Awards
Harm Reduction International presents a number of awards at our international conference to acknowledge the contributions of outstanding groups or individuals in the field.
Read about past award winners here.
The Carol and Travis Jenkins Award
Since the 15th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm in Belfast (2005), this award has been presented each year to a current or former drug user who has made an outstanding contribution to reducing drug related harm.
The award was initially named after Travis Jenkins, the extraordinary jazz musician and composer who died of cancer in 2004. Travis Jenkins overcame a heroin addiction in order to marry and raise two sons, travel around the world with his anthropologist wife and create his music. For 2009, the award has been renamed the Carol and Travis Jenkins Award in memory of Carol Jenkins, who worked for many years with the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research as a medical anthropologist, and was one of the leading instigators to setting up the National Aids Council. Carol Jenkins was renowned for her research into sexual behaviour and was a leading expert on HIV and AIDS. Equally important was her connection with the Hagahai people of Papua New Guinea, who were her second family.
Nominations for The Carol and Travis Jenkins Award have now closed.
The Brooklyn Mcneil Rae of Hope Award
At this year's conference, the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP) will launch the Brooklyn Mcneil Rae of Hope Award to honour the best scientific abstract in the area of harm reduction or drug policy. The aim of this award is to encourage high-quality scientific research to support evidence-based advocacy efforts in drug policy reform. The winner will receive a waiver to publish in the peer-reviewed open-access Harm Reduction Journal, as well as 750 CAD.
The award is named for Brooklyn Rae Mcneil, a vocal advocate for safer injection sites and a vital support in the lives of many people who use drugs in Toronto, Canada. As a harm reduction activist whose life was cut too short as a result of an opioid overdose, Brooklyn’s spirit serves as an unwavering reminder of the need to conduct research and evidence-based advocacy to prevent the senseless loss of lives that could be avoided with drug policies grounded in evidence and human rights.
About the ICSDP
The ICSDP is committed to improving community health and safety by conducting research and outreach on best practices in drug policy while working collaboratively with government stakeholders and affected communities to help guide effective and evidence-based policy responses to substance use. The ICSDP will sponsor the Brooklyn Mcneil Rae of Hope Award at every subsequent Harm Reduction International Conference.
The International Rolleston Award
This award was first presented at the ‘3rd International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm’ in Melbourne in 1992. Each year, it is given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to reducing harms from psychoactive substances at an international level.
The award is named after Sir Humphrey Rolleston, President of the Royal College of Physicians who chaired the UK Departmental Committee on Morphine and Heroin Addiction. In 1926 this committee concluded that the prescription of heroin or morphine could be regarded as legitimate medical treatment for those in whom withdrawal produces serious symptoms that cannot be treated satisfactorily under normal practice and, for those for who are able to lead a useful and fairly normal life so long as they take a certain non-progressive quantity, usually small, of the drug of addiction, but cease to be able to do so when the regular allowance is withdrawn. This decision epitomises a benign, pragmatic and humane approach to drug problems, and was a landmark event in the history of harm reduction.
Nominations for the International Rolleston Award are now closed.
The National Rolleston Award
This award was first presented at the ‘3rd International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm’ in Melbourne in 1992. Each year, it is given to an individual or organisation for their outstanding contributions to reducing harm from psychoactive substances at the national level in the country that is hosting the harm reduction conference.
Nominations are now closed.
The Film Festival Award
This award is jointly presented by Harm Reduction International and the Burnet Institute (Australia) to the best film or documentary at the International Drugs and Harm Reduction Film Festival – which has run in parallel to the international harm reduction conference since 2004.
Submissions for the film festival will be accepted from early 2017.
