Supporting Local Governments Using Opioid Settlement Funds on Evidence Based Programs - demo 2

With support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prevention Institute and its partners–Big Cities Health Coalition, ChangeLab Solutions, SheRay’s and Associates, and RTI International– are working collectively to increase an understanding of the science and evidence-base for preventing substance use, misuse, and overdose; build capacity of state and local governments, particularly those involved in allocating opioid settlement funds such as Attorneys General and other decision makers, to make decisions informed by science, contextual, and lived experience to reduce infectious disease and overdose in their jurisdictions; and strengthen partnerships to enhance the effectiveness of using opioid settlement funding. The project will draw on core Prevention Institute tools, frameworks, and experience, and resources from the project partners to guide curriculum and tool development and capacity-building activities. The work will highlight the efforts of community members most impacted in the opioid overdose epidemic by engaging them and organizations representing their needs throughout all aspects of the project. 

Outcomes of the project include:

• Increased understanding in jurisdictions making decisions about the use of opioid settlement funds about the evidence base and the relationship between strategies across a continuum;
• Increased use of tools, frameworks, and materials that support substance misuse prevention and harm reduction;
• Increased coordination across partners, sectors, and jurisdictions in support of opioid misuse prevention, harm reduction, and community-informed decisions relating to the use of settlement funds.

In the long-term, the learnings and outcomes of this project will strengthen and expand a continuum of practice and evidence alongside deeper community engagement in planning and decision-making; and forge stronger collaboration between Attorneys General working on opioid settlements, public health, city governments and other jurisdictions implementing them in support of improving outcomes.

Resource Hub

As part of this project, Prevention Institute has pulled together a set of online resources intended to offer guidance to policymakers, health departments, advocates, service providers, and other decision makers like yourselves as they consider how to invest opioid settlement funding. This site includes planning, implementation, and evaluation resources designed to support those advocating for and implementing opioid remediation strategies in evidence-informed decision making. It also includes resources for those looking to understand the opioid settlement agreements and examples of how jurisdictions around the country are implementing strategies that support primary prevention, harm reduction, treatment, long-term recovery, and overdose prevention. 

These resources, which were compiled in July of 2024, are a starting point for continued research, conversation, and planning. We highly encourage you to explore the site, engage with and reflect on the included resources, and share the site with other partners and stakeholders who might find it helpful. The site is best viewed on a desktop or laptop. Visit the resource hub here.

This project is supported by Cooperative Agreement Number NU38OT000305 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors at Prevention Institute and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services or the CDC. 

Prevention Institute's Past Experience Addressing Substance Use and Overdose Prevention

Starting in 2017, Prevention Institute has applied its Adverse Community Experiences and Resilience (ACE|R) framework to address opioid and other substance misuse. From 2017 to 2019, Prevention Institute partnered with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to support a public health approach to preventing opioid and other substance misuse in the 12 most highly impacted rural communities in the state through the development of comprehensive plans to prevent opioid misuse and combat the overdose crisis through the Community Collective Impact Model for Change initiative. Through this project, we helped those counties build partnerships with city agencies such as public transit, housing, parks and recreation, libraries, and the school system. Additionally, Prevention Institute has written extensively on how a community trauma informed approach can help to address and mitigate the exposures, behaviors, and high levels of hopelessness that fuel the opioid crisis including: authoring a chapter in A Public Health Guide to Ending the Opioid Epidemic; guest blogs on the Health Affairs and National Association of County and City Health Officials websites, including To Address Opioids And Diseases Of Despair, Communities Must Build Resilience and Opioid Settlement Funds Must Go Where They’re Needed Most—Treatment and Prevention; and Applying a Social Determinants of Health Approach to the Opioid Epidemic in Health Promotion and Practice.