Results from the 2025 Friends for Life partnerships with community-based organizations.
Protecting your community starts with one small step. That’s the message trusted community partners shared as a part of the Friends for Life campaign to educate youth and young adults in Washington about keeping themselves and their friends safe from illegal fentanyl by carrying naloxone and knowing how to use it.
In 2024, the campaign partnered with four community-based organizations (CBOs) to share culturally relevant and accessible overdose prevention resources with the communities they serve. In 2025, the program funded partnerships with five community-based organizations, including Bellingham Queer Collective, c89.5, Community Health Worker Coalition for Migrants and Refugees (CHWCMR), Rainier Ave Radio, and Safe Yakima.
Each of the five organizations brought a unique approach to sharing the campaign’s message in their communities.
Bellingham Queer Collective serves as a safe and welcoming physical and online space for Bellingham’s LGBTQ+ community. Their community space in Downtown Bellingham is the first non-profit LGBTQ+ center between Seattle and Canada and regularly hosts free community events.
Bellingham Queer Collective created a resource wall in their community space featuring printed campaign resources. Each week, approximately 100 visitors interacted with the materials. They hosted and shared materials at four naloxone training and harm reduction workshops. Their team also conducted digital outreach and attended several community events to have conversations to reduce stigma around the topics of prevention and overdose. Jill Stansbury, an organizer for Bellingham Queer Collective, explained how important the partnership was to their organization’s efforts.
"These materials also validated people's experiences as opposed to feeling there is something wrong with us," Stansbury said.
c89.5 is an award-winning Seattle-based dance radio station that has been on air for over 50 years. They also provide educational and career-advancement opportunities for local students.
c89.5 created and featured various on-air PSAs and digital marketing efforts in addition to a one-hour harm reduction podcast produced with DanceSafe. They are a known and trusted voice in the community, receiving over 450,000 impressions across all broadcasts. They also attended seven community events to distribute additional campaign materials.
CHWCMR builds a statewide support network of community health workers and community partner organizations that ensures migrants and refugees have equitable access to critical health, social, and environmental justice programs and services in their communities.
As a second-year partner, CHWCMR continued their advocacy work to destigmatize naloxone by hosting three naloxone training workshops in Spanish. Their team developed and shared original multimedia campaign assets including Spanish-language videos, graphics, and audio ads to share campaign messages that would resonate with their audiences. They were also active in the community, providing a familiar face for community conversations and sharing trusted information about naloxone and overdose prevention.
Rainier Avenue Radio is a digital media hub dedicated to amplifying the diverse voices of south Seattle.
Rainier Avenue Radio expanded on the first year's partnership to develop and air commercials and social media ads intended to reach youth and young adults. Tony Benton, founder and host of Rainier Avenue Radio expressed his gratitude for the campaign. "Had we not gotten this grant for this awareness campaign, there would be no awareness campaign in our community,” Benton said.
They also hosted a talk show with members of a local high school overdose prevention club and worked with youth interns to share campaign resources with a broader network of peer community organizations.
Safe Yakima Valley is a drug-free coalition in central Washington dedicated to improving and safeguarding their community through youth mentoring, outreach, education, and special events to create positive change.
Safe Yakima is another second-year partner and longtime advocate of the Friends for Life campaign. In the second year, their campaign activities focused on deepening their ties to local organizations by sharing PSAs, posting on social media, and attending community outreach events. As known drug safety experts, Safe Yakima hosted 12 naloxone trainings, including one with a local recovery clinic. Their ongoing efforts to educate and prepare people to respond to an overdose have directly impacted their community safety.
Our 2025 partnerships brought new perspectives and opportunities, which helped the messages of safety and care resonate with those the campaign hopes to reach. Community-based partnerships continue to be a culturally responsive, effective and intentional way to empower Washingtonians with the knowledge to stay safe from fentanyl overdose deaths. Some of these past partnerships have continued into our current year of the campaign and more will be shared soon about those recent projects.
Check out the Friends for Life campaign website to learn more.