Yurok Opioid Affected Youth Project

This initiative was awarded to the Yurok Reservation. The initiative increases coordination across jurisdictions to implement intervention, screening, diversion, and wraparound programs and increase services for youth impacted by the opioid crisis, justice-involved youth, and their families.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Effective, culturally congruent, coordinated responses that provide services to improve outcomes for children, youth, and their family
• Cross jurisdictional intervention, screening, diversion and wraparound programs
• Increasing programs and services to support youth and families

Aiding Drug Impacted Children in Out-of-Home Care

The initiative was awarded to the Pinellas County Government – Sixth Judicial Circuit (SJC). The initiative supports drug-impacted children, who have been removed from their home as a result of familial substance use, by improving the screening and assessment efforts and providing comprehensive services to meet their needs and by enhancing the capacity of families.
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Focus of Initiative:

• Training, data and research to support drug impacted children who have been removed from their homes
• Comprehensive services to meet the physical and mental health needs of youth and their families while enhancing the capacity of families to provide for their child’s needs

Baltimore County Opioid Affected Crossover Youth Project

This initiative was awarded to the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. The initiative improves the coordination of key stakeholders to implement data-driven services and programs that youth in the juvenile justice system, with an emphasis on crossover youth, who are impacted by opioid misuse.
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Focus of Initiative:

• An effective data-driven response to improve public safety of children, youth, and families impacted by the opioid crisis
• Strategies and coordinated responses to address the needs of opioid affected youth who are dually involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice system or are at an increased risk due to parental opioid abuse

The Meramec Region Opioid Affected Youth Initiative

This initiative was awarded to the Meramec Regional Planning Commission. The initiative increases collaboration between agencies to address the opioid crisis and coordinate with schools and law enforcement to implement multidisciplinary strategies to reduce youth and family opioid abuse in rural Meramec counties.
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Focus of Initiative:

• Agency collaboration to foster multi-systemic response to the opioid crisis
• Negative outcomes for children, youth, and their families impacted by the opioid crisis

The Turn 180 Project

This initiative was awarded to the Arizona Youth Partnership. The initiative addresses the effect of improving intervention and prevention services on systems change, ensuring the successful reentry of high-risk, opioid-affected youth involved in the juvenile justice system.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Provide evidence-based programming and wraparound support for impacted youth and their families to reduce recidivism and substance use
• Enhance parents’ self-awareness and increase their capacity to understand their children
• Leverage partnerships within the multidisciplinary task force to improve the coordination and availability of prevention and intervention services
• Increase community awareness of trauma and its impact to inform trauma-responsive approaches

Healthy Mom, Thriving Baby

This initiative was awarded to CHI St. Vincent Hospital. The initiative promotes intervention, treatment, and follow-up care for pregnant and postpartum women with opioid use disorder, utilizing a trauma-informed, two-generation approach.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Reduce the adverse impact of opioid and substance use on developing fetuses and minimize the effects of high-risk activities on expectant mothers
• Utilize multidisciplinary partnerships to optimize care, mother/child bonding, positive parenting, and family success
• Integrate a behavioral health focus into patient interactions and a trauma-informed care perspective into treatment planning

Opioid Prevention Project

This initiative was awarded to Gang Alternative, Inc. The initiative utilizes a collaborative systems approach to improve community safety and meet the prevention and treatment needs of youth and their families impacted by opioids and substance use disorder.
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Focus of Initiative:

• Strengthen and expand current data-driven, coordinated response efforts across youth-serving systems
• Employ an evidence-based prevention curriculum to help youth develop age-appropriate and healthy decision-making and life skills
• Coordinate wraparound support services such as case management, therapy, and treatment referrals

Vanderburgh County Peacemaker Youth Initiative

This initiative was awarded to Vanderburgh County’s Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. The initiative enhances the academic, behavioral, and personal development of children and youth impacted by opioids through individualized support and positive social influences in the school setting.
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Focus of Initiative:

• Increase school satisfaction, student engagement, and fundamental literacy skills through the delivery of intensive classroom support and after-school programs
• Improve parent-to-student-to-teacher interaction
• Expand reasoning and coping skills of children and youth living with increased risk of substance use disorders in the home

The HOPE Clinic

This initiative was awarded to Massachusetts General Hospital. The initiative addresses the effects of the opioid epidemic on infants, children, and youth by prioritizing support during prenatal and postpartum periods, early childhood, family reunification, and recurrent episodes of parental opioid and substance use.
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Focus of Initiative:

• Engage expectant mothers in treatment to help minimize parental custody loss at delivery
• Provide individualized wraparound support during critical periods of development to improve infant and child outcomes
• Establish a statewide collaborative to develop a developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed response plan to reduce adverse childhood experiences

Families Matter!

