Skip to main content

Grantee Projects

Reset

Izard County

AR

This project will serve the Sixteenth Judicial District in northern Arkansas, a rural region comprised of five counties: Izard, Stone, Fulton, Cleburne, and Independence. The mission of this project is to reduce the impact of substance misuse, including overdose deaths, in the area. This will be accomplished by helping more people with substance use disorder (SUD) receive treatment instead of entering the criminal justice system. This project will also help increase community awareness about substance misuse and improve the ability of law enforcement agencies and communities to respond to overdoses. The primary focus for activities will be law enforcement deflection/diversion and access to peer recovery support services, and most of the activities will be conducted by COSSAP investigators and peer recovery support specialists (PRSS). Peers are individuals who have experienced SUD, are in sustained recovery, and have been trained to help others achieve recovery. By expanding access to peer support services, this project will connect more people with SUD to the treatment they desperately need. COSSAP investigators are deputies from the Izard County Sheriff’s office who are also assigned to the existing Drug Task Force for the district. Having designated COSSAP agents on the district task force will ensure that more cases involving substance use can be referred for peer support and that treatment arrangements can be made as quickly as possible. This project will also include outreach and education activities across the district and will improve the accuracy and efficiency of data collection. Allowable activities include: (1) enhancing access to peer recovery support services (35 percent); (2) law enforcement and first responder deflection and diversion (35 percent); (3) embedding PRSS at multiple points of Sequential Intercept Model (10 percent); (4) prevention programs to connect law enforcement agencies with K-12 students (10 percent); (5) drug take-back programs (5 percent); (6) data collection (5 percent).

Read More

Arizona Criminal Justice Commission

AZ

The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC) is applying for Category 2 in the amount of $6,000,000. The Arizona Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP) will advance Arizona’s goal of reducing overdose deaths by providing services to people involved in Arizona’s local justice system. The ACJC will make a total of nine competitive sub-awards to local sites to implement law enforcement diversion programs or virtual peer recovery services. The ACJC will work collaboratively with the nine sites to serve the unique needs of each community, while leveraging the states resources, training experience, and expertise to implement impactful, evidence-based strategies. The ACJC will also build the capacity of the local justice system, including jails and local law enforcement agencies, to implement these programs through robust training and technical assistance, including peer-to-peer learning and cross-site coordination. The project serves the entire state of Arizona, which has a population of 7,421,401. The project includes partnerships with the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (the state agency for substance misuse services), the Tucson Police Department, Heritage Health Solutions, and the Arizona Sheriffs Association. Priority considerations addressed in this application include making sub-awards to communities with a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; a lack of accessibility to treatment providers, facilities, and emergency medical services; and providing services to a high poverty area. Applicants will also be asked to demonstrate how their sub-award will further OJP’s priority of building trust between law enforcement and the community.

Read More

Navajo County

AZ

Navajo County, Arizona, in partnership with the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP), will implement the County Overdose Prevention and Engagement (COPE) Program. The program, based on the Ten Essential Elements of Opioid Intervention Courts, will utilize a rapid response team of justice system and behavioral health practitioners to identify individuals at risk of drug overdose immediately after arrest and link them with evidence-based treatment, recovery support services, and ongoing monitoring. The goal of the program is to prevent overdose deaths and increase long-term treatment engagement among at-risk individuals. The first year of the grant will focus on project design and implementation. Navajo County will assemble a steering committee of key justice system, behavioral health, and public health partners to oversee the project’s development. With NADCP’s technical support, Navajo County will conduct a comprehensive needs assessment to ensure the program is designed to meet the needs of at-risk individuals and maximize the use of local resources. Navajo County and NADCP will then finalize the program design, provide role-based training to staff, and implement a data collection protocol for measuring project outcomes. In year two, Navajo County will launch the program in its two largest courts. Each arrestee will be screened for risk of overdose before their first court appearance. High-risk individuals who opt into the program will receive a same-day warm handoff to Community Bridges, a leading treatment provider. Participants will also receive recovery support services and ongoing supervision by pre-trial services officers. Supervision, including random drug testing and regular check-in meetings, will inform any needed adjustments to the participant’s treatment plan. Participants’ legal cases will be stayed for 90 days so they can focus on treatment, after which their cases will resume. Many participants will ultimately be referred to a drug court, mental health court, or other program for longer-term treatment, while others may go through regular case processing. In the final year, Navajo County and NADCP will use program data for continuous quality improvement, making real-time adjustments to the program model to achieve the greatest possible impact. NADCP will assist Navajo County in producing a final report documenting program implementation and results. The Arizona Administrative Office of the Courts supports this program and may look to replicate the program in other counties if successful.

Read More

Los Angeles County

CA

The Los Angeles Department of Health Services proposes to implement a Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program in the geographic area of East Los Angeles. Grant funds will be used to hire staff of the LEAD program including an attorney, sheriff’s deputies, and a Project Coordinator. Funds will also be used to secure reentry case management, transitional housing services, and purchase naloxone for distribution. Project partners include the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, and community-based organizations. The applicant will engage Ricky Bluthenthal of the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California as the research partner.

Read More

Arapahoe County Colorado

CO

The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office services an area with a population of over 500,000. The project will allow the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office to expand evidence-based substance use treatment and peer recovery support services to individuals in custody and provide critical reentry needs such as transitional housing and peer recovery support services. These services are essential to supporting treatment engagement. The project addresses COSSUP's allowable use of implementing evidence-based substance use disorder treatment related to opioids, stimulants, and other drugs and recovery support services for pre-trial and post-trial populations leaving jail. Deliverables include providing discharge planning for 750 detention center residents over the life of the grant, providing transitional housing for 262 indigent detention residents transitioning from the detention facility to the community over the life of the grant, and providing virtual peer recovery support services to up to 503 individuals as they transition from the detention facility to the community.

Read More

Boulder County

CO

Boulder County applied for a Category 1b suburban area grant in the amount of $884,014. Project RENTR (Readiness, Engagement, Navigation, Treatment, and Recovery) will implement a range of allowable grant activities, including evidenced-based treatment services, peer recovery support services, pre- and post-booking treatment alternative to incarceration approaches, and court-based interventions. Project RENTR will increase services and treatment options for those with substance use disorders in pretrial/pre-booking, including those benefitting from a new Colorado law that reclassifies a misdemeanor drug felony as a misdemeanor. Project RENTR will also provide access to comprehensive screenings, assessments, case management, and treatment in the jail environment. The project will continue case management services for 90 days during the reentry process and accelerate access to community-based treatment options. This project serves Boulder County, Colorado, which has a population of 326,196. The project includes partnerships with the Boulder County Community Services Department. Priority considerations addressed in this application include high-poverty and persistent-poverty counties and Qualified Opportunity Zones.

Read More

City of Alamosa

CO

The City of Alamosa applied for Category 1c tribal/rural area grant funding in the amount of $599,997. The Specialized Case Management program will provide a non-arrest, community partner pathway to connect addicted individuals to intensive case management and harm-reduction resources using the evidence- based TASC Specialized Case management and Let Everyone Advance with Dignity (LEAD) model. The City of Alamosa is creating a system of care that will allow individuals to receive appropriate levels of service and treatment to address root challenges rather than utilizing a criminal justice system clearly not equipped to address substance use disorder effectively. The Specialized Case Management program will provide a third pathway into intensive case management, service coordination, and connection to harm- reduction resources. This project serves approximately 50,000 residents in the 12th Judicial District. The project includes partnerships between the City of Alamosa, Center for Restorative Programs, and the 12th Judicial District Office of the District Attorney. Priority considerations addressed in this application include the disproportionate impact of opioids and other substances on the region, the specific challenges faced by rural communities, and the high poverty area served by the project.

Read More

Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment

CO

The Pueblo County Department of Public Health and Environment (PDPHE) is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $899,280. The Pueblo County Partners for Data (PCPD) and Substance Abuse Response project will expand substance use and treatment datasets using quantitative and qualitative data from existing PCPD partner agencies (safety, health systems, harm reduction, schools, and social services) and new partnerships; facilitate data sharing and integration among partners; cultivate community partner and member use of the data to recognize gaps and make real-time decisions to reduce the impact of substance use on individuals and communities, reduce overdose deaths, and mitigate impacts on crime victims; enhance data infrastructure, including the data software and hardware to effectively manage a larger quantity of data; provide technical assistance to partners to collect data and assist with data organization in a compatible manner; disseminate data to the public, community partners, and community leaders so they are informed and able to make decisions based on substance use trends; and ensure data collection, analysis, and dissemination incorporate a health equity lens with the focus on reducing bias and disparities. The project will be carried out by a core team of five individuals working in the Office of Policy and Strategic Implementation at PDPHE. Deliverables include an enhanced data dashboard with additional quantitative measures such as MAT encounters, social determinants of health, prescriptions, and qualitative measures incorporating local stories; a data network where community partners, members, and researchers can request datasets based on research questions and programmatic or policy needs; a governance agreement to outline how to share, format, translate, link, and integrate data while adhering to appropriate privacy requirements to enhance data infrastructure; and an inclusive Health Equity in Data plan including community member involvement to guide data collection, analysis, and dissemination. The project serves Pueblo County, which has an estimated population of 168,424. The project includes partnerships between the PCPD and the District Attorney’s Office, the county Department of Human Services, local law enforcement agencies, hospitals, Pueblo Triple Aim Corporation, a federally qualified health center, a transitional housing center, the local fire department, and a behavioral health provider. The project will engage an external evaluation team. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities. The project will also support efforts to protect the public from crime and evolving threats, promote civil rights, and build trust between law enforcement and the community.

Read More

Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services

CT

The Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) is applying for Category 2 funding in the amount of $5,999,998. The Community and Law Enforcement for Addiction Recovery (CLEAR) Project is a multilateral, community-based opioid overdose response program that will be piloted in six jurisdictions across Connecticut. The CLEAR Project will establish partnerships between community agencies and law enforcement to increase connections to care for people with a substance use disorder (SUD) and create a collaborative response to addiction among community partners. For each jurisdiction, the CLEAR Project will conduct assessments; implement an IPIS/Cordata Integrated System for data tracking and referral management; establish a coordinated safety net of recovery coaches and overdose response teams; support families, including through the identification and referral to services of children impacted by a family member’s SUD; increase access to medication-assisted treatment; and implement a community-based, data-driven dispatch response to surges in overdoses. The goal is to create a replicable model for overdose response that can be scaled in communities across the entire state. Sites were selected based on need, population diversity, and readiness to implement the program. The project serves Bridgeport, Greenwich, Norwalk, Torrington, Winsted, and the State Police Troop B and State Police Troop L service districts; together, the districts represent much of Fairfield and Litchfield counties. The project includes partnerships between DMHAS and the McCall Center for Behavioral Health, Liberation Programs Inc., the Bridgeport Police Department, the Greenwich Police Department, the Norwalk Police Department, the Torrington Police Department, and the Winsted Police Department. The project will engage Dr. Carol Gregory and Dr. Kelly Firesheets as evaluation partners. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rates of overdose deaths. The project will also benefit individuals residing in high-poverty areas.

Read More

New Castle County

DE

The New Castle County Division of Police is proposing to expand Hero Help, a law enforcement led diversion by creating a team (substance abuse clinician, nurse, police officer, case manager, victim advocate) embedded in the patrol division, to respond immediately to 9-1-1 calls for service. Grant funds support a full-time project coordinator, nurse, child victim advocate (respond to overdose where children are impacted) and a licensed clinician. Additionally, to improve analytic capacity, develop a data collection tool to capture near real-time fatal and nonfatal overdoses. University of Delaware, Center for Drug and Health Studies, and Daniel O’Connell will serve as the research partner.

Read More

Florida Office of the State Courts Administrator

FL

The Florida Office of the State Courts Administrator proposes that five established family dependency drug courts increase the number of families they serve and it proposes to institute/enhance peer-support programs; incorporate medication-assisted treatment; establish substance use disorder prevention programs for the children whose parents are participants in family dependency drug court; execute evidence-based, parent-child relationship-strengthening programs; strengthen peer-to-peer collaboration among sites with an annual all-sites meeting and cross-site visits; and increase training and technical assistance regarding substance use disorder and opioid use disorder. This project serves family dependency drug courts in Broward, Palm Beach, Orange, Marion, and Citrus counties. Dr. Barbara Andraka-Christou and her team from the University of Central Florida will serve as the evaluator for this project.

