![CASES Staff Highlight graphic of Rashida Smith, a woman with long black hair and brown skin. Her quote reads "We [peer specialists] are filled with resources because this was our life. We understand that company is better than being by yourself."](https://www.cases.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Rashida-Smith-Highlight-750-x-525-px-1.png)
Rashida Smith is an Overdose Prevention Coordinator with CASES Opioid Overdose Program, and with over 9 years of experience at CASES in substance use treatment, she knows this work like the back of her hand. Rashida started out at CASES as a Peer Specialist, or someone who utilizes their lived experience with the behavioral health and criminal legal systems to reach and mentor participants who are navigating mental illnesses, substance use, or incarceration. “What I love about that position,” Rashida says of being a Peer Specialist, “is that you’re not discriminated against for your past. We [peer specialists] are filled with resources because this was our life. We understand that company is better than being by yourself.” This can look like accompanying participants to public assistance and doctor’s appointments to help them navigate the very systems that Rashida once navigated herself. That way, in the future, they will have the confidence and knowledge to do it on their own.
Going hand in hand with her work as a Peer Specialist is Rashida’s work as an Overdose Prevention Coordinator. As someone who grew up with family members who struggled with substance use, Rashida understands this work on a personal level. She had no idea that this was her calling, but her growing understanding and compassion for her own family members led her down this path. “You may hold resentment for family members because you didn’t know what was going on,” Rashida says of the difficulties of growing up around substance use. “And when you get clarity, it lifts weight off your heart and makes you sympathetic to the participants you serve. You start to understand them in a totally different way. You understand they are just trying to get through everyday life, and now I’m not holding so much animosity and pain because I get it now. I can identify with the participants because I’m coming from that angle, because I do understand.”
Remarkably, Rashida took her overdose prevention work even further. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when overdose rates were spiking, Rashida started the Save a Life Crew, an initiative that recruits participants and equips them with valuable overdose education that they can use in their communities. “Save a Life Crew is my baby,” Rashida says about founding the program. “I felt like everybody was in a so-called gang. So I felt like, let’s make a Save a Life Crew gang.” Now the Crew identifies participants either with substance use histories or with an interest in overdose prevention and street homelessness and provides them with Narcan training. By the end of the training, they receive Narcan kits and blue cards that are signed by doctors, identifying them as official dispensers. With their blue cards, they can dispense Narcan to someone in danger of overdosing or even provide overdose and Narcan education to others. Including participants in social service work like this is not only educational; it helps them make a real impact on their communities in an incredibly rewarding way: “They just seem grateful and happy, like they’re a part of something. They’re a part of CASES.”
The Save a Life Crew, in addition to her roles as Peer Specialist and Overdose Prevention Coordinator, is a true testament to Rashida’s passion and ingenuity. This International Overdose Awareness Day, CASES is proud to recognize her work and honored to have her on our team!