This initiative was awarded to Child and Family Charities. The initiative addresses prevention, intervention, and treatment support for youth and families impacted by opioids and other substances within the juvenile and family court systems.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Improve the screening and assessment processes and respond with comprehensive services to meet the identified needs
• Implement evidence-based intervention models that integrate mental health supports and trauma-informed care
• Connect youth and families to community resources, education, and agency linkages to promote family strength and resiliency

Northeastern United for Drug Affected Youth (NU-D.A.Y.)

This initiative was awarded to Prevention Links, Inc. The initiative focuses on increasing the availability of culturally competent and developmentally appropriate programs and services for youth and families impacted by opioid addiction.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Coordinate comprehensive services, including peer support groups and an evidence-based prevention curriculum to improve resiliency and reduce the adverse impacts of trauma
• Improve community awareness and understanding of opioid and substance use disorder recovery support systems
• Enhance local system capacity for early identification and treatment support with cross-sector trainings

TRAX Programs for OAY in NYS

This initiative was awarded to Road Recovery Foundation. The initiative engages youth impacted by opioids and substance use disorder in collaborative learning and peer support opportunities focused on creativity, healthy self-expression, and the development of life skills.
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Focus of Initiative:

• Launch interactive peer support groups and music workshop sessions across the state
• Increase access to resources to support the needs of community youth
• Utilize effective mentorship relationships to reduce opioid and substance use and improve mental health outcomes

Appalachian Opioid Affected Youth Initiative

This initiative was awarded to Knoxville Leadership Foundation. The initiative increases community awareness by engaging at-risk and high-risk youth and their families, as well as key stakeholders in prevention education, positive relationship building, and family activities.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Utilize an evidence-informed curriculum to provide opioid education and positively influence youth development
• Connect youth with community mentors to increase interpersonal skills and promote healthy relationships
• Coordinate referrals for targeted support and resources
• Increase community capacity by educating community-based youth organizations on opioid prevention best practices

Utah 4-H Mentoring

This initiative was awarded to Utah State University. The initiative focuses on opioid and substance use prevention with a mentoring approach that incorporates risk and protective factors to support youth at risk of juvenile delinquency, high-risk behaviors, and opioid or substance use disorder.
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Focus of Initiative:

• Decrease high-risk and delinquent behavior through individualized and group mentoring
• Foster healthy interpersonal interactions and leverage positive adult relationships to strengthen youth commitment to the community
• Engage impacted youth in enrichment activities that promote skill-building and heightened self-esteem

Expanding Handle With Care 2.0 Implementation Supports

This initiative was awarded to SRI International. The initiative addresses community awareness and education of the symptoms and impacts of trauma on student learning and behavior, as well as outcome-driven strategies to improve practices and policies for supporting students experiencing trauma.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Increase understanding of trauma-sensitive strategies and improve school-based trauma supports for youth experiencing parental opioid and substance use
• Improve cross-agency collaboration and coordination to better support youth impacted by the opioid crisis
• Expand data capacity to inform continuous systems improvement

The Up Center – New Visions

This initiative was awarded to Child and Family Services of Eastern Virginia. The initiative supports youth and families impacted by opioids and other substances by providing family-based, individualized support addressing key recovery concepts of education, self-advocacy, and hope.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Implement evidence-based screening tools and assessments designed to increase opportunities for early identification
• Improve social competence and school attendance
• Increase family functioning and strengthen family relationships

Prevention Empowerment Partnership (PEP) Shield

This initiative was awarded to Marshall University. The initiative focuses on strengthening community ownership and improving collaboration to support the needs and improve the safety of youth and families experiencing traumatic stress associated with the opioid crisis.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Mobilize stakeholders and increase community capacity to better identify and serve the needs of youth and families impacted by opioids
• Integrate prevention, intervention, diversion, and treatment services with the existing systems
• Increase access to comprehensive support services to reduce health disparities

Opioid Affected Youth Initiative—VOA

This initiative was awarded to Volunteers of America (VOA) Los Angeles. The initiative addresses public safety and the improvement of health outcomes by providing a diversion from criminal justice involvement for at-risk youth and their families who are impacted by opioids or other substance use disorders.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Identify, assess, treat, and support youth using a trauma-informed wraparound approach
• Engage youth in intensive case management to improve stability, reduce substance use, and transition out of gang culture
• Utilize community-based education to increase awareness of the adverse impact of opioids and the associated trauma

