A Year of Saving Lives in Downtown Santa Monica
All four members of the Downtown Santa Monica Outreach Team and Operations Manager Ernie have administered Narcan.
We’ve featured stories about our Downtown Santa Monica (DTSM) Outreach Ambassadors before, but they never cease to impress us. This year, as we cycle through our 12 Days of Praise, we want to bring special attention to this team once again and share some of the impressive stories they’ve shared this year.
The team is a small but mighty group of three led by Operations Manager Ernie Lopez and Outreach Specialist Donovan Wilkes. They patrol areas of Santa Monica that are frequented by members of the street population with the goal of connecting them to essential resources in the area. An important part of their job is to carry Narcan, a lifesaving medicine that can reverse the fatal effects of a drug overdose.
The DTSM Outreach Team is no stranger to utilizing Narcan; this year alone, they have administered the medicine five times.
In many of our programs across the country, our Ambassadors are trained to carry Narcan, recognize the signs of an overdose and administer the life-saving medicine.
Narcan is a lifesaving drug used to reverse the fatal effects of an overdose.
Training Put Into Action
A few months ago, Outreach Ambassador Marc came across a sight that no one ever wants to see – a person on the ground, slumped over, blue in the face.
Marc’s team has been trained to recognize overdoses, so when he saw the man’s blue face, he knew what was happening.
Remembering this training, Marc sprung into action. He called 911, administered two doses of Narcan and rolled the man into a recovery position. Shortly after, emergency services arrived, continued to provide aid and transferred the man to the hospital.
This was not Marc’s first overdose he has encountered since becoming an Outreach Ambassador in 2023, but each time he still feels the weight of the work he’s doing.
“I’ve administered Narcan four or five times now, and even with the training I’ve received, that tight knot in my stomach never goes away. It’s a constant reminder of what’s at stake every time,” Marc said.
Outreach Ambassador Amy was the first to reverse an overdose in 2024 on New Years Day after an Ambassador found an individual unresponsive in a local park. It was her first time doing so. Outreach Ambassador Michael also administered Narcan for his first time this year. And, even DTSM Operations Manager Ernie has used Narcan on an unresponsive individual.
DTSM is only one city in our entire nation that is facing issues with drug overdoses. Having teams on the ground who are trained in utilizing Narcan is just one way to help fight our country’s drug problem at the base level.
Combatting A National Problem
Block by Block has thirty Outreach Programs nationwide, most of which have received life-saving Narcan training. Even many of our traditional Cleaning, Safety and Hospitality Programs have Ambassadors who have received training on how to properly use the medicine.
In Los Angeles County and across the United States, drug overdose deaths have been steadily increasing from 1999 – 2021.
The most recent available data from 2021 shows that in Los Angeles County alone, there were 2,322 overdose deaths, compared to a nationwide 106,699 overdose deaths.
While this data can be disheartening, teams like Donovan’s in DTSM are helping battle this. Armed with knowledge and Narcan, our Outreach Teams and Ambassadors nationwide can help and are helping save lives.
If you’re interested in learning more about Outreach Ambassador programming or how a Block by Block program could work in your district, please reach out to Chris Tin, Vice President of Business Development, at ctin@blockbyblock.com .