Every year, the opioid epidemic steals more than 100,000 lives, costs more than $1.3 trillion and causes immeasurable heartbreak across North America. However, making opioid overdoses a thing of the past is a mission Brave Co-op believes it can achieve.

Brave is a technology co-op that makes overdose detection tools that activate life-saving community response. Today on the podcast Jason speaks with the Founder and CEO of Brave, Gordon Casey. They discuss Brave’s mission, the products and services they offer, why having compassion for and working directly with people who use drugs (pwud) is so important, the reason Gordon was set on a Co-op vs traditional LLC or corporation, and so much more.

To learn more about Brave, visit their website here. 

To get in touch with Gordon directly, email Gordon@brave.coop

Follow Brave: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn

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• What Brave does and how it got started (00:50)
• Developing tools through hands-on research in the field (04:30)
• Pushback received and how Brave responds (06:17)
• The FDA Challenge that started it all (10:31)
• Pivoting to a button based system for housing sites and winning the Ohio Opioid Technology Challenge (15:02)
• Expansion of Brave post-challenge win (21:31)
• Why a Co-op and the three types of members at Brave (26:13)
• Active programs and locations (33:00)
• The future for Brave and ideal partners(35:31)
• Working in Canada vs the US (39:51)
• Biggest lessons learned to pass on to new community response programs (45:04)

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HOST

Jason Friesen is the Founder and Executive Director of Trek Medics International, a 501c3-registered nongovernmental organization (NGO) dedicated to improving access to emergency response networks in communities across the globe through innovative mobile phone technologies.

Learn more about Trek Medics International by visiting their website, and for more info on the Beacon Crisis Response Platform visit here.

Follow Trek Medics on: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

Theme song: "Happy Feliz" by ¡Big Grande! (used with permission).