The TMCC Counseling Center and Wake Up Nevada marked the completion of a new community partnership with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 21 at Truckee Meadows Community College’s Dandini campus. The event celebrated the installation of a free naloxone (Narcan) access box near the campus’s RTC bus waiting area, making the overdose-reversal medication free and anonymous for students, faculty, staff, and the surrounding community.
Wake Up Nevada, a nonprofit dedicated to opioid overdose prevention and education, provides and restocks the naloxone in the box at no cost to TMCC. The box also includes a how-to brochure with step-by-step instructions for administering naloxone, along with a QR code linking to TMCC’s Wizard Wellness naloxone training module, so anyone can learn to recognize and respond to an overdose in minutes.
Wake Up Nevada was founded in 2020 after its founder lost her daughter to an overdose on her 21st birthday. What began as one family’s grief has grown into a regional effort to educate communities and reduce the stigma that can keep someone from seeking life-saving help. The organization now maintains 23 public-access naloxone locations across the region, supported by community partners and donors, with supplies provided through CASAT.
The new naloxone box builds on TMCC’s ongoing harm reduction work, including naloxone training offered through Professional Development and the institution’s opioid overdose emergency response planning under Nevada AB 394.
For questions about the partnership or TMCC’s harm reduction programming, contact the TMCC Counseling Center.