Tarzana Treatment Center Youth Diversion Project

This initiative was awarded to Tarzana Treatment Center, Inc. The initiative addresses the disparities in the availability and access to comprehensive behavioral health and diversion services for low-income youth and their families impacted by opioids and substance use disorders or juvenile justice involvement.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Improve access to culturally competent, trauma-informed, and developmentally appropriate intervention and treatment services
• Integrate specialized diversion programming to reduce substance use disorder and juvenile justice involvement
• Strengthen referral pathways to community support services and resources by collaborating with diversely represented stakeholders

Substance Use Mentoring Program

This initiative was awarded to the Youth Empowerment Project. The initiative addresses the impact of substance use disorder on high and at-risk youth and families through culturally competent mentoring services and wraparound supports designed to increase positive relationships and improve life outcomes.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Foster the development of healthy peer and adult relationships that strengthen social connection and self-confidence
• Expand the innovative and established mentoring model by incorporating prevention education and therapeutic interventions
• Utilize a youth-centered approach to individualized goal setting, factoring in strengths, resources, environmental factors, and readiness for change

Penquis Substance Affected Youth Program

This initiative was awarded to Penquis C.A.P., Inc. The initiative increases community awareness and whole family support of youth and families impacted by the opioid epidemic through a trauma-informed, trauma-responsive, and strength-based approach.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Increase understanding of trauma-informed substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery and the impacts of trauma on student learning and behavior
• Develop outcome-driven strategies to improve practices and policies for supporting students experiencing trauma
• Engage stakeholders in cross-agency collaboration to continually assess community needs and evaluate program effectiveness

Cecil County Prevention and Overdose Response and Trauma Support Services Initiative (PORTSS)

This initiative was awarded to Cecil County, Maryland. The initiative focuses on mitigating the traumatic social, emotional, and physical impact on children and families impacted by opioids, substance use disorder, and fatal overdose by utilizing a two-generation program to stabilize families and prevent generational substance use.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Coordinate direct trauma therapy and bereavement services for children and caregivers impacted by a fatal overdose to reduce the influence of trauma and increase resiliency
• Provide psychoeducation, training workshops, therapeutic resources, and support activities for kinship, foster care, and adoptive and biological families
• Strengthen community capacity through improved data sharing and the provision of ongoing education to child welfare and mental health professionals

Boston Youth Resiliency and Recovery Collaborative (BYRRC)

This initiative was awarded to the Boston Public Health Commission. The initiative addresses polysubstance use and the associated risk behaviors of Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ children and youth impacted by opioids and substance use disorder.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Engage community stakeholders, including youth and parents, in strengthening the cross-sector collaborative plan to catalyze positive community and systems change
• Reduce polysubstance use and increase healthy coping skills utilizing customized and evidence-based prevention education
• Increase access to mentors with an understanding of positive youth development from a trauma-informed and equitable lens

Project Health Education and Adult Learning Incorporated with Navigating Government Systems (HEALINGS)

This initiative was awarded to Encouraging Leaders. The initiative utilizes a culturally responsive and equitable approach to substance use prevention education and community connection to support youth of color and their families affected by opioids and substance use disorder.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Collaboratively engage stakeholders to design and deliver equitable support services
• Increase training, academic, and career opportunities for underserved Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) children and youth
• Improve access to targeted resources to reduce disparities and promote positive outcomes

Stepping Stones to Resiliency

This initiative was awarded to Center for Family Services, Inc. The initiative utilizes effective trauma-based approaches to address and reduce the adverse impact of opioid and other substance use disorders on youth and families.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Offer a continuum of services for children and youth impacted by family substance use disorder and fatal overdose
• Expand individual and group counseling and education support services that incorporate parent support and increase protective factors for youth
• Create a support network for families in recovery to promote healing and increase community connectedness

Orange County Opioid Affected Youth Initiative

This initiative was awarded to The Osborne Association, Inc. The initiative focuses on prevention education and community support for youth directly impacted by personal and parental opioid use or incarceration using a trauma-informed and holistic approach.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Engage youth in a progressive program model integrated with foundational, strengths-based curricula and family-strengthening activities
• Provide individualized case management support to identify and meet specific goals for academic success and life stabilization
• Establish a youth ambassador program designed to promote leadership and empower youth to attain education, training, or employment goals following program engagement

Opioid Affected Immigrant Youth and Families Initiative

This initiative was awarded to the 30th Judicial District Domestic Violence - Sexual Assault Alliance, Inc. The initiative focuses on developing a collaborative network of bilingual and culturally responsive intervention, prevention, and treatment services to support Latinx youth and families impacted by opioids and other substance use disorders.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Understand and address the unique sociocultural factors that influence substance use and access to culturally responsive support services
• Deliver comprehensive wraparound support and advocacy services that mitigate language barriers to promote self-confidence within the education, health, and mental health systems
• Train community partners on the intersection of trauma and substance use and best practices for identification, screening, and treatment

