SOM students renovate Truth Pharm for community service project, help nonprofit address substance use

Before this year, Alexis Geras’ knowledge about a NARCAN® kit’s ability to reverse the deadly effects of an opioid overdose was minimal.

Within two months, she and fellow students in the School of Management (SOM) PwC Scholars program became experts in its use and led a training session for more than 100 fellow students on the Binghamton University campus.

This is just one of the lessons Geras, vice president of development for PwC Scholars and a junior business administration major, alongside Garrett Barth, president of the PwC Scholars, and other SOM students have taken away from their annual community service project working with Truth Pharm. The Binghamton-area nonprofit raises awareness through programs and services that advocate for policy changes to reduce the harms caused by substance use.

Each year, the PwC Scholars develop and execute a large-scale community service project with a local non-profit organization. For the 2022-23 project, the scholars spent more than two months renovating Truth Pharm’s headquarters in Binghamton, N.Y., with the goal of providing a larger and more welcoming space to help the nonprofit advance its work in the community.

Scholars raised about $15,000 for the project throughout the year and will mark its conclusion Friday, April 28, with a PwC Community Service Day event at the project site.

Of all the projects considered for this year, Geras said, ‘this one was the most moving.”

Truth Pharm’s founder, Alexis Pleus, lost her oldest son in 2014 to a heroin overdose. Since then, the volunteer organization has worked to address the opioid epidemic through harm reduction strategies, as well as concentrated on social and racial justice issues.

“This project was also very eye-opening, especially when we did NARCAN® training. Addiction isn’t a choice, it’s a disease, and that’s something we learned while working on this project,” Geras said. “It was a chance for us to help with a larger issue affecting people in this community.”

Work scholars performed for the Truth Pharm project included:

• Redesigning the office space
• New flooring for office space and meeting rooms
• Painting walls and murals in the building
• Street cleanup and a new outdoor banner
• Assembly of NARCAN® kits

“Truth Pharm staff, volunteers and the community we serve are so grateful for this incredible project to make some major and desperately needed upgrades to our interior and exterior spaces,” Pleus said. “It is so important to us that our space is beautiful and welcoming for the people that we serve, we want our care for them reflected even in the space we serve them in and now, we can certainly say it does!”

She continued, “We have been able to make our space more practical as well having specific spaces now dedicated to client services, support groups and a multi-purpose learning center all in beautiful and vibrant colors that match the spirit of our organization.”

Geras said the project expanded in scope after Truth Pharm was able to procure an additional suite in its office on Pine Street in Binghamton. That added space enabled the more than 100 scholars who participated to perform improvements at the site beyond their initial plans.

“It’s important to remember that people abusing substances are still human beings,” Geras said, “and we’re proud that we were able to help Truth Pharm provide a more welcoming space for them to receive the help they need.”