The Beginning

It was a cold December day in 2020, six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, in a subway station in Center City Philadelphia. Overdoses were higher than they had been in years, and nearly all existing outreach organizations had stopped going out, leaving people desperately in need of support.

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Jen had been doing street outreach for years, handing out food, naloxone, and more to people on the streets. Shannon had just started—and she had shown up unprepared, quickly running out of supplies. Jen saw that Shannon had nothing left and, without a second thought, loaded her up with items from her car. 

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Finding the Missing Piece

For three hours, we distributed food, connected with people, and responded to the community’s immediate needs. At the end of the afternoon, we exchanged names and phone numbers—and kept showing up together.

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Soon after, we found Tom, this time in a parking lot in Kensington. He brought a simple rule that would shape the organization: never say no to donations. Whatever people offered—food, clothing, supplies—we made sure it got to the people who needed it most. His approach helped turn a small, grassroots effort into something much bigger.

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The Everywhere Project is Born

Four months after our chance encounter in the subways, in March 2021,  we filled our articles of incorporation for The Everywhere Project.

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In the early days, outreach was straightforward but demanding. We prepped a lot of our own food, made all our own kits, and handled all prep, set-up, and breakdown ourselves. A few tables, a handful of volunteers, and lots of figuring it out as we went. Just like they do now, our volunteers moved quickly, adapted on the fly, and relied on each other while serving the community. That flexible, people-first approach became the backbone of how we operate today.

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Growth and Impact

What started as three people responding to immediate needs has grown into a citywide harm reduction effort. Since then, The Everywhere Project has distributed more than 5 million meals and has become the second largest provider of safer use supplies in Philadelphia. Our first week in Love Park, we served 30 people. Now, we serve an average of 300 people per week at our Wednesday site. 

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But despite our growth, the core of our work has never changed:

• Meet people where they are. 

• Respond to what the community needs.

• When resources are offered, we never say no.
   

Why “Everywhere”?

The name The Everywhere Project comes from a simple belief: people use substances everywhere, and they deserve support everywhere—not just in the places where drug use is visible. From the start, we have focused on showing up wherever the community needs help, making sure care, resources, and dignity reach everyone, no matter where they are. We believe that people need people and none of us can get through life alone. 

 

The Everywhere Project gained 501c3 nonprofit status in May of 2021 and all donations are fully tax deductible.