Read More

Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners

FL

COSSAP funding supports a care coordinator/housing specialist assisting Clients in finding a recovery housing placement using Recovery Housing Vouchers. Recovery support services are provided by engagement with a peer recovery support specialist and using the enhancement funding through the Recovery Support Services Funds. This intervention program prioritizes and expedites recovery support services to individuals at high risk for overdose. The Office of Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorders (OBHSUD) seeks to fund a comprehensive person-centered, recovery-oriented approach with the goal of ensuring housing stability to support persons involved with the criminal justice system who have a substance use disorder. This demonstration program focuses on achieving housing stability given its key predictive value in achieving long-term recovery outcomes. The program team participates and works closely with the County’s strategic government and community partners as well as its research partner, Florida Atlantic University, to define and measure housing stability standards, and other recovery support interventions in the recovery residence environment in order to determine their impact on long-term recovery outcomes.

Read More

Fulton County

GA

The County of Fulton applied for Category 1a urban grant funding in the amount of $1,200,000. The Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program will expand Fulton County’s comprehensive efforts to identify, respond to, treat, and support those impacted by substance use disorders and reduce impact on the criminal justice system. The Fulton County Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) and its partners will expand pre-arrest diversion, case management, and training for law enforcement personnel to the city of Atlanta and two other jurisdictions using the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion model; provide recovery support services including transitional or recovery housing through Fulton DBHDD and its local partners; and offer evidence-based treatment including medication-assisted treatment through partner Grady Hospital. This project serves the city of Atlanta (population 498,044). The project includes partnerships between the Atlanta Fulton Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative, Grady Hospital, Mary Hall Freedom House, Atlanta Recovery Center, Trinity Community Ministries, Sober Living of America, There’s Another Option, Highsmith Collins, Atlanta Police Department, and the Fulton County Offices of the District Attorney, Public Defender, and Solicitor General. Priority considerations addressed in this application include Qualified Opportunity Zones, high-poverty areas, and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers, facilities, and emergency medical services. Dr. Kevin Baldwin from Applied Research Services serves as the lead evaluator for the proposed project.

Read More

Screven County Sheriff's Office

GA

The Screven County Sheriff's Office applied for Category 1c tribal/rural grant funding in the amount of $587,825. The Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Site-based Program will (1) employ needs assessment tools to identify and prioritize services for jail offenders, (2) expand diversion programs for drug offenders to improve responses to offenders at high risk for overdose or substance abuse and provide alternative-to-incarceration services to those suffering from substance abuse disorders, (3) deliver an evidenced-based prevention program, and (4) offer rigorous program evaluation providing feedback and improvement opportunities. This project serves Screven County, Georgia, with a population of 14,300. The project includes partnerships between the Community Service Board of Middle Georgia, Ogeechee Division; Drug Court for the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit; and scientific partners. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a 100 percent rural county, high-poverty area, and Qualified Opportunity Zone.

Read More

Iowa Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy

IA

The Iowa Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy will: • Reduce substance abuse and criminal involvement involving nonviolent individuals by implementing or expanding pre-/post-arrest diversion to treatment in Black Hawk, Story, and Jones Counties. • Expand citizen access to medication disposal in 25 new sites in underserved areas of the state. The Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning Agency, Iowa’s Statistical Analysis Center, will serve as the evaluator for the project.

Read More

Boone County

IL

Boone County applied for Category 1c rural/tribal area grant funding in the amount of $599,000. The Boone County Support Outreach Recovery Team will to fill the identified need for a community law enforcement officer to work with the individuals who have been arrested and fill the identified need for an addiction counselor to work with the county’s jailed population. The second purpose of this program is to fill the identified need for an addiction counselor who will work as a recovery coach with Boone County’s jailed population. This individual will deliver services such as moral reconation therapy and substance abuse counseling. This project serves Boone County, Illinois (population 53,606). The project includes partnerships between the Boone County Health Department, the multidisciplinary team, the Rosecrance, and the Belvidere Police Department.

Read More

Cook County Health

IL

Through this funding, Cook County Health will (1) convene the Cook County Community Recovery Learning and Action Network to address recovery housing capacity and coordination; (2) begin development of a real-time, regional recovery housing information system, including collection, analysis, and dissemination across partners; (3) with partners, conduct a feasibility study for a low barrier, harm reduction and recovery-oriented, transitional housing model for justice-involved individuals with SUD to address gaps in the current recovery housing landscape. Work towards a pilot in years 2 and 3; and (4) support recovery home beds and recovery support services for corrections-involved individuals. This project serves Cook County, Illinois, which has 5.2 million residents. The project includes partnerships with transitional and recovery housing providers, substance use treatment providers, criminal justice partners, state agencies, community-based partners, and public health organizations. Priority considerations addressed in this application include high-poverty areas, and this project will offer enhancements to public safety in economically distressed communities (Qualified Opportunity Zones).

Read More

Dubois County

IN

Dubois County is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $600,000. The Community Supervision Recovery Continuum will feature law enforcement/first responder diversion, post-booking treatment alternative-to-incarceration programs for individuals at high risk for overdose or substance misuse, and recovery support services, including transitional or recovery housing and peer recovery support services. Dubois County Community Corrections (DCCC) will develop a behavioral health team (BHT) that will be available to respond to behavioral health crises with law enforcement and provide guidance for diversion. DCCC will renovate its 102-bed work release facility to allow for separate housing pods; two pods (one for males and one for females) will be designated as “therapeutic communities,” where a group-based approach to rehabilitation is used to develop pro-social behaviors and work toward recovery. The BHT will augment this programming with individual and group counseling sessions and peer recovery support services. The Dubois County Sheriff’s Department and the Jasper Police Department will participate in Crisis Intervention Team training. The project serves Dubois County, with a population of 42,542. The project includes partnerships with the Dubois County Sheriff’s Office, the Jasper Police Department, and DCCC. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities. The project also provides an opportunity to build trust between law enforcement and the community and will benefit individuals residing in high-poverty areas.

Read More

Indiana Family and Social Services Administration

IN

The Indiana County Leaders Collaboration for Change (ICLCC) will establish and/or build upon existing collaborative relationships between first responders, the criminal justice system, child welfare and foster care, behavioral health, primary care and addiction service providers to identify, develop (or) enhance, and implement specific countywide programs designed to reduce the impact of opioids, stimulants, and other substances on individuals and communities. The counties will achieve this by developing (or) enhancing and implementing one or more of the following within their county: Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) model programs (new to Indiana), prebooking or postbooking treatment alternative-to-incarceration programs, education and prevention programs to connect law enforcement in schools, embed social services with law enforcement to rapidly respond to drug overdoses where children are impacted, and expand access to evidence-based treatment and recovery support services across the criminal justice system. This project serves individuals across Knox, Wayne, Fayette, Floyd, Clark, Allen, and Madison counties. The project includes partnerships between the Division of Mental Health and Addiction and seven county coalitions. Priority considerations addressed in this application include rural, high-poverty, and economically distressed regions.

Read More

Purchase District Health Department

KY

The Purchase District Health Department is partnering public health, public safety, and recovery communities to address SUD/OUD epidemic with the purpose of impacting racial and gender equity of recovery service delivery and reducing drug-related harms including overdose and incarceration. The project serves eight counties in far western Kentucky with a population totaling 200,000 people. Project activities fall into four categories: 1) Reducing overdose by (a) distributing naloxone to at-risk individuals and their families and (b) educating young people about fentanyl; 2) Implementing a deflection/pre-arrest diversion program that increases access to substance use and behavioral health treatment; 3) Implementing a warm-handoff to peer support for individuals released from jail; and 4) Providing housing vouchers for individuals in recovery. Expected outcomes include reduced drug-related recidivism, increased utilization of substance use disorder services, and improved coordination of services between public safety, public health, and behavioral health service providers. The intended beneficiaries of the project are individuals with active substance use disorder, individuals in recovery, justice-involved individuals, and families of individuals with substance use disorder. The project includes a rigorous evaluation component and research activities to inform future programming and best practices.

Read More

Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office

LA

The Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff’s Office (LPSO) will develop and implement a comprehensive opioid prevention effort that promotes civil rights and racial equity in the identification, response, treatment, and support of those impacted by illicit opioids, stimulants, and other drugs in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. The goal of Project Comprehensive Opioid Prevention Effort (COPE) is to deploy needed service activities and protocols to reduce overdose deaths, promote public safety, and support access to prevention, harm-reduction, treatment, and recovery services, both in the community and the justice system. The Project will function under the direction of a Project COPE Steering Committee, which is a permanent multidisciplinary coordinating body that focus on addressing the issues that arise due to the impacts of illicit opioids, stimulants, and other drugs. It is composed of representatives from the LPSO, court system, Lafourche Parish Coroner’s Office, Parish Government, public and private school systems, Nicholls State University, and prevention, intervention, and treatment agencies. Program activities include law enforcement deflection and diversion, real time data collection, education, and prevention, pre and post booking treatment alternatives to incarceration, evidence-based substance use disorder treatment, and social workers and peer embedment at any intercept of the Sequential Intercept Model. A program-specific priority is in support of Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government.” In partnership with the Kingdom Impact Global Worship Centre, underserved populations that have been adversely affected by the opioid epidemic will be identified and strategically facilitated under the program.

Read More

Orleans Parish District Attorney

LA

The Orleans Parish District Attorney (OPDA)’s office project includes a multidisciplinary coordinating body by consolidating existing anti-opioid committees into a singular body–the Metropolitan Overdose Data to Action Program (MODTAP). The service area of this project is the city of New Orleans, which is home to a diverse community with significant underserved populations and the anchor of a metropolitan area totaling just under one million individuals. This data-driven approach ensures that resources are applied in the right area and at the right time, and best practices are adopted. In New Orleans, the coalition is willing, but the data is weak. While there has been great support for across-the-board efforts in responding to the crisis, the actual utilization of the plethora of data available to drive collaborative decision-making has been lacking. Each stakeholder collects data, makes decisions, and applies resources independently in their own silo. Even in areas where there is general agreement on the efficacy of an agreed-upon strategy, there is no consensus being developed on how to deploy it most effectively. MODTAP would be charged with collecting, reviewing, and disseminating data collected by the member organizations and the local Overdose Mapping Application Program to conduct quarterly overdose fatality reviews (OFR). The OFR process will be supported by evidence-based Risk Terrain Mapping that will guide the policy recommendations and collective actions of MODTAP on a micro-level. In turn, OPDA will use the findings and recommendations by MODTAP to maximize participation in the diversion of substance use disorder-related offenses into non-criminal legal system resolutions. Planned activities for MODTAP are real-time data collection and a post booking treatment alternative-to-incarceration program, including screening to identify candidates for referral to the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Program (LEAD).

Read More

Berkshire Regional Planning Commission

MA

The Berkshire County, Massachusetts, project will establish and expand replicable community-centered, field-based interventions to address the full Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) Lifecycle of prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery in each of the three regions of Berkshire County. The purpose is to expand access to harm reduction, evidence-based treatment and recovery support services to underserved populations that will advance equity and enhance the research base to be replicable in similar rural areas that face long-standing disparities in access to affordable care. Project activities include 1) extend and expand the Berkshire Post Overdose Program to provide regionally specific medical and behavioral health-centered field outreach to individuals who recently experienced an overdose or are otherwise identified at higher risk for overdose; 2) outreach to and engagement with disadvantaged communities disproportionately affected by substances; 3) supplement existing capacities to address the OUD prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery landscape of the area; 4) extend and expand public communications strategies to directly support these efforts while reducing stigma; and 5) provide training to increase the toolkits and supports for first responders, practitioners, providers, families and social networks to reduce the number of community members intercepted by law enforcement and the courts. Expected outcomes include a reduction in fatal overdoses, a decrease in recidivism and intercepts by law enforcement, development of detailed process guides and toolkits that are replicable in similar areas, regular program assessments, and sustainable implementation of community-centered interventions that will empower the communities of Berkshire County to reimagine their futures free from the harms stemming from substance misuse and the related stigma. Subrecipient activities include field medical services, linkage to behavioral health resources, communications strategies to support these services, skill building training for professionals and social networks interacting with those struggling with substance use and contributing to the local and national knowledge base to replicate these activities in other rural areas experiencing similar disparities in the cost of care. The bulk of the funding (46%) will be directed towards field-initiated projects that bring together justice, behavioral health, and public health practitioners. Additional allowable expenses (14%) include embedding peers and experienced community members at intercepts 0 and 1 of the Sequential Intercept Model. Allowable uses also include harm reduction activities and linkage to evidence-based treatment and recovery for those at higher risk of overdose, arrest and/or recidivism; naloxone for law enforcement and first responders; and real-time data collection (2.5%). Less grant funding is needed for these activities as naloxone is provided at no cost, and real-time data collection is provided in-kind from the Northampton Department of Health and Human Services. Remaining project funds cover staff time and resources to implement these strategies (35.6%) and related trainings for first responders, professionals in the field, and families and social networks of those struggling with substance use (2%).

Read More

City of Boston

MA

The Boston Police Department's project aims to 1) increase coordination and collaboration across the Boston Police Department, Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, and North Suffolk Community Services, Inc., in addressing opioid epidemic in a highneeds area of Boston known as Mass and Cass (at the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue); 2) strengthen the Services Over Sentences (SOS) Program so that it can better serve high-risk, high-need individuals who have been arrested in the area; 3) support Boston Police Department's Street Outreach Unit and City-Wide Bicycle Unit to provide increased outreach and diversion from arrest, as appropriate, to individuals experiencing mental illness and/or substance use disorders in the Mass and Cass area; and 4) conduct process and program evaluations so that the process by which these partnerships are formalized can be better understood and replicated, and to assess the effectiveness of the program in getting high-risk, high-need individuals into treatment and recovery. Project activities include establishing an interagency MOU; hiring two dedicated North Suffolk recovery coaches; hiring a full-time SOS Coordinator through the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office; supporting the Street Outreach Unit and City-Wide Bicycle Unit in their efforts to provide pre-arrest diversion; and partnering with Dr. Melissa Morabito to conduct the evaluations. These are allowable activities, falling under the umbrella of post-booking treatment alternative-to-incarceration programs and law enforcement diversion programs. Expected outcomes include strengthened collaboration across the Boston Police Department, Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and North Suffolk; increased SOS participation and service provision to eligible individuals; reduced criminal sentences for individuals who participate in the SOS Program; decreased recidivism among individuals who participate in the SOS Program; and increased number of individuals diverted from arrest to diversion. Substance-using individuals in the Mass and Cass area who have been recently or previously arrested for a crime (including individuals with outstanding warrants), but have not yet been prosecuted or sentenced, are the intended beneficiaries of the project. Subrecipient activities include the provision of recovery coach services (the cornerstone of the SOS Program) through North Suffolk, high-level project coordination through the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, and evaluations to be performed by Dr. Morabito.

Read More

City of Holyoke Police Department

MA

The City of Holyoke Police Department (HPD) applied for Category 1c rural/tribal area grant funding in the amount of $597,650. Project ERASE (Expansion of Recovery from Addiction to Substances Efforts) will implement a multicomponent intervention program designed to (1) support individuals with opioid, stimulant, and other illicit substance issues with interventions to reduce addictions and associated mental health needs, (2) reduce overdoses and overdose deaths through prevention and intervention strategies, and (3) reduce substance-related crime in Holyoke. This project serves Behavioral Health Network and Gandara, the Holyoke Police Department, Hampden County Sheriff, Holyoke Probation, and research partners. The project includes partnerships between the House of Corrections to provide detox treatment options and develop a law enforcement liaison between HPD, the courts, and probation personnel. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high-poverty area and enhanced public safety in Qualified Opportunity Zones.

Read More

City of Lowell

MA

The Lowell Police Department is proposing to enhance and expand the Community Opioid-Outreach Program team (Lowell Police, Fire, Health, Trinity EMS, Lowell House) by adding a youth services coordinator to focus on the needs of children affected by the opioid epidemic, two outreach specialists to expand service to the homeless community by serving as a liaison between agencies to improve communication and connect their various resources, and conduct pro-active outreach to any individuals with substance use disorder before an overdose. Grant funds will support a coordinator, crime analyst, full-time clinical recovery specialist and youth services coordinator, outreach recovery specialist and research team. University of Massachusetts Lowell will serve as the research team comprised of researchers from Center for Community Research & Engagement, School of Criminology and Justice Studies, and Community Health and Sustainability.

Read More

City of Newburyport

MA

The City of Newburyport, Massachusetts, leads the Essex County Outreach (ECO) program. The primary focus of the project is law enforcement and first responder deflection and diversion programming (98 percent of the budget), followed by real-time data collection (two percent of the budget). This project serves the area of Essex County, which has a population of 785,205. ECO is a police-directed post-overdose outreach model and serves to make treatment more accessible for those struggling with substance use disorder (SUD) and their families. The key components of this program are informed by a recent Sequential Intercept Mapping Model (SIM) process that ECO completed, as well as lessons learned from the first four ECO program years. The ECO COSSAP grant prioritizes the following strategies that have emerged as gaps in resources: (1) program coordination/administrative support; (2) funding for police overtime for post-overdose follow-up visits; (3) clinical/child advocacy services; (4) housing and transportation resources to support clients in early stages of recovery; (5) addiction and recovery training for police officers; and (6) expansion of access to harm reduction supplies/kits. This project includes partnerships between the 34 police departments in Essex County, the Essex County Sheriff’s Department, and all local treatment providers and community service providers. ECO is administered by the Newburyport Police Department along with the Essex County Chief’s Association. The research partner for this project will maintain the Critical Incident Management System (CIMS) software which records real-time data on all overdoses that occur in Essex County. CIMS also manages and documents incident follow-up outreach visits to determine the success at connecting individuals with treatment services, shares information across communities using a county-wide incident notification system and provides real-time reporting tools.

Read More

Commonwealth of Massachusetts dba Middlesex Sheriff's Office

MA

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, dba Middlesex Sheriff’s Office, applied for a Category 1a urban area grant in the amount of $1,152,729. The Involving Families in Treatment of Inmates with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) Project will reduce opioid overdose deaths and improve treatment outcomes for inmates with opioid use disorder by providing naloxone to family members and involving them in treatment. Through an enhancement of the Medication-Assisted Treatment and Directed Opioid Recovery (MATADOR) Program — which provides naltrexone, buprenorphine, methadone, and case management services — the proposed project activities include: (1) development and implementation of naloxone trainings and naloxone distribution for family members of inmates with OUD; (2) provision of a comprehensive family services program for inmates with substance use disorders, including outreach to engage families in the project, educational programs for families on substance use disorder, family counseling, and support groups, and (3) an evaluation of the project’s impact in improving treatment outcomes and reducing the risk of overdose deaths. This project serves Middlesex County, located in northeastern Massachusetts. Middlesex County, the most populous county in New England, has 1.6 million residents. The project includes partnership with Brandeis University. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin or other opioids and high rates of overdose deaths.

Read More

Department of Public Safety

MA

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is implementing the Diversion to Care (DivCare) project; a responsive and adaptive approach to reduce exposure to the criminal justice system and alleviate racial inequity by strengthening regional implementation of interventions along the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) grounded in community input and participation in project design, implementation, and evaluation (Priority 1A). The goals of DivCare are to improve statewide coordination and increase access to harm reduction, addiction treatment, and recovery services in 6 overdose burdened communities through reduced justice system involvement. Project activities will include: (1) statewide coordination to maximize existing resources, improve data surveillance systems, and better coordinate responses to events such as seizures and clinic closures; (2) incorporation of communities experiencing racial and ethnic inequities in project design, implementation, and evaluation; (3) implementation of interventions that reduce exposure to the criminal justice system and focus on racial inequities; (4) integration of peers and people with lived experience in intervention activities; and (5) expanded utilization of evidence-based harm reduction, addiction treatment, and recovery support resources across the intercept points. Site selection factors will include readiness, capacity, need, and geography. Expected outcomes include: improved realtime data collection and data sharing agreements at the state and local level; expansion of culturally specific interventions advised by a community feedback process; integration of people with lived experience into the intersecting criminal justice and addiction care continuum; strengthened regional coordination of community-based harm reduction, treatment, and recovery services across the intercept points. Local jurisdictions and their community residents who are at risk of both criminal justice involvement and harms from the use of opioids, stimulants, and other substances are the intended beneficiaries of the project. Subrecipient activities will include creation of data-sharing agreements between partners, using SIM map workshops to identify intercept points in need of strengthening, integration of culturally specific advisory groups including peers with lived experience to approve intervention activities, and enhanced utilization of evidence-based harm reduction, addiction treatment, and recovery support services across the intercept points focused on racial inequities. This project will be aided by training and technical assistance plan using nationally renowned experts in addiction, criminal justice, and SIM mapping. The only active BJA-COSSAP grant award at the state jurisdiction level, the EOTC managed Project NORTH (awarded FY20), will end 9/30/23.

Read More

Massachusetts Administrative Office of the Trial Court

MA

The Trial Court of Massachusetts, on behalf of six states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont), will establish a New England Regional Judicial Opioid Initiative (RJOI). This project will support comprehensive cross-system planning and collaboration among officials who work in multiple justice and justice related settings while staying focused on the judiciary and judiciary stakeholders (e.g. law enforcement, pre-trial services, the courts, probation and parole, child welfare, reentry, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), and emergency medical services, as well as health-care providers, public health partners, and agencies that provide substance use disorder treatment and recovery support services). The New England RJOI will also develop and enhance public safety, behavioral health, and public health information-sharing partnerships that leverage key public health and public safety data sets and implement interventions based on this information. The project will have a researcher and is presently completing contract negotiations for these services. Please note that Abby Kuschel currently leads this initiative as Project Director, not Jessica Fix. Ms. Fix is registered in JustGrants as Grant Award Administrator and is responsible for administrative/fiscal oversight. We are unable to update this field as it locked in the web form.

Read More

Baltimore, City of

MD

The Diversionary Employment: Supported Employment and Peer Recovery Navigation in Baltimore City program will provide residents with substance use disorder (SUD) and justice system involvement with services specifically designed to address their compounded barriers to employment and retention. The program would add a peer recovery specialist (PRS) to the Mayor's Office of Employment Development's existing career center services and establish an in-house, intensive supported employment program, with a growing evidence base, tailored for this population. MOED manages two American Job Centers, along with a network of community job hubs, that co-locate dozens of human services in addition to providing career development and employment navigation support. Embedding a trained peer recovery specialist with their own lived recovery experience in this system will provide guidance to residents with SUD trying to navigate services and support to MOED staff in other service areas whose clients have substance use disorders. The PRS will strengthen existing relationships with recovery centers and work with re-entry programs to mitigate and prevent SUD-affected individuals’ ongoing involvement with the justice system. Supported employment is an evidence-based employment intervention for adults with behavioral health disorders that has demonstrated promise as a model for individuals in recovery. The program recognizes employment as a stabilizing force for this population and provides targeted job development and intensive, ongoing employment retention support along with integrated mental health services. MOED will implement this program in partnership with specialists who will provide supportive employment training, ongoing consultations with staff service providers, and periodic fidelity reviews. The program will be evaluated by a research team with expertise in the supported employment model, the justice system, and substance use disorder. The beneficiaries of the program will be Baltimore City residents with substance use disorder, primarily at Intercept levels 3-5, via referral from MOED’s internal re-entry programs, external re-entry partnerships, court diversion programs, and co-located partners at parole and probation. Individuals at Intercept level 0 will also have access to these services if they are at high risk for justice involvement. Peer recovery navigation services, both supportive and employment-focused, will be provided to 180 individuals. Additionally, the supported employment program will enroll 120 participants for career development services, conducted in concert with participants’ treatment teams, and 66 of those enrolled will obtain and maintain employment that supports their recovery goals.

Read More

St. Mary's County

MD

The St. Mary’s County Health Department (SMCHD) is applying for a Category 1 award in the amount of $899,963. The St. Mary’s County Day Reporting Center project will provide community-based services and treatment to offenders under parole/probation in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. The offenders will live at home and report to the center on a daily basis. While at the center, the offenders receive various services including substance misuse counseling, anger management, moral reconation therapy, parenting skills, relapse prevention, mental health coordination, job skills, case management, educational classes, life skills, after-care planning, and touch-ups. This project serves a population of roughly 113,510 individuals in St. Mary's County. The project includes partnerships between SMCHD and St. Mary's County Detention and Rehabilitation Center (SMCDRC).

Read More

City of Detroit

MI

Over the past decade, more than 2,000 Detroiters have been lost to fatal drug overdose, and over 7,000 Detroiter's have experienced an opioid-involved emergency since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Illicit drug poisonings cost an estimated $193 billion annually in the United States and nearly $1 billion annually in Detroit alone; this includes costs in healthcare, treatment programs, traffic crashes, foster care, and criminal justice economic burdens. The actual cost to the community can be assumed to be higher when accounting for indirect costs (e.g. lost wages, reduced productivity, and child drug endangerment), and the intangible societal costs of the drug crisis, such as grief, fear, and social scarring, are immeasurable. The pandemic also exacerbated housing inequities particularly among precariously housed and homeless Black and Brown young adults under the age of 34. The Detroit HOME (Housing, Overdose prevention, Managed care, and Empowerment) Project will galvanize the resources of the City of Detroit Housing and Revitalization Department, 36th District Court Specialty Court, Changing Lives And Staying Sober, and a network of public health, recovery support, and treatment providers, to combat the drug and housing crisis in Detroit. The aim of the project is to prevent fatal drug poisonings, ensure pathways to permanent housing, and nurture holistic wellness opportunities to sustain recovery among Specialty Court participants. The Detroit HOME Project seeks to engage 500 participants and stakeholders in direct wraparound care, training, education, and strategy development as part of its mission to advance behavioral health equity and diversion to care strategies.

Read More

Department of State Police Michigan

MI

The need to expand overdose prevention, SUD treatment, and other harm reduction services is high in Northern Michigan. Like many rural areas, there are few options for community-based SUD care and funding is limited. Both Michigan's Upper Peninsula and its northern Lower Peninsula lack critical community mental health infrastructure to ensure continuity of service after acute drug-related crisis and access to harm reduction resources. This dramatically impacts the health of northern communities, some of which have rates of hepatitis C, a viral infection associated with injection drug use, that exceed Michigan's densely populated urban counties. Moreover, health care and first responder resources are more geospatially dispersed, leading to delays in treatment and access to critical harm reduction interventions. However, current funding is insufficient to meet the demands of innovative prevention programs to support northern counties in reducing morbidities and mortalities associated with SUD and drug overdoses. Therefore, to build infrastructure and increase capacity for SUD services in Northern Michigan and one centrally located, urban community, the Michigan State Police (MSP), in collaboration with the Bay Mills Indian Community, Catholic Human Services, Greater Flint Health Coalition, Harm Reduction Michigan, Nathan's House, and the Michigan Public Health Institute, is proposing several innovative prevention programs. MSP is leading the project with ten counties in Northern and Central Michigan in partnership with local tribal, public health, and community organizations and the University of Michigan School of Nursing as the evaluation partner. The goal of the project is to offer SUD and overdose prevention services that will promote health during critical moments in recovery and prevention. For example, a comprehensive education campaign for K-12, at-risk youth and county-level overdose fatality reviews will be implemented as primary prevention strategies. Likewise, drug checking and other harm reduction services will be used to prevent overdose during active use. For consumers who are newly entering community services, MAT programming will be expanded, and additional behavioral health clinicians will be recruited to offer SUD counseling services. In Genesee County, a comprehensive, interdisciplinary recovery community center that centralizes community-based services will be implemented. To help prevent contact with the justice system, recovery coaches and jail-based SUD care will be implemented to prepare consumers for re-entry. Finally, transitional recovery housing capacity will be bolstered to provide stable housing and extended recovery support. Overall, these projects will build critical infrastructure in Northern and Central Michigan for quality SUD care.

Read More

City of Duluth

MN

The City of Duluth applied for Category 1b suburban area grant funding in the amount of $899,055. The City of Duluth FY 2020 COSSAP Lake Superior Diversion and Substance Use Response Team Project will improve community outreach to overdose events by expanding outreach efforts to those with amphetamine-related substance use disorders and those who experience amphetamine-related overdoses. The program will reduce barriers between outreach contact and treatment, and maintain or expand current opioid response functions. This project serves St. Louis, Carlton, and Lake counties in Minnesota, as well as the city of Superior in Wisconsin. This region has a population of approximately 289,727 people. The project includes partnerships between St. Louis County Public Health and Human Services, St. Louis County Drug Court, and the Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment. Priority considerations addressed in this application include Qualified Opportunity Zones.

Read More

City of Duluth

MN

The City of Duluth is applying for a Category 1 award in the amount of $899,982. The Substance Use Response Team of the City of Duluth Police Department’s Lake Superior Drug and Violent Crime Task Force (LSDVCTF) proposes a program model that would expand upon the services it currently provides, allow for the program to assist more individuals regardless of drug of choice, and shorten times between overdose events and contact from the team, thereby allowing for quicker access to treatment. This project serves the entire LSDVCTF region, which includes St. Louis, Carlton, and Lake Counties in Minnesota, as well as the city of Superior in Wisconsin. This entire region has a total population of 288,732. The project includes partnerships between St. Louis County Public Health and Human Services, St. Louis County Drug Court, the Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment, and SOAR Career Solutions. This project will engage Dr. Jeff Maahs from the University of Minnesota Duluth as the research partner for this project. Priority considerations addressed in this application include services and referrals in designated Qualified Opportunity Zones.

Read More

City of Minneapolis

MN

The Minneapolis Health Department will partner with the Hennepin Health, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis Police Department, Minneapolis Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services, and Serve Minnesota to implement both hospital-based and community-based services to connect individuals at risk for overdose and/or survivors of a nonfatal overdose and their families with substance abuse and behavioral health treatment providers and recovery support. The Minneapolis Health Department Research and Evaluation Team will serve as the research partner for the proposed project.

Read More

Minnesota Department of Public Safety—Bureau of Criminal Apprehension

MN

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) will support the “Timely Treatment, Strengthened Service, and Effective Evaluation for Overdose Prevention: Linkage to Care Across Minnesota” project to achieve the following objectives in eight sites: • Reduce opioid misuse and opioid overdose death by supporting local efforts to implement effective opioid overdose prevention projects. • Support local efforts to implement treatment and recovery support linkage activities serving individuals vulnerable for drug overdose. • Support implementation of local multidisciplinary intervention models to bring together stakeholders with different perspectives and different information to identify drug overdose prevention strategies. • Enhance access to naloxone among people who use drugs to decrease overdose deaths. • Enhance successful local multidisciplinary overdose prevention activities to decrease overdose deaths. • Evaluate the extent to which additional funding to eight opioid overdose prevention projects, referred to as “Tackling Opioid Use With Networks (TOWN)”, impact the incidence of overdose in communities. • Create a TOWN Manual in collaboration with the communities to support the expansion and sustainability of the TOWN model. The eight sites will implement three evidence-based activities: (1) peer recovery specialists in emergency departments; (2) treatment linkage by emergency medical services; and (3) overdose fatality review teams. The project will also enhance six Minnesota Department of Public Safety-funded syringe services programs by providing each site with naloxone to distribute to participants who use opioids. Dr. Catherine Diamond from the Minnesota Department of Health will lead the project evaluation.

Read More

29th Judicial Circuit Court

MO

The 29th Judicial Circuit Court applied for Category 1b suburban area grant funding in the amount of $887,194. The Jasper County Treatment Program (JCTP) will provide a postbooking connection to clinical treatment indicated by evidence-based needs for all offenders per screening for substance abuse, mental illness, criminogenic risk, and connection to enhanced treatment for family-based offenders. The program will also provide court-ordered referrals into the JCTP and referral into other offender programming as indicated for nonfamily substance abuse offenders, as well as develop individualized treatment plans for family-based substance abuse offenders. Also, the program will provide case management of JCTP participants targeting substance abuse and co-occurring disorders and communicate community treatment program participation requirements (i.e., probation conditions, such as mandatory counseling session participation, MAT plan compliance, drug testing, and court reporting). This project serves Jasper County (population 120,217). Priority considerations addressed in this application include eight high-poverty areas and a Qualified Opportunity Zone.

Read More

Burke County

NC

Burke County will support the continuation of its law enforcement-assisted diversion (LEAD) program and implement and pilot the Helping Achieve Recovery through Burke Opioid Use Reduction (HARBOUR) program which is patterned after the Recovery Community Center (RCC) model. The goals of the project include: (1) reduce overdose incidents and deaths; (2) give low-level offenders the opportunity to access treatment with long-term recovery support instead of criminal justice system involvement, thereby reducing recidivism rates and long-term costs to the taxpayers; (3) provide treatment and long-term recovery support along with maximizing the ability of those in recovery to reintegrate into the community. Partners include Burke County Sheriff’s Office, Morganton Department of Public Safety, Valdese Police Department, Drexel Police Department, Glen Alpine Police Department, Burke United Christian Ministries, Burke Council on Alcoholism and Chemical Dependency, Inc. (dba Burke Recovery), Catawba Valley Behavioral Health, and Burke County Health Department.

Read More

Henderson County/Henderson County Health Department

NC

The Henderson County Health Department, through the County of Henderson, applied for Category 1b grant funding in the amount of $900,000. The funds will be used to expand access to recovery support services. The program seeks to provide peer-delivered services with a focus on rehabilitation and recovery, utilizing North Carolina certified peer support specialists and care coordinators. Services provided by the certified peers include psychosocial rehabilitation, habilitation, family support and training, short-term crisis intervention, and empowerment. This project serves a suburban area or medium-sized county with a population between 100,000 and 500,000. The project includes partnerships between Henderson County’s Behavioral Health Summit, Free Clinix, and Hope RX.

Read More

North Carolina State Department of Health and Human Services

NC

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services (NC DHHS) will implement evidence-based strategies to reduce the rate of opioid overdose associated with individuals involved in the local justice system. NC DHHS will competitively subaward nine sites to implement pre-arrest diversion programs, jail-based overdose prevention education and naloxone upon release, jail-based medication assisted treatment, and connections to care upon release. Six sites will be new projects and three sites will involve expanding or enhancing existing projects. The state will collaborate with Dr. Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Social Medicine as the research partner for the project.

Read More

Wake County

NC

The Wake County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) will develop an Opioid Abuse Management Program, which aims to reduce the high rate of opioid overdoses and opioid fatalities in Wake County. The Opioid Abuse Management program will be overseen by a Program Coordinator who will implement and oversee the progress of the program. Funding through the program will ensure that all deputies are equipped with naloxone to administer and reverse the effects of an overdose. The program will also provide handheld narcotics analyzers and necessary accessories, which will enable deputies to quickly identify suspected controlled substances in emergency situations. Tablets will also be funded through the program and will be provided to deputies responding to substance abuse calls. These tablets will provide a direct connection to Alliance Health Access and Information Line, where deputies will receive immediate virtual assistance from a social services professional. Tablets will also be used in the Detox Unit by project staff for reporting and data management, as well as by residents housed in the Detox Unit to assist with job applications, substance abuse treatment programs, and telehealth visits. WCSO recognizes that our duty of care must not stop upon a resident’s release and therefore will implement collaborative partnerships with behavioral health clinics and treatment providers to expand our comprehensive efforts to respond to, treat, and support those impacted by illicit opioids, stimulants, and other drugs of abuse once released from our care. WCSO will procure a software company to develop and implement a Substance Abuse Disorder Management Platform that will track treatment during incarceration and upon release. This software will connect the WCSO with outside healthcare professionals to better understand patterns and to share crucial information.

Read More

City of Bismarck

ND

The City of Bismarck is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $900,000. Supporting First Responders Through Behavioral Health Interventions, Medication Assisted Treatment, and Connections to Care in the Emergency Department, a multidisciplinary overdose prevention, response, and referral model led by first responders, will serve as a bridge to intervene with overdose victims to transition them to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. Bismarck Police Department will partner with Heartview Foundation, a licensed addiction treatment provider, and Sanford Health Emergency Department to increase utilization of MAT for individuals with opioid use disorder; utilize recovery support services in the Sanford Emergency Department (ED) to develop a bridge between emergency room, law enforcement/first responders, and individuals needing treatment; and increase the availability of naloxone. The project will also increase communication efforts to reduce stigma surrounding SUDs, opioid use disorders (OUDs), and MAT. Deliverables include interventions with 90 individuals who have experienced an opioid overdose, as well as an additional 80 patients referred from the Opioid Overdose Bridge. Sanford Health ED will train ten medical professionals and twelve support staff members on SUD, MAT, and procedures for the Opioid Overdose Bridge. The project serves the Bismarck-Mandan Metropolitan Area in North Dakota, with an estimated population of 126,990. The project includes partnerships with the Bismarck, Mandan, and Lincoln Police Departments, the Burleigh and Morton County Sheriff’s Departments, Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health, Custer Health, Sanford Health Emergency Department, Ministry on the Margins, and Heartview Foundation. The project will engage Dr. Erin Winstanley, Vice Chair of Research, Department of Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry at West Virginia University School of Medicine, as an evaluation partner. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities.

Read More

Bergen County

NJ

The County of Bergen applied for a Category 1a urban area grant in the amount of $1,200,000. The BCPO-COSSAP Project will establish a comprehensive, evidence-based response to the opioid crisis. This response will be composed of multiple teams and initiatives, including a 24/7 hotline utilized primarily by law enforcement, the Arrest Initiative, Bergen County's Central Municipal Diversion Program, and a county-level Overdose Fatality Review Team. These teams will work independently and share data to best coordinate response needs for opioid and addiction needs across Bergen County. This project serves Bergen County, which is home to 948,046 residents. The project includes partnerships between the Bergen County Police Chiefs Association; Bergen County police departments; Newark Community Solutions, Center for Court Innovation; The Center for Alcohol and Drug Resources, a division of Children’s Aid and Family Services; Bergen County Health Department and Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services; and Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. Priority considerations addressed in this application include Bergen County’s 12 Qualified Opportunity Zones.

Read More

Burlington County

NJ

Burlington County is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $900,000. The Burlington County COSSAP Program will expand law enforcement and other first responder deflection and diversion programs; embed social services within law enforcement in order to rapidly respond to drug overdoses where children are impacted; incorporate comprehensive, real-time, regional information collection, analysis, and dissemination; include naloxone training and distribution; and utilize evidence-based treatment, including medication-assisted treatment (MAT), as well as recovery support services including transitional or recovery housing and peer recovery support services. The project will support the 24/7 Operations program, a naloxone plus/Quick Response Team model that delivers services to people who use drugs through a “warm hand-off” from police to trained peer recovery specialists, expanding this service to reach the Burlington County Jail population; expansion of the Straight to Treatment program, a self-referral pathway in which people facing addiction can walk into police stations at designated times and get assessed, referred, and transported to treatment; and expansion of Hope One, a mobile access unit that offers critical support for persons and their families struggling with addiction, with the goals of preventing drug overdoses and deaths and providing linkages to treatment and recovery support services, in collaboration with the county sheriff’s office, the Department of Human Services, Volunteers of America, the New Jersey Transit Police, and community organizations. It will also support law enforcement-initiated training for motel/hotel owners on the distribution of Narcan, as well as the distribution of Narcan doses to replenish county and local law enforcement supplies, as needed. The county will also develop improved systems for collecting and analyzing data to improve internal operations and decision making while contributing to the state and national body of best practices on responding to the opioid crisis. The project serves Burlington County, which has a population of 446,596. The project includes partnerships with the county’s Department of Corrections, the Sheriff’s Department, the Department of Human Services, the County Prosecutor, and several treatment providers. The project will engage the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers University as an evaluation partner. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities.

Read More

New Jersey State Parole Board

NJ

The New Jersey State Parole Board (NJSPB) is applying for a Category 2 award in the amount of $3,278,813. The FY 2021 COSSAP-New Jersey State Parole Board project will provide peer recovery-based services to individuals with substance use disorder who are under parole supervision, as well as expand Rutgers University’s current Intensive Recovery Treatment Support (IRTS) program and create a team of providers specifically dedicated to the needs of individuals under NJSPB supervision. The target population to be served under this grant will be a minimum of 110 adult offenders released from New Jersey state correctional facilities to parole supervision residing in any one of New Jersey’s 21 counties. Medium-to-high-risk offenders will be identified prior to their release from prison and will be referred, when released on parole, to receive IRTS services with the aid of a Peer Health Navigator. The project includes a partnership with Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care. Priority considerations addressed in this application include protecting the public from crime and evolving threats, building trust between law enforcement and the community, and serving individuals residing in high-poverty areas.

Read More

Bernalillo County

NM

Bernalillo County in New Mexico will use grant funds to expand access to treatment and recovery support services across behavioral health, primary care, criminal justice, and emergency management services. Grant funds will be used to hire a full-time coordinator and two case managers. The county and partners will engage in comprehensive planning; create a mobile harm reduction center staffed by a nurse and the two case managers; increase medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for off reservation urban Indians; provide transitional housing for underserved youth and their families; and provide MAT to incarcerated youth. The University of New Mexico Institute for Social Research will serve as the research partner for the proposed project.

Read More

Rio Arriba County

NM

Rio Arriba County, through Rio Arriba Health & Human Services (RAHHS), is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $582,810. The project will enable RAHHS to expand its Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Program, resulting in enhanced coverage during peak off-business hours and an expanded intake network in order to maximize the number of beneficiaries of the program. While referrals from law enforcement will be prioritized, referrals will also be accepted pre-arrest from community providers, as will self-referrals. RAHHS will also work with the New Mexico Behavioral Health Services Division (BHSD) to develop a reimbursement model for care that is consistent with LEAD, provides the actual services needed by LEAD clientele, and can be scaled to the 32 other counties in New Mexico. The project will assign one certified peer support worker case manager to district court to serve and redirect LEAD clients back to LEAD who disappear into the corrections system in other counties and will expand prevention efforts by assigning a half-time clinician to provide dialectical behavioral therapy to at-risk youth in the Española and Chama School Districts. Deliverables include the referral of 80 individuals by law enforcement for pre-arrest diversion to treatment. The project serves Rio Arriba County, which has an estimated population of 38,921. The project includes partnerships with BHSD, the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office, the Española Police Department, the New Mexico State Police, Adult Probation, the District Attorney’s Office, the Public Defender’s Office, the First Judicial District Court, the Rio Arriba Community Health Council, the Northern New Mexico Rural Health Network, and the Opiate Use Reduction (OUR) Network. The project will engage Dr. Anne Hayes Egan of New Ventures Consulting as an evaluation partner. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities.

Read More

Sierra County

NM

Sierra County in New Mexico will develop a crisis intervention team to assist law enforcement officers in developing a law enforcement diversion program, provide jail-based opioid and behavioral health services, provide skill-building and treatment, assist incarcerated individuals transitioning to community-based services once released from custody, add community behavior health treatment planning and services, and conduct opioid education programs in schools. This project will engage Ann Hays Egan of New Ventures Consulting as the research partner for this project.

Read More

Nevada Office of the Attorney General

NV

The Nevada Office of the Attorney General (NOAG) is applying for Category 2 funding in the amount of $5,751,772. The project involves enhancing existing or implementing new drug deflection/diversion programs undertaken by Mobile Outreach Safety Teams (MOST) or Forensic Assessment Services Triage Teams (FASTT), increasing provision of naloxone, and conducting drug take-back days to address drug/mental health crisis situations. MOST is a jail and hospital diversion program whereby public safety personnel and behavioral health clinicians collaborate to address the behavioral health needs of people involved in or at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system. FASTT provides assessment and case management for individuals who are screened as moderate to high risk using the Ohio Risk Assessment System and those with mental health and co-occurring disorders. The project serves seven sites from Nevada’s 16 counties and one independent city: Carson City, Churchill, Douglas, Lincoln, Lyon, Nye, and Storey. The subaward sites consist of three designated rural areas, three designated frontier areas, and the smallest urban area in Nevada. The project includes partnerships between the NOAG and the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services and community coalitions. The project will engage the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR’s) program evaluation team as an evaluation partner. Priority considerations addressed in this application include high rates of overdose deaths and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities.

Read More

Southern Nevada Health Dist

NV

The Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) serves Clark County, Nevada which reports a population of 2,338,127 individuals. This COSSUP project will be carried out by two main agencies: Southern Nevada Health District and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD), in an effort to further integrate and expand current multijurisdictional partnerships in Clark County, Nevada, to end fatal drug overdose. These agencies will create a field-initiated linkage to care team that responds to overdoses using a public health framework, called Southern Nevada Post-Overdose Response Team Supports (SPORTS). In addition, the project will enable the expansion of law enforcement diversion services and increase training on the importance and use of naloxone for law enforcement and other first responders and increase naloxone availability for their use and distribution. Expected outcomes include an increase in access to linkage to care and diversion services and decrease in fatal drug overdose. The project will also involve a research partnership with the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) School of Public Health to assess the effectiveness of the model and implementation to achieve stated outcomes. The two sub-awardees on the project are LVMPD and UNLV. The initiative will also further current funded partnership activities of the Southern Nevada Opioid Advisory Council. The grant beneficiaries include first responders, people and families that experience overdose, governmental agencies, substance use disorder treatment agencies, and recovery community organizations throughout Clark County, Nevada, during the life of the grant and beyond.

Read More

Ulster County

NY

The Ulster County Sheriff’s Office will; (1) expand a law enforcement diversion co-response team previously funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance modeled after LEAD, PAARI, QRT, and traditional care management to provide peer services within the rural areas of the county; (2) provided peer care management services in the Ulster County Jail to provide MAT programing support, as well as pre/post re-entry services to assist the coordination of re-entry for individuals with SUD, linking individuals with community-based treatment and recovery supports which increase access to behavioral health care, and following up with individuals for up to post release; and (3) provide naloxone vending machines in public spaces at the jail and in the community as a harm reduction measure for close networks of individuals experiencing opioid use disorder to gain easy and equitable access. The project includes collaboration between Ulster County Department of Mental Health, the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, and Opioid Response as County Law Enforcement's High Risk Mitigation Team. This expansion project aims to increase collaboration between law enforcement and the community with the following goals: (1) reduce opioid fatalities in the rural region of the county by 40 percent in three years; (2) decrease opioid fatalities among incarcerated individuals upon re-entry by 40 percent over the course of three years; (3) increase naloxone distribution to the families and networks of individuals experiencing opioid use disorder by 100 percent within three years. The goal of all proposed programs is to enhance relationships between law enforcement and black, indigenous, and people of color communities struggling with substance use disorder by ensuring that all outreach and practices are trauma informed and sensitive to the historical and systemic racism.

Read More

Ulster County

NY

Ulster County is applying for Category 1b suburban area grant funding in the amount of $900,000. The High-Risk Mitigation Team (HRMT) will increase ORACLE’s capacity to respond to overdose scenes by providing crisis intervention training (CIT) to officers throughout Ulster County. The project will develop the HRMT to work directly with ORACLE, providing certified peer advocate services (CRPA) and intensive case management within the city of Kingston, New York. The project will also develop an initial alert system for first responders in Kingston to alert the ORACLE team of overdose when it happens. This project serves Ulster County, a community of approximately 177,573 people. The project includes partnerships between the Ulster County Department of Health and Mental Health, Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, and ORACLE team. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin or other opioids and a high rate of overdose deaths.

Read More

Butler County of Ohio

OH

Butler County of Ohio applied for Category 1B grant funding in the amount of $900,000. The Butler County COSSAP project aims to reduce the impact of opioids, stimulants, and other substances on individuals within its communities, through reducing the number of overdose fatalities, as well as mitigating the impacts of on crime victims by supporting comprehensive, collaborative initiatives. This project serves Butler County, home to a population of 382,000. The project includes a partnership with Miami University’s Center for School-based Mental Health Programs. Priority considerations addressed in this application include rural challenges in a high-poverty area and Qualified Opportunity Zone.

Read More

City of Columbus, Department of Public Safety

OH

The City of Columbus Department of Public Safety applied for grant funding in the amount of $1200,000 under Category 1A. This project serves the 1,316,756 residents of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio. The Rapid Response Emergency Addiction Crisis Team (RREACT) EMS Outreach Unit is a unit within the Division of Fire’s Training and Emergency Medical Services Bureau and is supported by the Division of Police’s Crisis Response Team. RREACT EMS outreach members include firefighters/paramedics, Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) certified peace officers, a substance use case manager, a registered SUD nurse, a family case manager, and trauma specialist. This multidisciplinary outreach team goes directly into communities to connect with opioid users who survive overdose, but then refuse EMS transport to the emergency room. The goal of the outreach unit is to proactively create connections and build relationships with opioid users. RREACT follows up with addicted individuals in the community within 48 hours of nonfatal overdose; checks in on their immediate health and wellness; provides resource information, and creates opportunities for users to link with harm-reduction supplies, treatment programs, and social service supports. RREACT actively partners with local treatment providers, public health departments, justice agencies, and Franklin County’s Family and Children First Council to achieve desired project outcomes. Gretchen Hammond with Mighty Crow, Inc. serves as the evaluator for the proposed project. The applicant is eligible for COSSAP priority consideration based on overdose rates in Franklin County and the City of Columbus and the project’s impact on increased public safety in Qualified Opportunity Zones.

Read More

City of Dayton, Ohio

OH

The Dayton Police Department (DPD) — serving the city of Dayton, Ohio (population 146,040) — sought grant funding from COSSAP Category 1b in the amount of $899,964 to provide services in Dayton, mitigating the incidence of overdose/overdose deaths and addressing a substantial increase in opioids, stimulants, and other illicit substance use. DPD will support development, implementation, and expansion of a comprehensive, quick-response model by adding additional staff of certified peer support personnel, including in-reach services with the Montgomery County Jail, and targeting veterans and other identified at-risk populations. DPD will apply best-practice law enforcement strategies, including installation of FLOCK Safety License Plate Reader units and upgrading family-friendly interview rooms into evidence-based prevention programs operated by WestCare Ohio, and will contract with Cordata Health Initiatives to implement a customizable database designed for and currently being utilized by COSSAP-funded programs in Ohio to track and report quick-response and peer-lead services. Priority considerations addressed in this application include Qualified Opportunity Zones.

Read More

Cuyahoga County

OH

The Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services Board of Cuyahoga County (ADAMHS) is in the Northern District of Ohio (NDOH). Cuyahoga is the NDOH’s most populous county with 1.2 million residents in 58 municipalities. Since 2018, ADAMHS has partnered in surveillance and outreach with law enforcement, public/private health, and social welfare agencies to improve the effects of the opioid epidemic, but stark challenges remain. The county suffered 675 overdose deaths in 2021, one of the highest rates per 100,000 population in the country, with similar numbers expected in 2022. The purpose of this effort is to identify, respond to, and support those affected by illicit drugs, reduce overdose deaths, and mitigate impacts on individuals in the criminal justice system. ADAMHS will (1) expand comprehensive information gathering, analysis, and dissemination of fatal and nonfatal overdose incidents that promote the use of real-time data collection for planning and response and emerging drug trends (65 percent); and (2) conduct a peer recovery support services pilot (29 percent), with an evaluation of the latter (6 percent). This work involves the follow subrecipients: the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, and Thrive Peer Recovery Services. The three objectives are to: (1) expand the Cuyahoga County Multi-Jurisdictional Overdose Surveillance Program to gain more information and develop clearer insight for better informed planning and response, especially across underserved communities; (2) enhance and diversify the data subcommittee of the U.S. Attorney’s Office NDOH Heroin and Opioid Task Force by increasing participation of more culturally specific, faith-based, and citizen action organizations; and (3) pilot a peer recovery support services program to bridge in-custody and community-based services for many non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic persons. Overdose Surveillance Program deliverables are an expanded overdose data dashboard, quarterly written drug trend and overdose hotspot alerts, annual reports of overdose trends, and quarterly reports of synthesized law enforcement decedent data provided to the county Overdose Fatality Review, including infographics, data briefs, and manuscripts submitted for peer review, and a medical examiner coded-data final report. Data subcommittee deliverables are bi-monthly meetings, a more diverse membership roster, and bi-monthly data subcommittee oral presentations by regional, state and national peers.

Read More

Cuyahoga, County of

OH

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office (CCMEO) is implementing the Cuyahoga County Overdose Fatality Review Counteractive Initiative (CCOFRCI). The purpose of this effort is to enhance Cuyahoga County's Overdose Fatality Review (OFR) to promote cross-system coordination within the criminal justice and behavioral health systems for the identification and implementation of preventable risk factors and missed opportunities for intervention in order to reduce overdose deaths in Cuyahoga County, particularly for those historically marginalized, underserved, and adversely affected by inequality in Cuyahoga County, Ohio (metropolitan Cleveland). The OFR is a 20+ member, multidisciplinary body established in 2013 that shares identified cross-agency data to conduct intensive case reviews of exemplar overdose deaths, to identify systems gaps, and create recommendations, all with the purpose of learning from fatal overdose deaths and working towards decreasing deaths. This process and access to cross-agency information is uniquely distinctive to OFRs. The OFR is under the purview of the CCMEO and co-led by The Cuyahoga County Board of Health. Project activities include enhancing the OFR, with the addition of desk reviews and increasing the number of reviews from 18 to 54. Subrecipient activities include (1) 54 Next-of-Kin interviews conducted by the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board; (2) The University of Kentucky Institute for Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy will pilot and develop a Natural Language Processing (NLP) plug-in for the COSSAP OFR Data System (COSSAP DS) for use by all OFRs who utilize this data system; and (3) The Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education will conduct survey and focus group/interviews with OFR stakeholders to evaluate the utility of OFR recommendations and apply risk terrain modeling to findings from the OFR to inform a county-wide educational outreach program in Year Three. Expected outcomes include: (1) increasing the pool of OFR cases to substantiate findings from previous reviews; (2) oversampling of populations of interest to understand variability of characteristics not captured due to the limited sample (Priority 1A); (3) implementation of a county-wide community outreach education campaign to share emerging overdose trends and promote public health strategies to reduce overdoses; and (4) create a resource guide that describes the OFR model of Cuyahoga County and its application of the COSSAP DS that can benefit and assist other OFRs.

Read More

Hancock County

OH

The Hancock County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board in Ohio proposes a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary collaborative approach to address and prevent the illicit use of opioids, stimulants, and other substances and its adverse consequences within a predominantly rural county. The proposed Criminal Justice Connections – Extending Our Reach (CJC-EOR) project will reduce the impact of illicit opioids, stimulants, and other substances on individuals and communities by using a multi-level approach. The project aims to: (1) expand and enhance an existing LEAD® program; (2) implement a school and/or community-based prevention/early intervention service program for children and family members who are negatively impacted by substance use and/or criminal justice involvement; (3) develop a sustainable co-responder model between criminal justice and behavioral health systems; (4) enhance the use of Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP) in collaboration with community partners; and (5) expand the local workforce through formalized relationships with area institutions of higher education. The proposed project will also evaluate the system level approach which further connects public safety, criminal justice, treatment, and recovery systems to provide a greater continuum of care for individuals with substance use disorder. Activities include: law enforcement and first responder deflection and diversion (30 percent); real-time data collection (15 percent); education and prevention programs to connect law enforcement agencies with K-12 students (20 percent); evidence-based substance use disorder treatment related to opioids, stimulants, and other illicit drugs, such as MAT, as well as harm reduction activities and recovery support services (5 percent); and embedding social workers, peers, and/or persons with lived experience at any intercept of the Sequential Intercept Model (30 percent). The Hancock County ADAMHS Board will collaborate with Brandeis University’s Institute for Behavioral Health researchers for this project to evaluate the impact of the proposed initiatives.

Read More

Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services

OH

The Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS) applied under Category 2 on behalf of the State of Ohio for grant funding in the amount of $6,000,000 for the First Responder Diversion Programs in Ohio project. Through this grant, first responder diversion (FRD) programs will be created and/or expanded in rural and urban areas across Ohio. The project serves Cuyahoga, Fairfield, Franklin, Hamilton, Lawrence, Lorain, and Mansfield counties. Federally designated Qualified Opportunity Zones and high-poverty areas were a consideration in identifying several of the pilot sites. The project partners include OCJS, Cordata, Talbert House, the University of Cincinnati, and drug task forces in participating FRD sites.

Read More

City of Jay

OK

The City of Jay accepted funding for a Category 1 award in the amount of $600,000. The Delaware County COSSAP program continues to develop comprehensive, locally driven responses to opioids, stimulants, and other substances of misuse by expanding access to treatment and recovery support services. The program employs a recovery services coordinator who supports the existing efforts of law enforcement case managers and the drug court supervisor. Meanwhile, the Project Coordinator seeks out additional strategic partnerships in efforts to reduce stigma and entice treatment seeking behaviors in place of law enforcement involvement. Project also focuses on substance use prevention in the local school districts by increasing community/parent/youth awareness of emerging drug trends. Local and national speakers are utilized for presentations and/or trainings, regarding evidence-based prevention curriculum. A COSSAP Advisory Council has been formed to serve as a formal cross-agency collaboration assembled for strategic planning and communication across the county. The program is working to facilitate comprehensive, real-time, regional information collection, analysis, and dissemination by ensuring that law enforcement agencies throughout the county have an officer trained to utilize ODMAP. This addresses the need for quality data collection, which is currently a challenge to obtain because of a lack of resources within this rural community. Project serves all of Delaware County, Oklahoma, which has a population of 42,433. The project includes partnerships between the Ottawa/Delaware County Drug Court Program, the Delaware County Health Department, the Delaware County Sheriff’s Department, Jay Police Department, Cherokee Nation Behavioral Health Prevention Programs, Delaware County Community Partnerships, Grand MH, Grove Police Department, Community Health Centers of NE Oklahoma and the Northeastern Oklahoma Regional Alliance. This project will engage CARE Consulting Group, led by Principal Investigator Dr. Jeremy Goldbach, as the evaluation partner. Priority considerations addressed in this application include Delaware County being an area with a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers, facilities, and emergency medical services. In addition, Delaware County contains several census tracts that are high-poverty areas.

Read More

South Western Oklahoma Development Authority

OK

South Western Oklahoma Development Authority is applying for a Category 1 award in the amount of $467,365. The Western Oklahoma Opioid Prevention Consortium will develop, implement, or expand comprehensive programs in response to illicit opioids, stimulants, or other substances of misuse. This project’s objectives and methods will include developing education and prevention programs to connect law enforcement agencies with students in 6th through 9th grades in the public school system by using the "keepin’ it REAL" curriculum, an effective, multicultural middle school drug prevention program derived from evidence-based research; providing naloxone to law enforcement and other first responders each year, which will help with the opioid overdose death rate; establishing drug take-back programs to safely dispose of unused controlled substances that are found in the home and used by hospitals and long-term care facilities; distributing in-home medication lockboxes to the public to help reduce accidental overdose and to help prevent someone stealing one’s prescriptions. This project serves five counties which are designated as rural challenges, persistent poverty counties, or qualified opportunity zones by the Office of Justice Programs and U.S. Census information: Caddo, Harmon, Jackson, Kiowa, and Tillman Counties. The total population size of the five counties is 73,314. The project includes partnerships between law enforcement agencies and the Western Oklahoma Opioid Prevention Consortium in each of the five counties. This project will engage a researcher selected by the Bureau of Justice Assistance who may conduct a site-specific or cross-site evaluation in future years as the research partner for this project. The project will also consult with research partners at Southwestern Oklahoma State University and other partner agencies. Priority considerations addressed in this application include lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities and to emergency medical services.

Read More

Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon

OR

The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon (the Tribe) is applying for a Category 1 award in the amount of $598,977. The Grand Ronde Opioid and Stimulant Site-Based Project will improve community awareness of drug use and help develop collaborative expanded prevention and intervention programs in treatment and counseling, transitional housing, and community school prevention and education. The objectives include creating a men’s transition house program for a house that a state marijuana tax grant is buying, including creating policies and procedures, providing household supplies, and linking to health care, employment training, and education support services; hiring a school resource officer and creating a program at the local public school district that the Tribe’s members attend; helping with start-up and operations of a new medication-assisted treatment (MAT) clinic in Portland by buying methadone dispensers and providing a peer support specialist; and performing additional outreach and education in Grand Ronde based on expanding programs to address drug use and addiction and assisting with comprehensive program development. This project serves the Tribe’s six-county service area, which includes the Reservation community of Grand Ronde on the Polk-Yamhill county line, adjacent to the city (and the school district) of Willamina. It also includes Salem, where the Tribe just opened a MAT clinic, and Multnomah County, which includes the Tribe’s in-development Portland MAT clinic. The Tribe has 5,572 members, although the Portland MAT project will focus on serving the Tribe’s members in the Portland metropolitan area as well as descendants and other Native Americans. There are 22,598 just in the core tri-county area of Portland. The Tribe will also serve other local area residents, as capacity allows, who need care and want to use the Tribe’s recovery model. The project includes partnerships between Tribal departments with their own authority working with each other (Tribal Police Department, Health and Wellness, Social Services, and Education) and the Willamina Public School District. Priority considerations addressed in this application include the fact that Willamina and Grand Ronde are in a federal low-income opportunity zone. The project will advance the promotion of civil rights and benefit individuals residing in high-poverty areas or persistent-poverty counties.

