Open Exchange TA
Operations TA for NC Harm Reduction Programs
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Open Exchange TA is a free, one-on-one technical assistance program for harm reduction programs across North Carolina. The program focuses on operational and administrative support: grant readiness, financial systems, data infrastructure, and sustainability planning.
Learning Labs
Learning Labs
Open Exchange TA Learning Labs is a monthly, 45-minute virtual learning series for North Carolina's syringe service programs, covering the operational and administrative work of running a program: grant readiness, financial management, data systems, peer workforce, and more.
Financial Management Basics
You started a harm reduction program because people needed one. Nobody warned you that half the job would be budgets, receipts, and figuring out how to actually get money out of a grant you already won.
Two 45-minute sessions on the money part, built for programs in their first years. No accounting background needed and none assumed. Session one builds a real budget from scratch, live, so you can see how every number gets reasoned out instead of guessed. Session two covers what happens after the award letter: how funds actually reach your account, what paperwork a request needs, and how to shift money between lines without creating a cost your funder refuses to pay.
Includes two tools you keep: a budget builder, and a tracker that turns your expenses into the monthly request your funder needs.
October 22, 11:00 - 11:45 am
Financial Management Basics: Part 2 - Tracking Expenses & Getting Paid
An award letter is not money in the bank. Learn how funds actually move from a funder to your account, what documentation a request requires, and how to change a budget mid-year without creating a disallowed cost.
September 17, 11:00 - 11:45 am
Financial Management Basics: Part 1 - Budget Building Basics
You have probably filled in a budget template someone handed you. This is different. Working from a harm reduction program viewpoint, we build one from scratch, live, line by line, and you get to watch the sausage get made. Then we add funder columns and the same budget gets split across awards.
June 24, 11:00 - 11:45 am
Core Operations and Reporting
Guest: Sally Reeske
Core Operations and Reporting covers the state requirements and operational foundations every NC-registered SSP needs to know: reporting requirements, SSP supplies guidance, basic service data tracking, and best practices. NC DHHS Harm Reduction Coordinator Sally Reeske joins to walk through the annual reporting process before the July portal opens.
Contact Chris Kliesch with any questions or to request one on one TA.
July 16, 11:00 - 11:45 am
Getting Grant Ready - what you need and how to get it before the grant is due
Getting Grant Ready covers items every NC SSP needs in place before applying for funding: fiscal sponsorship and organizational form, registrations, policies, budget and chart of accounts, and data collection. Participants leave with a self-assessment they can use to identify what their program is missing and a path to one-on-one TA on any single category.
Contact Chris Kliesch with any questions or to request one on one TA.
SAM and eVP registration instructions
August 20, 11:00 - 11:45 am
Grant Writing 101 - writing proposals that get funded
In this free 45-minute Learning Lab, we walk through what goes in a grant proposal section by section: statement of need, project description, goals and objectives, evaluation, organizational capacity, sustainability, budget, and attachments. We close with where North Carolina programs actually find funding, including foundations, federal agencies, and county opioid settlement funds.
You leave with the Grant Proposal Writing Guide and Template, a fill-in document that covers every section we discuss.
Built for syringe service program staff who have never written a grant or are early in learning. Co-facilitated by Chris Kliesch and Elyse Powell of the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition.
Contact Chris Kliesch with any questions or to request one on one TA.
Grant Writing 101 Handout & Template
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