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Be Ready (naloxone)

Also: Be Ready to Save a Life · Text to Live · 90 Seconds to Save a Life

“Be ready to save a life and carry naloxone.”

District of Columbia Department of Behavioral Health harm reduction campaign (US-DC), running by August 2021 under the LIVE.LONG.DC. opioid plan, urging residents to 'be ready to save a life and carry naloxone' and to text LiveLongDC to 888-811 for a map of free naloxone sites or home delivery; extended with a social influencer wave and a restaurant toolkit.

Years
2021–now
Country
United States
Budget
Not published for this campaign. LIVE.LONG.DC. social marketing under the SOR grants, FY2019-FY2023: USD 3,695,880 to Engage Strategies (5 years) and USD 2,174,854 to Outfront Media Inc. (4 years) (DBH SOR funding report, 8 Nov 2023); these cover all LIVE.LONG.DC. campaigns, not this one alone.
Topic
Harm reductionOpioids
Asks people to
RecognizeStart
Strategy
Self efficacyService linkSimple instruction
Channel
InfluencerOutdoorPrintSMSSocial (paid)Website
Audience
AdultsGeneral public

Evidence

Self-reportedUnknown

DBH reported 56,810 naloxone kits distributed in FY2021, up 78% on FY2020 (sponsored DCist article, 2022); no campaign evaluation found.

Sponsor (who paid)

Credits (who made it)

  • Engage Strategies Creative, 2021 source

Executions (individual ads)

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. LIVE.LONG.DC.: Resources (Marketing Materials: Be Ready and MyRecoveryDC) sponsor
  2. DCist (sponsored by DBH): City leaders want District residents to 'be ready to save a life and carry naloxone' sponsor · 2022
  3. WJLA (sponsored): Be Ready to Save a Life, find Naloxone near you now sponsor · 2021
  4. Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington: Be Ready to Save a Life: Free Naloxone for DC Restaurants sponsor
  5. LIVE.LONG.DC. Stakeholder Summit, 28 July 2021: summary report (PDF) sponsor · 2021
  6. DC DBH: LIVE.LONG.DC. State Opioid Response Funding Report, 8 Nov 2023 (PDF) sponsor · 2023

Research notes

US-DC. Start year is the earliest dated 'Be Ready' piece found (WJLA sponsored segment, 17 Aug 2021); the text-to-locate service started in 2020 per DBH. Videos from the dcgovernment YouTube channel embedded on livelong.dc.gov (oEmbed-confirmed); upload years not captured. Discovered 2026-10-22 for #17. Credits checked 2026-10-22 against fetched pages: Engage Strategies (LIVE.LONG.DC. July 2021 summit report: 'Mike Bento, Engage Strategies shared a communications update ... The "Be Ready at Home" campaign is putting Text to Live information on 30,000 pizza boxes, 50,000 coffee sleeves, and 69,000 door hangers', plus a 30-second PSA before PG-13 and R films in DC cinemas). Role recorded as creative (the contractor 'finalized two creative concepts' for LIVE.LONG.DC. in 2019); it may also have planned media. Procurement search 2026-10-22: the DBH SOR funding report (8 Nov 2023) lists Engage Strategies, 'Social Marketing Campaign', 5 years, USD 3,695,880, and Outfront Media Inc., 'Social Marketing Campaign', 4 years, USD 2,174,854, among SOR prevention awardees FY2019-FY2023; Outfront (out-of-home media) is a possible media vendor for this campaign but no record ties it to it. Engage Strategies is identified as the LIVE.LONG.DC. social marketing contractor by the October 2019 summit report (Mike Bento of Engage presented the campaign launching 15 Nov 2019). No agency file created for Engage Strategies: its website could not be confirmed (engagestrategies.com is an unrelated South Carolina consultancy).

Record cases/dc-be-ready-naloxone.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign