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News and Events

11/30/09 T-shirts! Show your support for Berkeley NEED, syringe exchange, harm reduction, or any combination thereof. Click on the button below to purchase a 100% cotton NEED T-shirt with our syringe-heart logo and the text "Needle Exchange Saves Lives."

09/04/09  Due to California state budget cuts, NEED is certain to lose its $70,500 grant from the State Office of AIDS. This represents 60% of our annual operating costs. Even after laying off all our paid staff and returning to being all-volunteer, we still will not have enough money to purchase sufficient supplies for distribution. The City of Berkeley gives us $52,000 per year, but the annual cost of syringes and clean-injection supplies alone is $84,000, a budget deficit of $32,000. NEED is vital to preventing the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C, and without someone providing clean syringes, injection-drug users will almost certainly re-use and share syringes, bringing us right back to the public health crisis that prompted syringe exchange to be legalized.

We need your help. The support of individuals and community and faith groups is perhaps the only way to keep NEED's services available during this time of extreme budget cuts. Please help if you can; we welcome donations of any size. To donate to NEED, click on the PayPal button below. You do not need a PayPal account to donate. Your donation to NEED may be tax-deductible. You may also mail checks to NEED, 830 University Ave, Berkeley, CA 94710, or donate in person at our sites.

06/10/09  On May 17, NEED had its first major fundraiser, a screening of the film Bums' Paradise. We raised over $500 for NEED. Thanks to the director, Tomas McCabe, and Albany Bulb resident Rabbit for appearing for a post-film discussion. Thanks also to The Long Haul for providing the space for the screening, and local Berkeley businesses for providing gift certificates and other raffle prizes.

06/03/09  Interested in a NEED T-shirt? Email us for more information.

05/25/09  NEED in the news! Read about us and our very own director, Christina Muller-Shinn, in The Oakland Tribune.

05/12/09  NEED recently published the first issue of its newsletter, On Point. Click here to read it.

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