By Brendan Spiegel

When the NYC Building & Construction Industry Safety Fund was established nearly a decade ago, its purpose was to provide immediate financial assistance to families who had lost loved ones on the job.

"It was simply a way to help families in those first difficult days,” said Richard Weiss, administrator of the fund, which was created by the Building Contractors Association and the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York. 

Initially, the fund provided $10,000 to surviving families. Thanks in large part to an annual golf outing whose costs are fully underwritten by the Building Contractors Association, that benefit has since grown to $25,000, with every dollar raised going directly into the fund.

As the fund matured, its labor-management board began looking for ways to prevent tragedies before they happened. When Weiss began asking contractors, union leaders and construction workers how the fund could better protect workers, he heard the same answer again and again:

"We need Narcan on the jobsite."

"It wasn't one contractor or one union," said Weiss. "Almost universally, the answer was the same.”

The opioid epidemic has touched nearly every community in America. As one construction industry official said, “We could bury our heads in the sand and think it does not affect us, but it does. So we could either hope for the best and do nothing or take action to address the problem. This industry is used to making hard choices.  To its credit here, it chose to confront the problem directly.”

Construction is physically demanding work, and injuries are an unfortunate reality of the job. While most workers who receive treatment recover without developing an addiction, prescription opioids can become part of a dangerous cycle for some.

"A lot of these workers who have no bad intentions turn to alternatives to deal with their pain," Weiss said.

That understanding became the foundation for HOPE/LIVES, an initiative of the NYC Building & Construction Industry Safety Fund that provides overdose prevention education, recovery resources and naloxone—best known by the brand name Narcan—to construction workers throughout New York City.

Naloxone is a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose, buying precious time until emergency medical personnel arrive. While it is not a substitute for emergency medical care, it can often mean the difference between life and death.

Today, HOPE/LIVES brings workers together at active jobsites, contractor offices, apprenticeship programs and union training centers to learn how to recognize the signs of an overdose, administer naloxone, and connect people with help. Participants receive naloxone kits to take home, while additional kits are left on the jobsite for emergencies. More than 2,500 kits have been distributed so far.

Weiss spent months asking contractors, union leaders and workers where the fund could have the greatest impact. Again and again, he heard the same answer.

The result, Weiss said, was “a commitment to get Narcan on every jobsite and into the hands of every construction worker.”

The trainings are led by Jo Venturelli, a recovery and addiction specialist and founder of Health Speaks, LLC. She encourages workers to think of naloxone the same way they think about any other piece of safety equipment.

"The construction industry has always been about protecting workers," Venturelli said. Narcan is “something that's good to have because one simple thing could save a life."

To illustrate that an incident can occur anywhere, one need only look to the recent ticker-tape parade in lower Manhattan to celebrate the Knicks championship.  There, an off-duty EMT was among those who responded to a man who had collapsed after an apparent overdose. Narcan was administered to save the man’s life, illustrating the importance of training and ready access to this product.    

Greg Bonanza, Health & Safety Field Representative for the New York State Laborers' Health & Safety Fund, has seen that message resonate time and again.

"Everyone knows someone," Bonanza said. "The personal stories combined with the statistics really drive home how widespread the problem is."

After the trainings, many participants ask for additional naloxone kits to keep in their cars or bring home.

"It's beyond just the construction sites," Bonanza said. "People want to always be prepared."

Nearly every training ends the same way, Venturelli said. Once the formal presentation is over and the crowd begins to disperse, several workers quietly approach her to share their stories. Some have lost friends or family members to overdoses. Others want advice on how to help someone they care about. 

"I had one man come up to me recently and tell me he'd lost three very close friends and family members over the last several years," Venturelli said. "He wished he had had this knowledge."

Those conversations, she said, are helping break down the stigma that has long surrounded addiction.

"People see that it's not just one type of person or one socioeconomic class," she said. "This is something that impacts everybody."

To help workers understand why the training matters, Venturelli often shares stories from past participants of overdose-prevention programs she has led in recent years.

One of the most memorable examples involves a workplace supervisor who had participated in one of Venturelli's training sessions. One day, he noticed that one of his workers had gone into a bathroom and wasn't coming back out. Remembering what he had learned, the supervisor checked on the worker, found him unconscious, administered naloxone from the kit he had kept after the training and called 911.

The worker—a young father of two—survived.

For Venturelli, those stories reinforce why education is every bit as important as the medication itself.

"If people don't understand why this matters, they won't take the kit," she said. "But when they understand the risk, they realize they have the power to save someone's life."

Since launching, HOPE/LIVES has brought overdose prevention training to contractor offices, apprenticeship schools, union meetings and major jobsites across the region, reaching groups that range from a few dozen workers to audiences of several hundred.

For Weiss, that's exactly what success looks like.

"We made a commitment to get Narcan on every jobsite and into the hands of every construction worker," he said.

He hopes every worker who attends a training leaves with more than a naloxone kit. They leave with the confidence to recognize an emergency, take action and help someone in need—whether that's a coworker on a jobsite, a loved one at home or a complete stranger.

Contractors, unions and apprenticeship programs interested in bringing a HOPE/LIVES training to their members can contact Richard Weiss at the NYC Building & Construction Industry Safety Fund (917-560-0046) for more information. If you know someone in crisis, reach out to your union’s Member Assistance Program, or contact the Safety Fund. All calls will remain confidential.