Building Skills, Shaping Futures
Professional development is part of how we care for our community. It grows from the same belief that guides all of our work: that people who use drugs or engage in sex work are whole, capable, and deserving of opportunity.
We believe that people who use drugs are more than their challenges. Our programs are built on the understanding that everyone has knowledge, creativity, and potential to share. We create spaces for staff and participants to strengthen those skills, gain new ones, and use them to build better futures for themselves and their communities.
This approach reflects our core values: treating people with dignity and respect, honoring lived experience as expertise, and including those most impacted in shaping the services and systems that serve them. We recognize that poverty, racism, and inequality all shape the stigma that people who use drugs or engage in sex work face every day.
Professional development is one of the ways we push back against that stigma by investing in people’s growth and leadership, both inside and beyond our walls.
Every training, workshop, and opportunity is part of that commitment to reduce harm, empower one another, and build a future where everyone can thrive.
Learning That Starts with Community
Each month, participants take part in volunteer-led resume and cover letter workshops. Volunteers from diverse professional backgrounds help participants identify their strengths and translate their lived experience into language that shines on paper. Through these workshops, participants begin to see how their lived experience translates into skills that matter in the workplace.
In Washington Heights, the Overdose Prevention Center provides another pathway. The program is fully peer run, hiring individuals with lived or living experience of substance use. Many participants have stepped into employment through this model, continuing to serve their community while building on their own professional experience.
Growth That Meets People Where They Are
For staff, learning opportunities evolve based on what teams need most. “We really focus on what our team needs,” said Brittney Vargas-Estrella, Director of Operations. “Sometimes that’s computer literacy, sometimes it’s technical skills like phlebotomy or wound care.”
In past years, staff completed a series of computer literacy courses for beginner, intermediate, and business writing levels designed to strengthen confidence and day-to-day skills. Many team members come from the participant population, and these trainings help them thrive not only here but wherever their careers may take them.
All new hires also receive foundational training in de-escalation, safer sharps handling, harm reduction 101, and safer use 101. These courses give staff the knowledge to keep our Wellness Hubs safe and provide accurate, practical information to participants.
Learning continues long after onboarding. Staff regularly revisit overdose intervention training, with opportunities to debrief one-on-one after responding to an incident in the community.
Because the drug supply continues to change, these sessions are updated in real time, helping staff adapt to new substances and symptoms as they emerge.
Clinic and overdose prevention staff receive additional wound care training, with plans to expand to outreach and public safety teams. Many also pursue phlebotomy certification, funded by the organization. “It’s a way for staff to deepen their knowledge and connect what they’ve learned from lived experience to medical practice,” Brittney explained.
Each new skill supports both professional and personal growth and strengthens the capacity to provide high-quality care to our community.
Supporting this growth comes from a shared commitment to teaching and learning. Some sessions are led internally by experienced supervisors and peer educators. Others are developed with external partners or with harm reduction specialists in Philadelphia who have pioneered wound care approaches for xylazine-related injuries. This mix of in-house expertise and outside collaboration keeps the program current, practical, and community driven.
What’s Next
New trainings are already in the works to advance our OnPoint NYC’s internal capacity. Pia Marcus, Director of Overdose Prevention, is developing a xylazine 101 session to help staff better understand how the substance impacts the body and why naloxone does not reverse the effects of xylazine. This reflects a commitment to learning that is real, relevant, and responsive to community needs.
Professional development isn’t separate from the mission. Every resume workshop, every skill-building class, every new certification is another step toward opportunity and empowerment.
