Head and Hands re-launches in N.D.G.

After funding cuts forced it into a two-year hiatus, the community organization Head and Hands is re-launching its street work program in N.D.G. Monday.

According to the Gazette, Head and Hands will now have a full-time street worker working to build relationships with N.D.G. marginalized youth.

The social worker spearheading the new program, known only by her first name, Sara, is leaving posters on telephone poles and in the windows of stores and bars with her cellphone number.

Sara is hoping to find those who live in the margins and build relationships within the at-risk community. Spending time in bars, the metro and “shooting galleries,” Sara offers people clean syringes, free condoms and a friendly ear.

While there is little data to base how much work needs to be done in N.D.G., in a four month period in 2011, workers handed out 360 safe-injection kits, thousands of condoms and 60 safe-inhalation kits.