Connections to Giving Back Inc
Organizational Member Since August 2026
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Connections to Giving Back is a grassroots, peer-led outreach and mutual aid organization rooted in radical love. We center dignity, unconditional care, and harm reduction in everything we do. We envision a Western New York where every person, regardless of their relationship with substances, their housing status, or their history, is met with love, access to resources, and the power to define their own well-being. We are building that community, together.
Ivette Chavez Gonzalez |
Founder
About the Organization
Connections to Giving Back, Inc. (CTGB) was founded in April 2022 and incorporated in May 2022 as a Western New York harm reduction organization led by people affected by substance use disorder, mental health challenges, and harmful drug policies. Its staff and Board of Directors includes people who use or have used drugs, sex workers, people experiencing homelessness or poverty, HIV and HCV survivors, people impacted by incarceration and people who have struggled with mental health. CTGB began as a monthly mutual aid effort on Buffalo’s East Side in the 14211 ZIP code, using donated and self-funded resources to provide meals, clothing, harm reduction supplies, and support. Founder and Executive Director Ivette Chavez Gonzalez built CTGB around a simple commitment: resources unavailable to her while she was using drugs should be freely available today. CTGB now provides mobile peer outreach five times each week, including after hours, as well as a monthly outreach event designed to reach people whose needs are not adequately met by traditional service models. Services include first-line mental health support, overdose prevention education, sterile syringes and safer-use supplies, fentanyl and xylazine test strips, naloxone, sharps containers, safer smoking and wound care supplies, and education on drug adulterants and mental health concerns. Since July 2025, CTGB reports distributing 8,130 syringes and 60 safer smoking kits. Peers provide nonjudgmental listening, practical support, education, and participant-directed navigation to substance use treatment, medication treatment, mental health and medical care, HIV and HCV testing, housing assistance, support groups, and other resources. CTGB primarily serves adults whose substance use intersects with mental health challenges, trauma, housing instability, poverty, social isolation, and criminal legal or institutional involvement. With participant consent, peers may assist family members or chosen supports while protecting privacy and autonomy.
