Addiction doesn't happen overnight, and neither does recovery – that is the philosophy of Aisha Diss, founder and executive director of
project.ME, a recovery and harm reduction center located in Fort Wayne.
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Aisha Diss, founder and executive director of project.MEFounded in 2019, project.ME began as a Facebook page meant for sharing positive messaging for people going through addiction and recovery. As a recovering addict herself, Diss used her online presence to uplift people going through similar struggles.
“I just had some people that naturally started reaching out to me because I was a very passionate advocate about self-guided recovery,” Diss recounts, “but I was also ashamed, embarrassed, all of those things, so the way I combated all of those things was by being transparent about everything I was going through.”
As the page’s popularity grew, so did Diss’ need for space and community. Taking a grassroots approach, project.ME’s first funding came from a Facebook fundraiser for supplies. Over the next few years, she began street outreach and operated entirely through grants and donations. In the beginning, Diss was only able to pay her staff by partnering with the
Drug and Alcohol Consortium, a community network that works to prevent substance abuse and reduce the negative impact of substances in Allen County.
“We had an agreement for them to pay our wages, and then I paid them back as soon as we got our reimbursement,” she explained, “and that continued until we were able to carry it on our own.”
In March of 2022, project.ME received 5013C status and went on to receive the title of regional recovery hub for Allen County from the Indiana Recovery Network in 2023. Today, they provide support to Adams, Allen, Dekalb, Noble, Lagrange, Steuben, Wells, and Whitley counties. Project.ME also operates the peer recovery line for
Indiana 211, a hotline that provides information for social services and other necessities.
As the organization has expanded, Diss has implemented a variety of different services and programs, including street outreach, donation services, and, as of December 2023, a recovery drop-in center. It provides Diss and her team with a space to both work and host events, and gives the community a safe and accepting space to come whenever they want.
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The grand opening of project.ME's recovery drop-in center.The center operates on a harm-reduction basis, which Diss considers to be “meeting people where they’re at.”
The
National Harm Reduction Coalition defines the practice as “a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. Harm Reduction is also a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs.”
According to the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, decades of research show that “some harm reduction strategies provide significant individual and public health benefits, including preventing deaths from overdoses and preventing transmission of infectious diseases among people who use drugs and the larger community. Others reduce emergency department visits and costly healthcare services, while in some cases offering people who use drugs opportunities to connect to substance use treatment and other healthcare services in settings relatively free of stigma.”
Because of this, the team at project.ME do not immediately advocate for completely abstaining from drug use. Diss says she’s found that this form of recovery coaching allows addicted individuals to retain their autonomy and individuality while still getting the help that they need. Instead, they help individuals to address their needs, whether they want to quit entirely, use less, or address the way addiction has affected their relationships.
Diss has seen the method work first-hand and offers one case that she has been working on for years, as an example.
“He worked the third shift, got off work, and he was immediately drinking and driving,” she recounts, highlighting one of the center’s success stories.
Diss describes the individual as someone who did not want to entirely quit using alcohol, but wanted to improve his quality of life.
“He was drinking about 60 ounces of alcohol a day, and every time I saw him, he was heavily intoxicated,” she says. “Now, his use on average is six to seven ounces a day, and when he tells me that he went on a bender, it’s usually about 13 ounces in a day.”
She says this is evidence of the harm-reduction method working and bettering his quality of life.
“That wasn’t anything he thought would be true for him, and today, to see him do these things? We just see harm reduction work,” Diss says.
Additionally, the project.ME also uses their space to store and distribute a variety of materials, including Narcan, hygiene products, and safe use kits. These kits include everything that a person needs to safely use many kinds of substances, including methamphetamine.
“They get these safe use kits because they’re clean,” Diss explains. “That just mitigates the risk for people.”
Those risks, according to the
National Harm Reduction Coalition, include contracting infectious diseases, overdosing, and unsafe consumption.
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Kara and Kiersa drop off safe-use kits and a variety of other materials from project.ME to local pantries.
Project.ME also offers testing strips, which are used to determine whether or not a substance has been laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is often laced into other drugs to make them cheaper to produce. Fentanyl is dangerous, and these test strips help drug users from unknowingly consuming it. The CDC estimates that in 2024, there were over 100,000 drug-related deaths in the United States, attributing 48,422 of those deaths to fentanyl.
In the last month, project.ME has distributed over 500 doses of Naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of opioid overdose.
In a typical week, the project.ME building is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
When stopping by the center, visitors are asked to sign in, though they are not required to give up any personal or identifiable information if they are uncomfortable doing so. This sign-in process helps the project.ME staff ensure they are presented with the appropriate materials and opportunities. After signing in, visitors are offered something to eat and drink before using the space.
“After somebody’s gotten their supplies, they can hang out here in the center for the duration,” Diss explains. “So, they can come up here and watch TV if they’d like, use the computers…But we have a lot of people who like to just come in and listen to music, and that’s all right.”
Project.ME hosts a variety of community events, including cookouts, movie nights, and even baby showers. Diss prides herself in creating a space that is both welcoming and safe for recovery, wishing to celebrate and uplift people who may not otherwise have support.
“People enter recovery, and then are like, ‘What do I do for fun? Where do I go and do stuff whereby the people, places, and things I’ve changed aren’t going to be?’” she says, explaining the importance of those community events. “We’re just trying to figure out some different ways to creatively do that.”
Starting in June, Diss plans to host a self-guided recovery group. With sixteen sessions based on various topics, this asynchronous group will meet monthly for a total of sixteen weeks.
Along with these group sessions, project.ME hosts certified peer recovery coaches who are available to work on a variety of matters, including those related to legal issues, substance abuse, mental health, and housing.
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Aisha Diss leading a group programDiss also employs a peer coach who works with veterans going through struggles related to or because of their service. Each person who visits the center is asked if they would like to work with a peer recovery coach, and can request one at any time after that. Each peer has relatable experiences with the people they are paired with. Diss says she values lived experience, and finds that connecting through it helps to make her work more personal.
“Peers, as far as we see it, are people who have relatable experiences, and all of us have experience with mental health, substance use, or justice involvement – in some cases, all three, including myself,” she says.
Project.ME also has computers for public use, complete housing assessments, and offers a closet, which relies on a donation-based system for people in need to get clothing. They offer four items free per week, and items are provided either from community contributions or partners, such as
The BRAVE Alliance. This is something Diss highlights as especially important because many of the people utilizing the center need the closet.
“Probably our fastest growing population is people who are unsheltered,” Diss says, “And very often, they lose all of their things. Or if they’re living in an encampment, they are sweeping encampments, and people lose all their belongings. So, the idea is, at least somebody can come in and get a full outfit every week.”
Diss and her team have one big goal – outreach. It’s a goal they are actively achieving. Their street team has interacted with over 1,200 individuals, and their building has had 839 contacts in the last month. That includes people coming in for one-on-one engagement and drop-ins for use of the center.
To learn more about project.ME, their programs, or how you can get involved,
visit their website.