The Queen City Needle Exchange
Who We Are
The goal of the QCNE, a project of the Center for Prevention Services, is to improve the health of Charlotte, NC by focusing on a population at high risk for Hepatitis C, HIV, overdose and other major health issues.
We seek to provide sterile equipment and medications that reduce or prevent overdoses to people who use drugs, people who use hormones, people who do sex work, and other marginalized groups. Through providing supplies, we decrease the amount of sharing items that could otherwise spread disease and deaths as a result of overdose.
QCNE is excited to offer not just sterile supplies, but we also focus on empowering those we come into contact with us through education and linkage to a variety of both health and social resources.
We primarily seek to empower directly impacted people through the philosophy of harm reduction. This foundation’s purpose is to keep those who use needles for any reason safe, and we stand with them regardless of their personal convictions regarding substance use. We believe people who use drugs or otherwise require sterile equipment deserve dignity, health, love and respect. All too often people are given the message that their health is not worth caring for as long as they are using drugs, and we earnestly seek to save lives through connection.
All donations go through Center for Prevention Services, which is a 501(c)(3) and tax deductible.
Form 990 for the Center for Prevention Services can be found here.
For more information regarding the legal protections granted to the QCNE and our participants, please visit the NC Safer Syringe Initiative
Who Supports Our Mission?
The Center for Disease Prevention believes in the mission of needle exchanges, here writing on their interest in and support of needle exchange programs.
The World Health Organization spent several years studying the efficacy of needle exchange programs and found them to be overwhelmingly positive with few unintended consequences. See the above linked study for reference.
The NC Department of Health and Human Services has devoted an entire initiative to the efficient distribution of hypodermic syringes and needles to the North Carolina community. More information on this initiative can be found in their final report, linked above.
Regional law enforcement is in overwhelming support of the mission of needle exchange programs. See above linked collection of positive feedback from law enforcement across the state.
Mecklenburg County Health Department
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