On Wednesday, the city of Long Beach unveiled nearly 20 new bus shelter ads, featuring student artwork that details the steps to reverse an opioid overdose.
Browning High School senior Anaya Lopez created the infographic through a project focused on highlighting solutions to the opioid crisis — by and for young people. The Youth Leadership Institute, a statewide organization, and the city’s Health Department partnered to support students on the project and disseminate their work through the community. The project was born after the City Council identified a dearth of harm-reduction resources for youth in Long Beach.
Lopez’s art features Nick the Nasal Spray, a character she created to represent Narcan, a medication used to reverse opioid overdose. Through a series of panels inspired by comic strips, Nick the Nasal Spray walks viewers through the steps to administer the lifesaving medicine.
The panels will be plastered on bus shelters across the city, with a focus on neighborhoods most impacted by overdoses, including downtown, Wrigley and North Long Beach. Educational efforts like this one may be having an impact: overdoses and deaths in Long Beach are declining by half, according to the Health Department.
You can read more about the project and the students behind it here.