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Wednesday, November 11, 2026Nov 11

Chattanooga overdose awareness event to ‘meet people where they’re at’

Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Britney Graham and Robert Childs hand out fentanyl test strips at the Volunteer Comprehensive Treatment Center on Aug. 31, 2023. Test strips, naloxone and other supplies are set to be handed out at an International Overdose Awareness Day event in Chattanooga on Saturday.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Britney Graham and Robert Childs hand out fentanyl test strips at the Volunteer Comprehensive Treatment Center on Aug. 31, 2023. Test strips, naloxone and other supplies are set to be handed out at an International Overdose Awareness Day event in Chattanooga on Saturday. Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Britney Graham and Robert Childs hand out fentanyl test strips at the Volunteer Comprehensive Treatment Center on Aug. 31, 2023. Test strips, naloxone and other supplies are set to be handed out at an International Overdose Awareness Day event in Chattanooga on Saturday.

In Hamilton County, the Lee Highway area reports the highest rates of overdose and drug use, harm reduction advocates say.

It’s home to several low-rent apartments and motels where people live on weekly or monthly rates.

But it’s far from some of the county’s best resources for treatment and preventing overdose, Robert Childs, with Chattanooga Harm Reduction, said.

“We looked at where people were dying,” Childs said by phone. “We wanted to host something in a space where directly impacted people would be welcome and easily able to get to, to meet people where they’re at.”

If you go

What: Overdose Awareness Day event