Introduction
COIP offers services free to the public at five community-based locations throughout Chicago, in a friendly, open-door (no appointment needed) environment for people to drop in and seek help with a wide variety of problems. COIP also has a Mobile Outreach Unit to provide services anywhere in Chicago. COIP services include:
**Our services are offered by bilingual and multicultural staff**
COIP Harm Reduction Program
COIP began in 1986 as a federally funded demonstration program designed to assess the effectiveness of the peer-led Indigenous Leader Outreach Model (ILOM) to intervene in the HIV epidemic through street outreach to people who inject drugs (PWID). Persons with prior lived experience using drugs were hired and trained to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, provide HIV prevention education, encourage behavioral risk reduction, and distribute harm reduction materials to at-risk community members. Peer- delivered HIV testing, drug use harm reduction education, substance use counseling, and linkage to drug treatment have been integral elements of our intervention services for Persons Who Use Drugs (PWUD) since 1988 and have been maintained continuously through today.
COIP Harm Reduction staff at our field offices and on our mobile HR van routinely engage homeless and housing insecure PWUD and offer comprehensive harm reduction and overdose education, and access to an array of harm reduction materials, including sterile syringes and naloxone to reverse an overdose event. In addition to harm reduction education and materials, these staff market other COIP services and provide informal discussions to answer client/patient questions regarding medical care, MOUD treatment, other medical services, referral to housing and other basic needs, and to explore alternate pathways to reduce harm caused by daily drug use.
During the first half of 2025, the COIP Harm Reduction Program distributed 1693 naloxone kits to reverse an overdoses, 2,785 drug testing strips to test for dangerous adulterants such as fentanyl, xylazine and benzodiazepine, 65,627 sterile syringes, and 3,464 other safer drug use kits.
COIP Mobile MOUD (Medications for Opioid Use Disorder) Program
In 2021, COIP collaborated with the UIC Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy to develop and implement the COIP Mobile Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) Program which deploys a mobile health van to provide the low-barrier MOUD buprenorphine, as well as primary care, wound care, rapid HIV & HCV testing, vaccination services, and referral to partnering community agency services.
The health van is staffed by an interprofessional team consisting of peer outreach workers, peer recovery support specialists, clinical pharmacists, and physicians. This group works in tandem with COIP’s Risk Reduction services to reach at-risk PWUD in Chicago’s West side, an area with the highest opioid overdose rates in the region, to provide a variety of health care services in a holistic way. In 2024, COIP initiated the Mobile MOUD Expansion Program and deployed 3 health care vans to offer our mobile medical services in additional geographic areas, including communities on Chicago’s south side and suburban locales.
During FY24 the combined Mobile MOUD teams served 491 patients through 1382 van visits, with 1242 of these visits for MOUD treatment.
COIP Recovery Support Services Programs
Recovery Support Specialist (RSS) Program
Since its inception in 2016, the RSS program has delivered non-clinical recovery supports that meet people where they are in their journey. Services include relapse prevention education, HIV/HCV/STI testing, recovery coaching, and connections to housing, transportation, and food supports.
These services include social support, linkage to and coordination of care typically offered by partnering ROSC providers, and a full range of other social services that facilitate recovery and wellness and contribute to improving the client’s quality of life. Recovery support service provision is flexible and can be offered prior to, during, and after a treatment episode. Recovery services may be provided with other treatment care or as a separate and distinct service to individuals/families during treatment.
FY25 Impact: The RSS team reached 500+ individuals, with 62 successfully linked to Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) programs.
Opioid Response Team (ORT)
In 2022, COIP began deploying a “sobering tent” alongside the MOUD and harm reduction services to provide a safe space and post-overdose monitoring to PWID and other PWUD on the west side, where PWUD are at increased risk for overdose. In January 2023, COIP deployed a squad of Peer Recovery Coaches to work alongside Chicago Fire Department EMT workers as part of the city’s I-CARE Opioid Response Team (ORT) initiative. In 2024, this program shifted its aims to have the team focus on several homeless encampments on the west side of Chicago.
COIP’s ORT takes intervention services to encampment locations where PWUD are at, eliminating the need to have clients/patients travel to brick-and-mortar office locations. Peer staff also provide linkage to other complementary health and social services by providing bus passes or directly transporting clients to the service agencies.
During its first year of HCV, the ORT focused on the three locations with the highest rates of substance use and drug overdose.
FY25 Impact: The ORT expanded its reach to six encampments, providing 540 repeat engagements with 170 residents. By reducing barriers to care, the ORT continues to save lives, restore dignity, and build trust with some of Chicago’s most vulnerable communities.
COIP SUD-focused Primary Care Clinics
COIP currently collaborates with UIC Urban Health Program and the UIC College of Nursing to implement the Substance Use Primary Care Clinic at COIP’s Austin community-based field station. This clinic, funded by the Hearst Foundation and the Chicago Department of Public Health, was started in 2018 to provide medical care to patients accessing COIP harm reduction services. The service delivery model built upon COIP’s existing service programs, initially to engage PWID seeking HCV treatment and wound care for skin abscesses. These clinic services have expanded and now include primary care, MOUD, hepatitis C treatment, HIV care, PrEP, STI testing, and psychiatric care. Patients can also access the broader University of Illinois Health (UIH) System resources including specialty referrals.
West Side Clinic Services for Persons who Use Drugs
In 2018, COIP began providing medical/behavioral health clinic services at its West Side Field Station, located in the Austin neighborhood. The clinic is located in the back of the harm reduction/syringe service program and is open to all. At this location, we provide walk-in medical care, including: substance use disorder treatment (including low-threshold opioid use disorder treatment with buprenorphine, medication management for alcohol use disorder, extended-release naltrexone, and same-day referrals to a higher level of care if needed), primary care, HIV care, Hepatitis C testing and treatment, wound care, STI testing and treatment, and reproductive health care. Currently the clinic sees patients on Mondays and Fridays.
Medical services are similarly provided to all on a walk-in basis, regardless of ability to pay. At the West Side Field Station clinic on Mondays and Fridays, providers are available on a walk-in basis from 11-4. All patients are registered and seen by the providers, regardless of ability to pay. Providers do bill for services if a patient has insurance; however, if a patient is not insured, the medical team still evaluates the patient but does not submit a bill for services. If a patient requires medications, we partner with the UIC-affiliated Federally Qualified Health Center Mile Square, which can provide medications on a sliding scale basis and offers expedited appointments, including telehealth appointments for our patients.