This anniversary was not only an opportunity to celebrate this milestone and our collective success with music, shout outs and fun, but also a chance to recommit to our vision of a city where people thrive in communities that promote and support behavioral health and wellness.
This year’s theme of “Your Recovery, My Recovery: Celebrating Together,” reminds us that everyone’s path to recovery is different.
Whether it’s learning to live after a traumatic loss, coping with mental illness, abstinence from substance use, reducing use of substances or any other positive change towards wellness, everyone’s recovery journey deserves recognition.
Host, Kish the Lioness, kept the energy up while DJ FoQus kept the crowd moving and grooving.
Dr. L from Journey Into Wellness grounded attendees with yoga.
30 local providers shared harm reduction, substance use and mental health resources to support Baltimore’s emotional health and wellness.
Stories of lived and living experience from yoga instructor Naomi Hurley (left), Bmore POWER founder and advocate William G. Miller, Jr. (center) and Penn-North team leader and manager Vernard Nelson (right) highlighted the many different paths that recovery takes.
Amor brought her soulful voice and inspirational spirit to the stage with three original and emotional songs that highlighted the importance of telling your story.
Drum Dr. Dot used Drumetry to promote healing, love and cultural pride.
Bmore Than Dance lit up the stage with some classic Baltimore beats and moves.
Thank you to every provider, performer and community member who made BHSB’s 7th annual Recovery Month celebration a success. 
If you or a loved one needs immediate emotional support with mental health or substance use, Call 988 is here to help. Call, text or chat 24/7 for free and confidential support.
Content Warning: This article includes mentions of fatal opioid overdose
Darryl Burrell has made a career of working to advance harm reduction in our community, through needle exchange, connecting people to STI testing, and currently, through overdose prevention outreach. As Bmore POWER Coordinator, he works alongside the Bmore POWER team connecting people to resources and encouraging people who use drugs to always carry Narcan, test their drugs for fentanyl and “Go Slow.”
Many people in Baltimore City are familiar with Bmore POWER, but what does the day-to-day look like?
We have about 20 sites across the city where we do outreach and attend community events to hand out Narcan, fentanyl test strips, info about treatment and other behavioral health resources. And we didn’t stop during COVID. We started handing out masks and hand sanitizers too.
We look to connect with people who might be on drugs – we can connect them with treatment the same day if they want or just listen. We can also offer support to family members or friends concerned about a loved one.
And, when fentanyl showed up, we created the Go Slow campaign.
Tell me about how the Go Slow campaign started.
In 2017, Phaedra Ward, a member of Bmore POWER who passed away, became adamant about creating a campaign to let people know about the danger of fentanyl. She was heartbroken by what it was doing to the community. So, with some support from Johns Hopkins on creating materials, Bmore POWER came up with the campaign and started spreading the word. Everybody understood the seriousness of the campaign when we started.
We launched the campaign in 2019 and our job was educate the community and to get the test strips out, so we started adding the strips with Narcan bags. I remember that Phaedra received an award for her work on the Go Slow campaign right before she passed away. We pushed the campaign harder after that.
What does it mean to Go Slow?
Fentanyl is way stronger than regular heroin, and we knew that some people aren’t going to stop using just because their drugs tested positive for Fentanyl, so we wanted to give them another option. Like, if they was injecting, try injecting just a little bit in to see how it feels. If they we’re sniffing it, sniff half a pill.
Fentanyl makes it hard for people to use drugs the way they been using, so we try to suggest testing the drugs, adjusting the amount, taking it slow and keeping Narcan nearby.
How did the community respond?
When we first started it, we was getting a lot of different reactions. Some people thought we were promoting drug use. But it was a harm reduction approach. People just look down on people who use drugs. But, we know people use and we know some people aren’t going to stop, so Bmore POWER went at it a different way. It’s unique. Some people in the community was receptive and some people were negative, but negative and positive conversation is still a conversation. It all depends on how you deal with that conversation.
How did Bmore POWER deal with those different conversations?
Everyone in Bmore POWER has lived experienced, so we just try to not look down on people in the community. We want them to understand that we understand, we’ve been there and done that. We don’t want to come and disrupt, we’re there to help. And, not there as a form of police, but as former drug users.
And now, we have been accepted in the community, we can go anywhere and be accepted. We will help anyone willing to engage with us.
How has the Go Slow campaign helped the community?
I think the campaign woke a lot of people up, but a lot of people still don’t understand. Some people don’t want to test their drugs, or they want Fentanyl in there because they’re hooked on it or they’re afraid of withdrawal. Since the campaign started, we’ve also lost a lot of members. We have members who were still using at the time and some of them didn’t make it.
Fentanyl is here, and it is here to stay, so we continue spreading the word and getting Narcan and test strips into the community.
What do you hope for the future of Bmore POWER and Baltimore?
We have to keep going into community and having a conversation about this stuff because it looks normal for a person to go and get in a line to be served drugs. It’s still the same lines, but sometimes the lines are a lot longer than they used to be. And you might talk to twenty people, and they might not hear you, but sometimes you’ll talk to someone who says “man, I’m tired, I just want to get into treatment.”
Baltimore has been under this cloud for so long, everybody been experiencing it. I’ve experienced but, I try to explain that if I can make it, anybody can make it – this is something you can overcome. I think that is a testament to me and other members of Bmore POWER. Working on the Go Slow campaign has changed me in ways I couldn’t imagine. I am super proud to be a part of Bmore POWER with ups and downs, I mean through it all.
Learn more about Go Slow, Bmore POWER and find resources here.
On June 30, BHSB hosted a press conference at our office with our partners, the Mayor’s Office, Baltimore Fire Department, Baltimore Police Department and Baltimore Crisis Response to announce updates to the 911 diversion project and $2 million in federal funding coming to BHSB to expand this work.
Watch the press conference
“This marks one year of the implementation of this program. It’s about matching individuals to the most appropriate resources when they are having a behavioral health crisis and avoiding unnecessary police encounters. We are leading in this work here in Baltimore.”
Brandon Scott, Mayor of Baltimore
“With this funding, we will expand the pilot to serve more people, in particular children and youth. More than ever, children and youth in our community are feeling distressed and disconnected. The federal funding will be used to create a youth-specific mobile response team that goes into the community to provide care and follow up support.”
Crista Taylor, BHSB President & CEO
More coverage:
All photos are from Mayor Scott’s office.