Morgan County Opioid Affected Youth Initiative

This initiative was awarded to Morgan County Partnership. The initiative focuses on a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach to addressing the traumatic experiences of children, youth, and families impacted by opioid and substance use disorder through school-based and family-centered support services.
Award information

Focus of Initiative:

• Create a model that will promote youths’ residency, parental recovery, and family reunification
• Expand mental health, social-emotional, and substance use and violence prevention programs in the school setting to promote positive outcomes
• Provide mentorship and case management support to opioid-affected, justice-involved youth
• Assist justice-involved parents with navigating and completing their court-ordered improvement terms using an evidence-based program model

CITC Opioid Affected Youth

This initiative was awarded to Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc. The initiative focuses on decreasing opioid use prevalence through the integration of evidence-based approaches and Alaska Native and American Indian (AN/AI) cultural practices to benefit youth who are affected by opioid use and opioid-related substance use disorders (SUDs).

Focus of Initiative:

• Expand opioid-focused SUD treatment and recovery services accessibility for Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) youth residents.
• Increase opioid-focused SUD prevention and intervention services accessibility for Anchorage MSA youth residents by providing Gathering of Alaska Natives workshops to local tribal members and by facilitating naloxone use training for community members.
• Decrease opioid use prevalence among Anchorage MSA youth residents by providing AN/AI cultural sessions for those youth residents and their family members.

Project Addiction Support Services to Increase Safety and Treatment (ASSIST)

This initiative was awarded to Gang Alternative, Inc. The initiative provides evidence-based prevention, intervention, and treatment programs and services to high-risk youth aged 8 to 16 and their families impacted by opioid addiction in high-poverty areas of Broward County, Florida, at the individual, family, and community levels.

Focus of Initiative:

• Develop a public and educational campaign raising awareness and knowledge about opioid use, addiction, and overdose.
• Collaborate with affected communities to address opioids’ effects on well-being.
• Partner with faith-based communities to support substance use prevention and addiction treatment.
• Coordinate with public school systems to provide comprehensive opioid and prescription drug education and ongoing prevention trainings and to build capacity to support affected students.

SAFY’s Empowering Families Opioid Intervention Program

This initiative was awarded to Specialized Alternatives for Families and Youth (SAFY) of Indiana, Inc. The initiative addresses impacted youth and their kinship families on a path to creating a safe, healthy, and sustainable environment through community partnerships and focused intervention efforts for youth in kinship placement.

Focus of Initiative:

• Assess the needs of families and provide home-based casework services.
• Provide strategic parenting education and caregiver support groups to increase caregivers’ capacities to handle behaviors in a developmentally appropriate way.
• Deliver individual and family therapy to help each family member heal from their own trauma experience.
• Increase crisis intervention to provide support in a moment of need.

Big Sandy Children & Youth In-Home Services Program

This initiative was awarded to Mountain Comprehensive Care Center, Inc. The initiative addresses high-risk youth and families impacted by OUDs and other SUDs through in-home treatment and recovery services, creating a safe home environment, preventing out-of-home placements, assisting with reunification, and improving family functioning using holistic wraparound services.

Focus of Initiative:

• Provide trauma-informed, evidence-based services for youth and families in the Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia areas from prevention through recovery to interrupt the generational cycle of substance use and disadvantage for families served.
• Create a public awareness and education campaign to lessen the stigma surrounding mental health, SUDs, and help-seeking so widespread in Appalachian culture and to promote just and equitable treatment of all people and populations.
• Enhance partnerships, collaborations, and coordination among all youth- and family-serving organizations to facilitate a holistic, accessible system of care.

Walking in Strength

This initiative was awarded to the National Indian Youth Leadership Development Project. The initiative focuses on the prevention and intervention of OUDs and SUDs among Indigenous youth, their families, and communities in the Pine Ridge Reservation and surrounding areas by delivering a holistic, culturally responsive, nonstigmatizing model for use in Indigenous communities.

Focus of Initiative:

• Strengthen protective factors and reduce risk factors that predispose Oglala Lakota children and youth to OUDs and SUDs.
• Provide access to trauma-informed, holistic, culturally guided interventions and services for parents and children that support families through treatment and recovery.
• Mobilize sustainable, collaborative community action to address the needs of children and youth and their families impacted by opioids and other substances.

