September 2, 2025
This Overdose Prevention Center Isn’t Giving Up on Harm Reduction
By Nic Wong
Over the past decade, opioid overdose protections and programs like Project Weber-Renew have expanded, but with Trump back in office, this trend may be short lived.
In 2015, a year into his recovery from drug addiction, Dennis Bailer was determined to give back. While receiving support from various harm reduction programs, he searched for a place where he could help others navigate their own recovery journeys but came up empty. A friend told him about Project Weber in Providence, Rhode Island; a harm reduction site rooted in peer-led recovery. After just a few volunteer shifts, he knew he had found his place.
“I wasn’t dealing with people with degrees, who read about substance use disorder, or who maybe even had some family members,” said Bailer, now the center’s overdose program prevention director. “There’s something different about working for an organization where the people who ran the organization had lived experience with being unhoused and trying to navigate treatment detox facilities. This gave it an entirely more grounded feel in regards to connecting with the people we were trying to serve.”
At the time, Project Weber operated out of a weathered brick building with just five part-time employees. Now, after merging with a similar organization, Project Renew, the group has 40 full-time employees, and has just established an opioid overdose prevention center this year.
