About Us
SafeSpot is the nation’s first and only professionalized 24/7 peer-led overdose detection and prevention hotline. Since our launch, we’ve supervised more than 32,000 use events and built a trained workforce of 58 operators across 17 states.
Our model is simple but powerful: we hang out with people while they use drugs. If an emergency arises, we activate help. While only about 1 in 400 calls results in an overdose, those calls have meant the difference between life and death.
April 2020 – Launched as Never Use Alone Massachusetts, staffed entirely by volunteer administrators and operators.
October 2022 – Received a $100,000 grant from the RIZE-MA Foundation, awarded to the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center under the leadership of Stephen Murray and Dr. Alex Walley. This was the first funding in the U.S. to support fully paid training for overdose hotline operators, and it enabled SafeSpot to hire its first executive staff.
August 2023 – Awarded a $350,000 emergency contract from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS). This supported the hiring of our first full-time frontline operator and a call center coordinator by October 2023.
April 2024 – Transitioned our entire volunteer team into paid per-diem operators. All operators are now compensated for every call they take, along with training and supervision—making SafeSpot a national leader in harm reduction–friendly workplace practices.
2024 – Secured a sustained procurement from MDPH BSAS at $500,000 per year, ensuring stability and growth in Massachusetts.
2025 – Expanded beyond Massachusetts with multi-year state funding:
Connecticut: 3-year, $1.5 million award.
Maine: 2-year, $400,000 award beginning October 2025.
SafeSpot continues to grow and expand into new states, building a national peer workforce and offering a scalable model of overdose prevention rooted in dignity, safety, and connection. We are actively pursuing partnerships to replicate our workforce ladder—moving operators from per-diem roles to part-time and eventually full-time careers in harm reduction—while ensuring every person who uses drugs has the right to safety and support. We hope to launch a Spanish language hotline by the end of 2026.
SafeSpot is not a substitute for physical overdose prevention centers or safe consumption sites. We view our service as a complement to those essential, place-based programs. While physical sites provide in-person support, supervision, and community connection, SafeSpot primarily serves people who cannot access those settings, including individuals who are housed, live in suburban or rural areas, are disabled or homebound, or have privacy or safety concerns that make in-person use difficult.
Our team has been deeply involved in advocating for the adoption of physical overdose prevention spaces and applauds the successful efforts in Rhode Island and New York. We believe that a comprehensive public health approach includes both physical and virtual overdose prevention options, working together to ensure that everyone has access to safety, dignity, and care.