Read More

City of Erie

PA

The City of Erie is applying for a Category 1 award in the amount of $459,576. The Probation Transition Response Project will strengthen methods that local law enforcement can use to develop and expand comprehensive, locally driven responses to opioids, stimulants, and other substances of misuse and address an identified gap in services and/or invention activity for probationers with opioid use risks. The gap analysis is derived from data collected over the last two years while implementing other strategies for high-risk substance use disorder (SUD) probationers. The Erie Police Department (EPD) will create a COSSAP Diversion and Investigation Unit that will help identify at-risk individuals or low-level offenders for diversion and referral programs. The goal is to help these individuals enter into support programs, be connected with resources, and avoid the possibility of negative outcomes such as incarceration or escalation of involvement in illicit substance use. EPD will also form a Survivor Follow-Up Team of two officers who will focus on individuals who have survived an opioid or illicit drug overdose. These interactions can accomplish several goals, including building trust with law enforcement, conveying the very serious nature of illicit drugs, and reinforcing that supports are available. The project's strategy will expand current law enforcement mentorship programs with Erie Public School students. The Erie Police Athletic League (PAL) has demonstrated the value and impact of the cop-kid relationship in the city after relaunching in 2015. Through this COSSAP site-based initiative, Erie PAL will further expand positive activities with officers and youth. All of these new law enforcement endeavors will leverage and complement existing resources for Erie residents impacted by opioids and substance misuse. This project serves the jurisdiction within the City of Erie boundaries, with an estimated population of 95,508, but it should be noted that the population protected by the Erie Police Department within the jurisdiction goes beyond the residents living within the city. The project includes partnerships between the Erie Police Department, Mercyhurst University Civic Institute, and the many agencies, providers, and resources available in the City of Erie for individuals and their families. Priority considerations addressed in this application include that the project will benefit individuals residing in high-poverty areas or persistent-poverty counties.

Read More

Northumberland County

PA

Northumberland County is applying for a Category 1 award in the amount of $595,168. The Northumberland County Opioid and Substance Use Response Program will address the numerous issues and difficulties faced by individuals suffering from substance use in the area. The programs to be procured through this grant are as follows: the hiring of a wellness nurse to assist Children and Youth Services; the hiring of a certified recovery specialist to assist a local recovery club; the hiring of a project coordinator; the use of DJ Choices, a prevention advocacy group that will conduct assemblies at local schools; trainings for individuals and families suffering from substance use; and the implementation of sober events. This project serves Northumberland County, which has a population of 90,843. The project includes partnerships between Northumberland County’s Opioid Coalition, the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way, the Oasis Recovery Club, and Crossroads Counseling Inc. This project will engage Brandn Green, PhD, of JG Research and Evaluation as the research partner for this project.

Read More

Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency

PA

The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) is applying for grant funding in the amount of $5,368,458 to address opioid, stimulant, and substance abuse needs in the justice system. Priority considerations addressed in this application include serving counties with high rates of overdose deaths, as well as rural areas. Pennsylvania’s proposed project will support six counties (Carbon, Clinton, Dauphin, Fayette, Northumberland, and Snyder) in implementing law enforcement diversion programs, jail-based screening protocols, and comprehensive reentry services. The program will also support naloxone training and distribution programs in correctional settings for individuals with substance use disorder leaving local jails. The project will help prevent individuals with substance use disorder from becoming involved in the criminal justice system, as well as provide individuals with appropriate and evidence-based care and support during and after incarceration. These efforts will also enhance connections between law enforcement, criminal justice agencies, and treatment providers to build pathways to rehabilitation and breaking the cycle of recidivism.

Read More

Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency

PA

The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency will sponsor the Forensic Drug Chemistry Surveillance Project to support counties in establishing new quantitative, real-time forensic drug chemistry analysis workflow protocols. These new protocols will identify responsive strategies that enhance investigations by connecting cases and promoting rapid dissemination of critical information. Accurate, complete, and timely forensic drug chemistry data within a region can help law enforcement plan strategic and immediate responses based on local needs, and larger public safety investigative agencies will be able to use the drug intelligence to monitor trends and intercept drug trafficking routes. Improved drug testing will also enhance public information sharing about the dangers of drugs in the community. The University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy Program Evaluation and Research Unit will serve as a research partner.

Read More

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

PA

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections will focus on persons reentering the community from Pennsylvania Department of Corrections facilities who are high-frequency utilizers of services across systems (e.g., justice, health care, social services). Project efforts will focus on improving data sharing across relevant entities in the Commonwealth, with formation of a stakeholder team to advise on naloxone distribution, data sharing systems, and administrative protocols. BetaGov/Litmus at New York University (NYU) will serve as the research partner for the proposed project.

Read More

Pennsylvania State Police

PA

The Pennsylvania State Police will use funds to implement Project TRIAD, which will synchronize innovative, technology-driven enforcement strategies, leveraging information received through community input. Project TRIAD is named for its three component parts: Component 1–Targeted Enforcement; Component 2–Problem Oriented Policing through Community Partnerships; and Component 3–Public Outreach. In addition, a research component will be funded to assess impact.

Read More

Municipio de Bayamon

PR

The Municipality of Bayamon in Puerto Rico applied under Category 1B for grant funding in the amount of $890,070 for the purpose of implementing a Bayamon Whole-of-Community Opioid Overdose and Crime Reduction Initiative. This project serves the Bayamon population of approximately 207,960. Its primary deliverables include planning documents for information sharing, naloxone deployment and training, public safety and K-12 schools education and early threat detection, Safe Community response initiatives, and treatment outreach improvements to support high-impact overdose victims such as homeless individuals, veterans, and youths. For priority considerations, the applicant meets the criteria for an above 20 percent high-poverty area, as U.S. Census data indicates Bayamon's poverty rate is 37.4 percent. In addition, Bayamon has documented in Qualified Opportunity Zone reports 60 Census track areas with 58 that are designated as low-income communities.

Read More

City of Charleston

SC

The City of Charleston is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $900,000. The Charleston County Addiction Crisis Task Force Police Assisted Peer Recovery Program, a law enforcement diversion program that will fund three positions: one project coordinator to provide data collection and analysis services to all law enforcement agencies in Charleston County and two peer support specialists to support law enforcement officers while conducting outreach. The project will also expand Charleston’s existing partnership with the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI) to include officer training, oversight of peer support specialists, and the design of multimedia products to inform officers and the community of this outreach initiative. The project will fund Critical Incident Management Software (CIMS) to facilitate communication between police-based outreach programs and treatment facilities to track follow-up success, with support from Kelley Research Associates (KRA) and ODMAP to facilitate real-time overdose follow-up communication across the county. The peer support specialists will deploy with trained QRT officers for the purpose of engaging individuals who recently suffered an overdose or presented signs of a substance use disorder during an interaction with law enforcement. They will be responsible for developing recovery plans to support overdose survivors as they transition to treatment. Harm reduction kits that include fentanyl test strips, clean injection equipment, naloxone, gloves, and information on local resources so that overdose deaths and other negative health outcomes associated with drug use can be reduced will be made available to survivors and at other locations. The goal of the project is to achieve a 15 percent reduction in the number of days from overdose to outreach. The project serves the City of Charleston, which is the nexus of the Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area and has a population estimated at 713,000, with an estimated 411,000 in Charleston County. The project includes partnerships with the Charleston Police Department, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, the North Charleston Police Department, and the Mt. Pleasant Police Department, all of which have officers serving on the Charleston County Addiction Crisis Task Force (ACT Force). The project will engage Kelley Research Associates to implement the CIMS and to evaluate the program. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities. The project will also benefit individuals residing in high-poverty areas.

Read More

County of Lancaster Administration Building

SC

The Lancaster County Opioid Action Network project represents the work of over 40 public, private, civic, and faith-based partners working together over the past three years to address a range of community problems, especially opioid related crime, misuse, and overdose. The project attempts to reduce misuse by 20% in year one and by 30% in year two. With support from a Research Team, an extensive assessment of the problem will take place, including examination of underlying contributors. A series of strategies are along with a tracking system to provide real time feedback to practitioners. Based on cursory data analysis, several strategies are and include replication of Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD), increased access to treatment resources, support for first responders impacted by the traumatic explosion of opioid deaths, and an overdose awareness and education component. The project will provide resources for training of every law enforcement officer in the county on LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion), promote visible prescription drug take back strategies, and assist with training, handling, and distribution of Naloxone. Priority considerations include Opportunity Zone, Poverty, and Rural.

Read More

Greenville County

SC

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO), located in Northwest South Carolina, project involves implementing and delivering a law enforcement led diversion to treatment initiative in Greenville County, which has a population of 516,126. The project will develop a comprehensive local response to the county’s substance abuse problem through synthesizing grant resources with existing practices and personnel to support planned activities per allowable use of funds to: (1) enhance existing police assisted addiction and recovery initiative (PAARI) program with law enforcement and first responder deflection and diversion (30 percent of budget); (2) collaborate with the coroner's office and research partner on a data dashboard and real-time overdose tracking program (5 percent); (3) provide naloxone for law enforcement and first responders (11 percent); (4) support school-based prevention and parental education programs to connect law enforcement with K-12 students (8 percent); (5) deliver evidence-based substance use disorder treatment including medication-assisted treatment (MAT), counseling, and connections with certified peer support specialists (15 percent); and (6) embed a case manager into GCSO to divert individuals with substance use disorders as early as possible in the Sequential Intercept Model (16 percent). To aid in implementing this plan, recovery community stakeholders from the county, including law enforcement agencies, community behavioral and mental health services, addiction services, state representatives, and hospital and emergency services will be included on the multidisciplinary Substance Abuse and Recovery Coordinating Council (SARCC) to participate in ongoing meetings with the project team and serve as a permanent standing body with the mission of increasing cooperation and collaboration to sustain substance abuse and recovery efforts. The project addresses issues related to racial equity and the removal of barriers to access and opportunity for communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by inequality through providing enhanced implicit bias training for law enforcement and treatment services targeted to underserved minority communities. Additionally, the includes a strong research-practitioner partnership with the Center for Justice and Social Research at Clemson University to provide a scientific mixed methods program evaluation to provide empirical feedback for program improvement and dissemination of process and outcome findings to the law enforcement, and research communities.

Read More

Oconee County

SC

The purpose of this program is to design and implement a collaborative intervention strategy that provides (pre-booking or post-booking) treatment alternative-to-incarceration programs serving individuals at high risk for overdose or substance abuse utilizing evidence-based recovery support services (transitional/recovery housing and peer support) and medication-assisted treatment (MAT). To meet these objectives, the proposed initiative will provide: 1) assessment-based individualized treatment plans, 2) MAT (Medication Assisted Treatment), 3) transitional housing at the OARS Center, 4) cognitive behavioral therapy, and 5) peer support services. Services will be delivered in the Oconee Addiction Recovery & Solutions Center located adjacent to the Oconee Law Enforcement Center that, as a communitywide enterprise, was recently renovated for this purpose. OARS will coordinate with the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office, the Oconee County Detention Center, the Oconee County Drug Court, the 10th Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office, and the Center for Family Medicine to deliver the proposed initiative through: 1) the development of a comprehensive, locally driven evidence-based response to opioids, stimulants, and other substances with expanded access to supervision, treatment, and recovery support services; 2) supporting law enforcement and other first responder diversion programs for nonviolent drug offenders to improve responses to offenders at high risk for overdose or substance abuse and provide alternative-to-incarceration services to those suffering from substance abuse disorders; 3) needs assessment tools to identify and prioritize services for jail offenders; 4) the use of evidenced-based treatment practices; and 5) rigorous program evaluation by Clemson University providing feedback and improvement opportunities.

Read More

City of Gallatin

TN

The Gallatin Police Department (Sumner County, Tennessee, population 191,283) — in partnership with the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office, local treatment provider Volunteer Behavioral Health, local courts, and scientific consultants — requests $892,085 from the Bureau of Justice Assistance FY 2020 Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Site-based Program (Category 1b: Competition ID BJA-2020-17024) to implement a law enforcement-led substance abuse response to address the county’s increasing substance abuse problem. The proposed community-based strategy to address substance abuse and overdose risk will be implemented through enhancing connections to treatment; delivering evidence-based recovery services including needs assessment, individualized treatment plans, case management, medicated assisted treatment (MAT); providing a police-led awareness and prevention program to the county’s K-12 population, as well as a provision of Narcan to officer first responders. OJP priorities addressed include serving a designated Qualified Opportunity Zone, high-poverty areas, evidence-based services delivery, and program evaluation.

Read More

Cocke County, Tennessee, Government

TN

Cocke County Government, located in the rural Appalachian Mountain region of eastern Tennessee, applied for grant funding under Subcategory 1b in the amount of $899,488. This project serves Tennessee's 4th Judicial District, which includes Cocke, Sevier, Jefferson, and Grainger counties and has a total combined population of 212,069. The purpose of the proposed Tennessee Recovery Oriented Compliance Strategy (TN-ROCS) Enhancement and Evaluation project is (1) to increase the capacity of this innovative court-based intervention program to link individuals across the district at high risk of overdose to appropriate, evidence-based behavioral health treatment and recovery support services; and (2) to independently validate the TN-ROCS model, such that key findings related to program quality and implementation fidelity can inform current and future data-driven expansion efforts. This project includes partnerships between Cocke County, 4th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Duane Slone, Dr. Stephen Loyd, Dr. Jennifer Anderson, American Institutes for Research, and Rulo Strategies. All four priority considerations are addressed in this application. Cocke County is a geographically isolated rural area that is plagued by persistently high rates of poverty, substance use, and overdose fatality. Additionally, one census tract within Cocke County (9207.00) has been designated as a Qualified Opportunity Zone.

