The NC Native Community Care Network is a Native-led, community-rooted collective committed to saving lives and restoring dignity.

We are grounded in harm reduction, cultural knowledge, lived experience, and relationships built over generations.

We believe every Native life has value.
People are more than their substance use, their trauma, or their hardest day. No one is disposable.

We practice harm reduction because it saves lives.
Harm reduction meets people where they are, without judgment or coercion. We focus on safety, dignity, and choice—knowing that healing happens on many paths and timelines.

We are Native-led and community-driven.
Our work is guided by Native people, Native knowledge, and relationships within tribal and urban Indian communities. We honor tribal sovereignty and local leadership in everything we do.

We center lived experience.
Those closest to the harm are closest to the solution. People with lived experience—of substance use, recovery, and survival—belong at the center of this work.

We believe culture is medicine.
Healing is spiritual, emotional, cultural, and communal. Indigenous practices, faith, language, and connection are not extras—they are essential.

We reject stigma and shame.
Stigma causes harm. Compassion saves lives. We work to dismantle stigma in systems, policies, and everyday interactions.

We lead with trust and relationships.
Change happens through relationships built over time. We move at the speed of trust, not timelines imposed from the outside.

We advocate without losing our humanity.
Policy matters—but people matter more. We balance advocacy with care, data with stories, and systems change with boots-on-the-ground support.

We serve Native American people across North Carolina—within tribal communities and urban Indian organizations—especially those most impacted by substance use, overdose, trauma, and systemic neglect.

Native communities across North Carolina have carried the weight of substance use, overdose, and unresolved trauma for generations—often without access to culturally grounded resources or a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect our lives.

Too often, harm reduction efforts are designed for Native communities instead of with us. These approaches overlook the trust, relationships, and cultural knowledge that already exist within our communities. When that happens, care can feel distant, unsafe, or disconnected from who we are.

The NC Native Community Care Network exists to change that.

We believe Native people deserve care that honors dignity, sovereignty, and lived experience. By building a Native-led network with Cultural Liaisons embedded in tribal and urban Indian communities, we work to ensure harm reduction is not only available—but accessible, culturally responsive, and rooted in community.

This work is about saving lives today while strengthening relationships that support healing for the long term. It’s about ensuring our people are no longer invisible—and that solutions come from within our communities, not imposed from outside.

Native communities know what healing looks like in our own people.

Native-led harm reduction honors culture, trust, and sovereignty—meeting people where they are while addressing real needs on the ground.

When our communities lead, care is safer, stronger, and more effective.