Outside In (organization)

Outside In was founded in June 1968 by Dr. Charles Spray, Arnold Goldberg, and Mary Lu Zurcher as one of the first free community health clinics in the U.S. and one of the earliest on the West Coast, along with the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics and the Los Angeles Free Clinic.[6][9][10] The organization was founded to serve Portland's "alienated youth", some of whom had substance abuse problems and most of whom had mental health issues.[7] It initially rented its Downtown Portland space from the First Unitarian Church of Portland.[7] Spray helped found the organization after learning that the Unitarian church's youth coffeehouse space, Charix, was in danger of being shut down by the city and a group that had successfully shut down the Crystal Ballroom music venue because of its association with the 1960s drug culture.[10] Outside In was told by its insurance carrier that all of the organization's policies would be cancelled if they were to start a needle exchange. It took the clinic a few years to find a replacement insurance carrier.[11] The needle exchange program started in July 1989 was the first authorized exchange in the United States. It was started as a pilot project involving 125 drug addicts. Bud Clark, the mayor at the time expressed concerns that it maybe seen by some as encouraging drug use.[12] In September 2002, Portland Business Journal reported some prospective donors refuse to donate to Outside In, because of its needle exchange program.[13]

Some of the group's early work involved staffing a 24-hour crisis hotline that was later spun off to form the Metro Crisis Intervention Service.[9]

In November 2017, two staff members were stabbed on the job;[14] as a result, in May 2018 the workers of Outside In voted to unionize, with Oregon AFSCME as their parent union.[2][15]

In April 2019, Outside In announced that it was expanding to add a second location in Gresham that was slated to open in Spring 2020 to serve transients and low-income people. According to its development director, Outside In helps "unique populations that are not well-served in other health care settings,".[4] Willamette Week reported in April 2019 that Outside In employees are members of AFSCME along with a handful of other private nonprofits heavily funded by government contracts.[16]

A second clinic location focused on families in need opened in the Rockwood neighborhood in Gresham in September 2020.[17]

Outside In is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and a licensed mental health agency.[6] Outside In operates a needle exchange for drug addicts.[18] The syringe exchange, implemented in 1989, was the first one to be developed and the third to go into operation in the country.[19] The needle exchange program has been operating a fentanyl testing service on street drugs for about two years where subjects bring samples of their illegal drugs or drug residues from paraphernalia as told to Oregon Public Broadcasting. The article said drug possession remains strictly illegal.[20] In 2013–2014, the organization self reported it served 966 youth with mental health care, drug and alcohol treatment, employment, education, job training, and housing.[21] Outside In's medical clinic was the medical home for 5,384 people in 2014.[21] The same year, the group's syringe exchange served 4,322 people.[21]

The organization's tattoo removal service is a restricted eligibility service offered at an off-site location at 1719 W Burnside St. Access is restricted to applicants with an income not exceeding 200% federal poverty guideline.[22]

Injection kit given out by the Outside In IDU Health Services to drug addicts

• Emergency shelter
• Homelessness in the United States

• Official website