Read More

Arlington County Government

VA

Arlington County Department of Human Services’ Behavioral Health Division (BHD) applied for grant funding under Category 1B in the amount of $899,815 over three years. This project will serve Arlington County (population 235,000) and is particularly focused on response in high-poverty regions of the county where opioid use and opioid overdoses remain prevalent. The project also works across traditional jurisdictional boundaries to provide wraparound services for individuals identified as high risk or otherwise involved in the Arlington criminal justice system. The purpose of this project is to improve access to and treatment in the detoxification program; provide early intervention to people arrested on substance use-related charges and identify alternatives to incarceration; improve recovery options by adding a reentry program to an established residential program; maintain collaboration between the police and BHD to address opioid overdoses and activity hotspots; assess and provide interventions for children and families impacted by substance use; and evaluate the use of evidence-based treatment and outcomes. The proposed addition of 1.0 FTE therapist and 1.0 FTE case manager will allow BHD to enhance services along the Sequential Intercept Model. The therapist will be focused on establishment, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based programming in a variety of treatment settings and will be the clinical lead for the creation of diversion service plans and “Plans of Safe Care” for substance-exposed infants. The case manager will serve as the lead clinical staff for co-response with police and fire services to the community, and will provide community outreach, education, and naloxone distribution. Both positions will expand the reach of MAT programming in the county and will address gaps identified through comprehensive community assessment. A key feature of the proposal is a collaboration with an academic partner, Dr. Taxman from George Mason University, to evaluate performance, including outcomes and outputs, along with the development of fidelity assessments to measure evidence-based practice adoption. The project expands upon existing partnership with the police and fire departments, Child Protective Services, the offices of the sheriff, the public defender, and the Commonwealth’s attorney.

Read More

City of Harrisonburg

VA

The City of Harrisonburg is applying for a Category 1 award in the amount of $600,000. The Harrisonburg Fire Department-Community Paramedic Program will implement a community paramedicine program in the City of Harrisonburg. In the past decade, emergency medical services (EMS) and fire departments have been called upon to create programs that offer care options for high-risk patient populations—such as those with substance use disorder—to reduce the burden these individuals have on community systems. Community paramedicine is a concept of prehospital care designed to use paramedics to help bridge the gap between access to primary care services and the needs of the community. The extension of acute and primary care providers and mental health (including substance use dependence) resources are made available by specially trained paramedics. The goals of this COSSAP-funded program are to increase connectivity to substance use disorder and co-occurring substance and mental health disorder treatment in the community; reduce the strain people with substance use disorders and co-occurring substance and mental health disorders have on the health care system; decrease recidivism rates linked to substance use and mental health disorders; create a roadmap to inform stakeholders and city/county leadership on the appropriate formation of the Marcus Alert System in their community; and begin determining the long-term financial sustainability of such outreach programs. This project serves the County of Rockingham, Virginia (population 81,244). The project includes partnerships between the Harrisonburg Fire Department, the Harrisonburg Police Department, the Middle River Regional Jail, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office, Sentara Healthcare, the Harrisonburg Rockingham Community Services Board, the Healthy Community Health Center, the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Crisis Intervention Team, Strength In Peers, the James Madison University School of Nursing, and Cordata Healthcare Innovations. Priority considerations addressed in this application include serving individuals residing in high-poverty areas.

Read More

Snohomish County

WA

The Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (PAO) is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $1,200,000. The project will enable the expansion of the Snohomish County Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) project, a cross-sector collaborative effort involving the PAO, the Everett City Attorney, the Everett and Lynnwood Police Departments, the County Executive, the Mayors of Everett and Lynnwood, and the Snohomish County Public Defenders Association. The LEAD program utilizes both pre- and post-arrest diversions: pre-arrest referrals are made by both police and prosecutors who identify individuals who they believe would benefit from a referral to community-based services; post-arrest diversions are made by officers who have grounds to arrest individuals who have committed LEAD-eligible violations. Expansion will enable the county to increase the number of individuals diverted to the program and possibly expand its geographic coverage, as several jurisdictions in the county have indicated that they would like to adopt LEAD. The goals of the program include reorienting local responses to safety, disorder, and behavioral health problems; improving public safety and health through health-oriented interventions; and reducing the number of individuals in the criminal justice system due to low-level law violations. The project serves Snohomish County, with an estimated population of 822,000. The project will include partnerships between the PAO and the Everett City Attorney, the Everett and Lynnwood Police Departments, the County Executive, the Mayors of Everett and Lynnwood, and the Snohomish County Public Defenders Association. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities. The project also provides an opportunity to build trust between law enforcement and the community, advance the promotion of civil rights, and benefit individuals residing in high-poverty areas.

Read More

City of Madison

WI

The City of Madison Police Department proposes to enhance its pre-arrest diversion program with additional pathways to treatment that include self-referral, active outreach, naloxone plus (Quick Response Team), and officer prevention and intervention. Grant funds will be used to hire an addiction resource team comprised of an addiction resource officer, community paramedic, and certified peer specialist, as well as an assessment clinician for referred clients, program evaluator, and project coordinator. Additional funds will be used to purchase naloxone for community distribution. The project services residents of Madison and Dane County. Project partners include Public Health Madison and Dane County, Dane County Department of Human Services, Madison Fire Department, and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (UW PHI). The project will engage Janae Goodrich of the UW PHI as the research partner.

Read More

City of Milwaukee

WI

The Milwaukee Fire Department (MFD) is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $1,200,000. The project will expand the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative (MORI), the city’s only first responder program, connecting individuals who have experienced a non-fatal overdose with community resources. MORI will provide immediate follow-up to all individuals in Milwaukee who have overdosed with emergency medical services (EMS) contact with a team of MFD community paramedics and peer support specialists. The team will link overdose survivors with education, resources, and treatment services and will ensure victims and families are supported with the goal of connecting all patients to opportunities for long-term recovery. MORI continuously collects and analyzes available EMS and dispatch data on all fatal and non-fatal overdoses in the city, using the data to deploy strategic outreach by the MORI team. The project aims to increase access to evidence-based medication-assisted treatment and recovery services for an estimated 1,650 people per year. It will also increase access to harm reduction materials, including naloxone, as well as other supportive resources for patients and family/friends. The project serves the City of Milwaukee, with an estimated population of 590,157. The project includes partnerships with WisHope, Community Medical Services, and CleanSlate, all of which provide peer support specialists, and with Milwaukee drug courts. The project will engage the Medical College of Wisconsin as an evaluation partner. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities.

Read More

City of West Allis

WI

The City of West Allis Fire Department (WAFD) is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $900,000. The Mobile Integrated Health MAT Access Advocate Program (MAAP) will expand the range and capability of the West Allis Fire Department’s Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) team to facilitate MIH and medication-assisted treatment (MAT) services to every Milwaukee County municipality, as well as support the development of training materials to allow for application of sustainable MIH practices across the entire county. WAFD’s MIH team pairs a community paramedic and a certified peer recovery support specialist who provide targeted outreach and facilitate new enrollments or reengagements to MAT services, reaching the opioid use disorder (OUD) population via either real-time, 24/7 response to overdose emergencies or visitation to patients referred to the program from local and regional partners. MAAP will connect with each participating municipality’s local framework to establish a referral process and connect the local effort to broader regional efforts. A local hospital will provide MAT (including buprenorphine induction), mental health screening with counseling, and warm handoffs to primary care and community MAT clinics. MAPP will educate police, fire, and health departments in all Milwaukee County suburbs on how they can adopt the West Allis OUD outreach practices. MAAP will also work with county stakeholders to ensure children impacted by substance misuse receive required services. The project serves Milwaukee County, which comprises 19 municipalities and has a population of 945,726. The project includes partnerships with the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney, the Milwaukee County House of Corrections, the Milwaukee County Opioid Fatality Review team, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office, the Milwaukee Fire Department Opioid Response Initiative, the Wisconsin Department of Health Service, and the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management. The project will engage Dr. Jennifer Hernandez-Meier of the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin as the primary research and evaluation partner. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants, high rates of overdose deaths, and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities.

Read More

Winnebago County

WI

The Winnebago County District Attorney’s Office (WCDAO) is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $1,897,863. Stimulant and Opioid Addiction Recovery (SOAR) will develop a diversion strategy using evidence-based components for people with substance use disorder (SUD) and felony drug-possession cases and will improve data infrastructure, engaging stakeholders that include local justice, health, and service agencies and community-based service providers. SOAR will operate in two phases, the first beginning with the defendant being arrested or summoned to an initial court appearance. Phase 1 includes a 24/7 drug-monitoring program; Phase 2 consists of a post-charge diversion agreement. The project will collaborate with a recovery-services and training facility in Winnebago County that will provide certified peer support specialists. A local pharmacy will provide naltrexone shots to participants who are interested in pursuing that path. Pragmatic field tests of process improvements will document performance and feasibility of implementation. The project’s goal is to identify and respond to the needs of persons with SUD who are currently excluded from diversion programs. Deliverables include improved data collection to characterize and respond to SUD; a screening tool for treatment and diversion for persons with SUD; and improvements in domains important to the justice system, social-service agencies, the community, and SUD-involved persons, such as increased treatment engagement and reduced recidivism. The project serves Winnebago County, a largely rural county with a population of approximately 170,000. The project includes partnerships between WCDAO and the Winnebago County Department of Human Services, the Winnebago County Department of Public Health, Options Lab, the Winnebago County Circuit Court, the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office, and Fox Valley Peer-based Response, Information, Support, and Maintenance. The project will engage the New York University's Marron Institute as a research partner. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities.

Read More

Cabell County

WV

Cabell County is applying for Category 1 funding in the amount of $1,130,000. The project will enable the expansion of the Huntington Quick Response Team (QRT) by building on existing cross-system planning and collaboration among law enforcement agencies, emergency medical services, fire departments, health care providers, public health agencies, the faith community, and agencies that provide substance misuse treatment and recovery support services. The QRT team connects overdosed individuals to a treatment facility within 72 hours of an overdose event and provides training on naloxone administration; it also focuses on community engagement and building readiness. The team will create operational protocols to guide its activities. The project will also create a follow-up response team that will provide active outreach to individuals who have previously interacted with the QRT to evaluate their current treatment and/or recovery progress and will offer access to services by which they can acquire skills required to join the workforce. The goals of the project are to reduce the number of overdoses in Cabell County and to reduce the number of frequent visitors with substance use disorders to Cabell County’s health care system. The project serves Cabell County, with a population of approximately 100,000. The project will include partnerships with the Huntington Police Department, the Cabell Huntington Health Department, Cabell County Emergency Medical Services, treatment providers from Prestera Center, and the faith community. The project will engage Dr. Nandini Manne from the Department of Public Health at Marshall University as a research partner. Priority considerations addressed in this application include a high rate of primary treatment admissions for heroin, opioids, and stimulants; high rates of overdose deaths; and a lack of accessibility to treatment providers and facilities.

Read More

Monongalia County

WV

The Monongalia County Health Department project service area includes all of Monongalia County. This encompasses urban and rural areas where community concerns include resident struggles with substance use disorder (SUD), access to treatment options, and stigma surrounding these issues. In 2019, Monongalia County was found to have the fifth highest frequency of overdose deaths in the state, with 71% of these deaths involving opioids. The county was one of five awarded a grant in 2019 by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources to develop a Quick Response Team (QRT). The goal of that funding was to reduce the numbers of unintentional opioid overdose deaths and increase the numbers of individuals participating in treatment and rehabilitation. QRT is comprised of emergency medical services, 911, law enforcement, Peer Recovery Support Specialists (PRSS), public health officials, social service providers, faith-based organizations, and local pharmacies. The main goals of this project are consistent with COSSUP's goals to reduce the impact of the use and misuse of opioids, stimulants, and other substances on individuals and communities, including a reduction in the number of overdose fatalities, as well as to mitigate the impacts on crime victims by supporting comprehensive, collaborative initiatives.

Read More

Pick Your Pathway Pathway