reduction principles to client interventions.

 

 

Harm reduction has its origins in grassroots social justice and mutual aid. The Spirit of Harm Reduction examines the history and state of the four-part U.S. harm reduction movement and its impact on the creation and current use of Harm Reduction Therapy (HRT). This training explores beliefs systems, countertransference, and basic assessment models for working with people that use substances. A high number of people that use or abuse substances or have a substance use disorder also deal with mental health symptoms or have mental health diagnosis. It has become more essential for health care providers to become adept at working with people who use substances and or have a dual diagnosis. Harm Reduction Therapy helps to equip providers with the tools to work with people who use substances, people who have mental health symptoms, and those who have a comorbid occurrence of these two.

Facilitator: Harm Reduction Therapy Center

Training Objectives:

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

 

  • Recognize at least one reason how stigmatizing language contributes negatively to clinician countertransference.
  • Identify at least two parts of the four parts of the U.S. harm reduction movement.
  • Indicate at least two levels of substance use on the continuum drug.
  • Utilize the harm reduction perspective to identify at least two reasons why people use substances.
  •  

 

 

This training will give harm reduction workers a background of the history and policies related to many of the health disparities faced by people who use drugs, especially those who also identify as people of color, women, and/or LGBTQ.  Through a combination of discussion, shared experiences, and activities, training participants will explore how criminalization and exploitation has created a system that causes certain groups to have worse health outcomes and a lower quality of life. Participants will learn how to use this knowledge and build programming that interrupts these oppressive systems and focus service provision to be as open and inclusive as possible, to help reduce the harms stemming from the racialized war on drugs.

Facilitator: National Harm Reduction Coalition

Training Objectives:

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

 

  • Discuss how the prison industrial complex and war on drugs impact communities of color, from the 1970’s to the present.
  • Identify three ways structural racism and capitalism result in treating people differently within the justice system.
  • Discuss how to integrate a harm reduction approach ranging from service provision, policy making, and community organizing.
  • Explore strategies a program can try when supporting marginalized or oppressed people.

 

 

 Biology, psychology, and sociology play a critical role in a person’s relationship with substances and helps to explain or understand substance use. Different substances affect different people in different ways for many different reasons. This training will cover the types, classifications, and major categories of substances. Also, we will explore how different substances have the potential to interact with different mental health disorders in both beneficial and/or detrimental.

Facilitator: Harm Reduction Therapy Center

Training Objectives:

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

 

  • Classify the three major types of substances.
  • Identify the primary neurotransmitters that play a role in all substance use.
  • Identify at least two stimulants/uppers.
  • Identify at least two depressants/downers.

 

Foundations of Harm Reduction (virtual) - 5/27/26 10am-12pm 

 

This training will provide health and human service providers with a comprehensive overview of Harm Reduction. This approach incorporates a practical set of strategies designed to prevent disease and promote health by “meeting people where they are” rather than making judgments about where they should be in terms of their personal health and lifestyle. Recognizing that not everyone is ready or able to stop risky behavior, harm reduction focuses on promoting ways to reduce the health risks associated with drug use and other high-risk behaviors. This course will assist providers in more effectively engaging their clients in a range of interventions to reduce the risk of harm.

Facilitator: National Harm Reduction Coalition

Training Objectives:

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

 

  • Define three key principles of harm reduction.
  • Explore the harm reduction premise that the client is the expert and is responsible for choosing the type and timing of behavior change.
  • List at least three harm reduction options for substance use behaviors.
  • Describe ways in which they can incorporate harm reduction skills into their relationships with clients.

 

 

About HRTI

 

 

The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) Harm Reduction Training Institute (HRTI) supports SFDPH and SFDPH-funded staff, providers, and programs that work with people who use drugs and their communities.  

 

 The goals of SFDPH HRTI are to:   

  • Build agency and program capacity  
  • Improve consumer engagement in service design and delivery  
  • Enhance the citywide system of care prevention and education to meet the needs of people who use drugs and alcohol in San Francisco 

 

SFDPH funded programs are required to integrate harm reduction principles into their service design and delivery, and all their staff are required to complete annual HRTI trainings. SFDPH Community Health Equity & Promotion Branch (CHEP) and Behavioral Health Services (BHS) collaborate with the National Harm Reduction Coalition (NHRC), Harm Reduction Therapy Center (HRTC), and other community partners to provide monthly training to SFDPH and SFDPH-funded agency staff. HRTI training topics are focused on how to work effectively with people who use drugs to support them in achieving their goals and how to implement harm reduction principles to reduce stigma.

Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are available from the Center for Learning and Innovation (CLI). Courses meet the qualifications for 2 continuing education hours.

 

Current CEU offerings include: California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals (CCAPP), Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW), Licensed Educational Psychologists (LEP), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT), Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors (LPCC), and Registered Nurses (RN)   

 

The California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) has approved the SFDPH Center for Learning and Innovation (Provider #137138) as a provider of continuing education for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs. The California Board of Registered Nursing has approved the SFDPH Center for Learning and Innovation (#CEP 03548) as a provider of continuing education for registered nurses. The California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals has approved the SFDPH Center for Learning and Innovation (CCAPP-EI Provider #7-24-358-0126) as a provider of continuing education for certified addiction professionals.

 

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For training inquiries or more information, please contact: HR...@sfdph.org  

 

 

 

Statement of Equity

 

Please review this statement of equity before enrolling in any course:      

The San Francisco Department of Public Health is committed to leading with race and prioritizing intersectionality, aiming to become an anti-racist institution. Participants in SFDPH activities must adhere to professional conduct standards and respect diverse identities. Discriminatory behavior will not be tolerated, and offenders may be removed and barred from future events.     

 

 

 

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Harm Reduction Training Institute (HRTI)

Located on Ramaytush Ohlone Land  



Email: HR...@sfdph.org  

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