Minneapolis-based Hue-MAN Partnership is a coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to addressing issues that are critical to the overall health and wellness of local communities across the Twin Cities, particularly those that have been historically underserved and underrepresented.
Among the issues they’ve tackled in recent years is the ongoing opioid crisis and its increasingly disparate impact on populations of color. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that for the first time since an epidemic was declared more than two decades ago, the opioid-related death rate among Black Americans now exceeded that of white Americans.
Here in the North Star State, recent data from the Minnesota Department of Health reveals that Black Minnesotans are more than three times as likely to die from an “opioid-involved overdose” than white residents. And in Minnesota’s Indigenous communities, residents are dying at a rate 10 times greater than white Minnesotans.
Yet even before these announcements, Hue-MAN had started its community outreach in this area.“We became involved in this effort because someone approached us telling us there is a real serious, far-reaching problem around opioids in our communities,” said Clarence Jones, Hue-MAN’s executive director and chief engagement strategist.
“The model we use at Hue-MAN is to listen to the community, to have a conversation at ground level as to what is really going on,” Jones continued. “Then, we start to engage and promote the allies and organizations that are doing the hard work, and that’s important because sometimes those who are fighting the hardest, who are the most passionate about an issue, don’t have the support they need.”
To remedy this, Hue-MAN works with everyone they can to increase access to available tools and resources, help foster new and innovative strategies, and highlight critical information that improves public health outcomes.
Such partners include HMOs, public agencies, community-based organizations, local media outlets, academic institutions, and concerned citizens. “After all,” Jones noted, “we understand that no one entity, no single organization, can do this work alone.”
Still, Hue-MAN remains on the front line in the struggle to push back against the opioid crisis through strategies that include both the distribution of life-saving medicines such as NARCAN and training on how to administer it properly.
Hue-MAN also works with individuals and families around the safe use of prescription medications and a better understanding of how some drugs might negatively interact with others.
Yet even another approach at Hue-MAN has been to train 35 young people on how to talk to their peers about opioid use and the genuine danger that it presents. No one has been closer to the ground regarding these combined efforts than Fred Evans, who’s served as an Outreach Worker for Hue-MAN since its inception some 20 years ago.
“In my role at Hue-MAN, I’ve done community outreach related to many different health issues over the years,” Evans said. “Diabetes, cardiac health, hypertension, plus other things.”
When asked about his work combatting the opioid crisis, Evans replied, “I go where the problem is. That’s what is expected of me. That’s my job.”
In addition to distributing NARCAN in the community, Evans has been called on to administer the medication four times, on each occasion bringing the individual back to life before making sure they were safely transported to the hospital by ambulance.
“Fred is recognized and respected in the community,” Jones added. “He’s out there talking to people on the streets. Engaging those who might be struggling with addition. He’s out there doing the real work, where the rubber meets the road.”
Evans takes the role seriously, and it’s not lost on him that every conversation he has can be the difference between life and death for someone. “I might see some guys at the corner Lyndale and Broadway that I know are using. I let them know that there is a good chance whatever they are taking is laced with fentanyl,” Evans said.
When contemplating what more he’d like to see done in this fight, Evans doesn’t hesitate: “We need more education around this issue. And it needs to happen much earlier. Kids don’t find out about this in the street. We need to start talking to kids about these things in elementary school.”
For more about the Hue-MAN Partnership and its work on the opioid crisis, visit www.huemanpartnership.org.
For treatment and other supportive resources in Hennepin County, contact the Addiction and Recovery Services Unit at 612-879-3671 or visit the Minnesota Department of Human Services at bit.ly/HennepinGetHelp.
