Prevention Point Philadelphia head to step down after 16 years: ‘It’s time for a change for me’
Saying it’s “time for a change for me” after 30 years in social work, Benitez said leaving Prevention Point is his choice and that he is helping to plan the transition in leadership.
Jose Benitez, executive director of Prevention Point Philadelphia, will resign from his post in June after 16 years of leading the prominent Kensington-based nonprofit serving people in addiction.
Saying it’s “time for a change for me” after 30 years in social work, Benitez said that leaving Prevention Point was his choice, and that he has been in discussions with the health organization’s board since the beginning of April to help plan the leadership transition.
Silvana Mazzella — Prevention Point’s current associate director who has been with the group since 2008 — will replace Benitez as interim director after he steps down June 30. Board leaders said they plan to conduct a “comprehensive search” to permanently fill the role.
When it comes to the daily work of Prevention Point, which seeks to fill a regional void in addiction health care by offering services that range from needle drops to HIV testing to housing assistance, Benitez, 59, said, “nothing’s going to change.”
“We’re going to continue to deliver the service that we deliver to the 39,000 people that we deliver that service to,” he said. “In the future, that’s really probably for the board and the new leadership.”
That includes continuing to work with the city’s health department and “all of our funders,” Benitez said. Prevention Point is supported in part by $9.6 million in city funding.
In a statement, a spokesperson said the city’s health department is grateful for Benitez’s “exceptional leadership,” pointing to the growth many of Prevention Point’s services during his tenure, including the expansion of the organization’s syringe exchange program in response to a 2018 HIV outbreak.
“His vision and direction have been instrumental in ensuring that Prevention Point’s staff and programs continue to provide vital, lifesaving services to thousands of individuals annually,” the spokesperson said.
Benitez said he told staff about his plans to step down during a meeting Friday. After his resignation, Benitez said, he will continue to serve on the board of Safehouse, the nonprofit seeking to open a place in Philadelphia where people in addiction can use drugs under medical supervision.
Settlement talks in a lawsuit over the proposed supervised injection site are ongoing, but Benitez said his departure from Prevention Point has “nothing to do with Safehouse at all.”
Last year, an Inquirer investigation revealed years of compounding problems at the organization — including dangerous conditions and unchecked sexual harassment — jeopardized the health organization’s clients and employees. But Benitez said the former staffers’ stories also did not contribute to his decision to step down.
» READ MORE: Ex-employees of Philly’s prominent needle exchange say they faced dangerous conditions treating people in addiction
“This is just me feeling like it’s time to look at some new challenges,” Benitez said, adding that after June, he plans to take a break, travel, and “decide where I can make a difference and I can contribute something else.”
Ronda Goldfein, vice president of Safehouse who has worked alongside Benitez for years, called his efforts in harm reduction “tremendous.”
“There’s hundreds and hundreds of people in Kensington who rely on Prevention Point for clean syringes and wound care and food and treatment, medical treatment, physical, mental health, behavioral health treatment and I think that he’s really brought his sensitivities as a social worker to how Prevention Point operates,” said Goldfein, who also serves as executive director of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania.
Chyna Parker, a former Prevention Point respite center staffer who left the organization in 2020 after experiencing unsanitary conditions, violence, and sexual harassment from another staff member, said she was cautiously hopeful about what new leadership could mean for the nonprofit’s culture that she says failed her and others.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling,” she said. “A lot of people that work on the frontline staff, a lot of them have lived experience. So the fear of losing their job and losing a roof over their head, you know, sometimes you subject yourself to go through certain things.”
Founded in 1991 at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Prevention Point is the oldest needle exchange program in the city, and the only permanent site where drug users can trade in contaminated needles for clean ones.
The organization has also served as a political flashpoint and courted controversy from the community, where many residents feel that the city has not done enough to curb drug use and sales, burdening Kensington with social problems that wouldn’t be accepted in other neighborhoods. Though dozens of states have now passed laws legalizing syringe-exchange programs, Pennsylvania is not one of them, meaning the organization does not have state oversight.
“We’re sort of blamed for the opioid crisis in the community,” Benitez said. “I say to people all the time that people don’t come here for syringes, they are in the community because, you know, there’s access to drugs. It’s always been a challenge to sort of try and educate people on harm reduction and the stigma that’s associated with the people that we serve.”
According Prevention Point Board Chair Ann Ricksecker, during Benitez’s tenure the organization’s staff grew from 20 to 130, and the nonprofit broadened its services to include case management; in-house medical care including HIV, hepatitis C, and PrEP care; housing services; and treatment for opioid use disorder.
Benitez said he has been encouraged during his tenure to watch as harm reduction — an approach to addiction which seeks to keep drug users alive whether or not they’re ready to quit — has become a national discussion.
Particularly, he said he’s proud of the nonprofit’s low-barrier shelter, which opened in 2021 that’s become a national model. “We have people visiting from around the country to see what we do there, and how people are treated regardless of whether they’re going to do drugs or not. There’s a safe place for people to lay their heads down.”
Staff writers Abraham Gutman and Aubrey Whelan contributed to this article.