Based in Berkeley, California, NEED is unique among syringe services programs because we are a volunteer-based collective. We started in September 1990 by a group of HIV+ persons, people in recovery, and health activists as an underground program operating out of a baby carriage on the corner of Hearst and San Pablo Avenues in Berkeley.

Currently, we operate from a black van with our logo and title written on the side at three neighborhoods sites each week. We offer free, anonymous services in a client-centered manner, and we are dedicated to the prevention of infectious diseases and to improving the physical, spiritual, and political health of drug users. We also offer overdose prevention began an overdose prevention and education component to address the rising number of overdoses among injection drug users.

Services

Across the street from our Sunday site, the Berkeley Free Clinic provides free, anonymous hepatitis testing and vaccination. We provide information and referrals for medical, housing, social support and treatment programs.

Supplies

We carry five different types of syringes, including syringes for individuals who inject steroids and hormones. In addition to carrying an assortment of harm reduction supplies, we also have tables of additional resources for clients, including safer-sex supplies. A fundamental part of NEED's mission is responding to the needs of our participants. NEED is still a volunteer-run collective, with deep and effective connections in the user, medical, public health research, and recovery communities. We constantly strive to respond to the actual needs of users, their friends, and families in the community, by improving and changing our services in response to client feedback.

NEED Now and Then — A Timeline

• September 1990: Needle Exchange in Berkeley starts
• July 4, 1991: Berkeley Police Department arrests NEED volunteers
• 1992: NEED members acquitted on needle exchange charges
• 1992: City of Berkeley begins partial funding
• 1994: NEED abandons limits on exchanges
• 1995: NEED starts second site in Southside
• 1996: Governor Pete Wilson vetoes exchange bills for third time
• 1997: NEED begins home delivery and third site
  
• 1998: NEED/HRC puts on hepatitis and wound care forums
• 1999: Really Cool NEED van purchased
• 2000: Wound Care Clinic created and begun in NEED van
• 2000: California legislature legalizes needle exchange in counties declaring an HIV/HepC public health emergency
• 2001: Initiated overdose prevention and response education project
• 2004: Funding levels fall below cost of supplies
• 2005: Funding level remains flat, demand for services and costs rise
• 2007: NEED receives a 3-year, $75,000/year grant from the State Office of AIDS for new program funding
• 2008: NEED becomes a California nonprofit public benefit corporation
• 2009: NEED becomes a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization; Great Recession prompts Governor Schwarzenegger to unilaterally cut funding to various state social programs, including State Office of AIDS, resulting in loss of our grant
• 2011: NEED joins forces with the Berkeley Free Clinic to build outreach capacity to at-risk populations in Berkeley as part of the Berkeley Builds Capacity project
• 2012: After old van won't pass smog test, NEED gets a new van donated
• 2013: New van gets stolen! New van purchased
• 2014: Elton John AIDS Foundation donates unprecedented amount to NEED to help support obtaining a new van; NEED begins distribution of Narcan prescriptions at sites
• 2015: Congress finally lifts the ban on using federal funds for syringe exchange!