Building Brighter Futures: Opioid Affected Youth Initiative

This initiative was awarded to Amudim Community Resources, Inc. The initiative addresses opioid use-related challenges in New York’s insular Jewish Orthodox communities and works with community partners to deliver coordinated intervention and prevention strategies.

Focus of Initiative:

• Deliver the Our Path Social Emotional Learning/Darcheinu curriculum in the Jewish day schools to prevent opioid use.
• Identify at-risk youth and referrals for interventions of youth impacted by opioid use.
• Coordinate comprehensive case management for youth in need of intervention and support.

Hamilton County's Opioid Affected Youth Program

This initiative was awarded to the County of Hamilton, Ohio. The initiative focuses on addressing the significant increase in overdose deaths and the impact on the community by supporting at-risk and high-risk youth affected by opioids, specifically African-American and Hispanic residents.

Focus of Initiative:

• Expand and enhance the Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach Program for kinship wraparound prevention and intervention programming through effective recruitment and engagement.
• Increase regional capacity and completion rates of the PreventionFIRST! Student Survey.
• Establish an advisory committee to monitor progress, and ensure compliance and equal access to culturally competent, evidence-based prevention and intervention services.

National Center for Wellness and Recovery (NCWR) Opioid Affected Youth Initiative

This initiative was awarded to Oklahoma State University. The initiative focuses on providing evidence-based prevention programming for youth and families directly impacted by OUDs and other SUDs to reduce the morbidity and mortality of Oklahoma’s high-risk youth.

Focus of Initiative:

• Increase youth participation in evidence-based OUD and SUD prevention programming.
• Improve youth and family engagement in positive relationship skill building to increase family bonding.
• Engage interested youth with lived experiences in an advisory capacity by establishing a youth advisory board to help inform local prevention efforts and increase awareness about opioid- and SUD-related issues.

Lackawanna County Drug Endangered Children Alliance

This initiative was awarded to the Lackawanna County Government. The initiative focuses on establishing a robust and multidisciplinary Drug Endangered Children (DEC) Alliance with the goal of identifying and implementing initiatives to provide effective linkage to prevention, intervention, diversion, and treatment programs and strategies for children, youth, and families impacted by opioid use disorders (OUDs) and other SUDs throughout Lackawanna County.

Focus of Initiative:

• Identify and raise awareness of DEC, the issues they face, and the community resources available.
• Ensure the assessment and linkage of youth and families impacted by OUDs and other SUDs to needed mental and behavioral health services.
• Identify and implement DEC promising practices to ensure the efficacy of services provided to DEC.
• Increase interagency communication and collaboration to create effective and impactful initiatives to serve youth and their families impacted by SUD by providing essential training to law enforcement, education, social service agencies, and other community partners.

Building Resilience in Youth and Families Affected by Opioids and Other Substances in Utah

This initiative was awarded to Utah State University. The statewide initiative focuses on reaching opioid-affected youth and families from underserved communities using a combination of strategies to establish a collaborative infrastructure, increase local buy-in, and protect youth from the negative effects of opioids and other substances.

Focus of Initiative:

• Engage underserved ethnic minorities and other traditionally marginalized population subgroups within participating counties to collect and compile data to assess local needs and resources.
• Utilize social marketing principles and related best practices to raise awareness for the project, and broader initiatives in general, and for workshops, interventions, services, and resources in the four participating counties.
• Provide opioid-affected youth and families across the participating counties in Utah with skill-building workshops that focus on effective family management strategies; communication approaches; and building resilience, confidence, and self-esteem.

The Mending Southern WV's Drug Affected Youth Project

This initiative was awarded to Child Protect of Mercer County, Inc. The initiative focuses on the lives of drug-affected youth and their families in Mercer and McDowell Counties in West Virginia through mentoring, therapy, and supervised visitation services.

Focus of Initiative:

• Provide a mentoring program that focuses on positive youth development to help drug-affected youth reach their potential and avert risky behaviors.
• Launch free cognitive behavioral therapy services for noncustodial parents of drug-affected youth and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for drug-affected youth.
• Improve the likelihood of family reunification for drug-affected families.

University of Alabama at Birmingham

This initiative was awarded to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The university’s project, Family Wellness Beyond, aims to improve the well-being of families affected by substance use in Jefferson County, Alabama, by providing a coordinated framework for enhancing the services for these individuals and offering peer support and comprehensive case management services. A youth and family advisory council will also be established as part of the initiative to guide implementation.

Focus of Initiative:

• Provide peer support services to youth impacted by opioids and other substances.
• Enhance case management services such as case planning and direct service delivery to guide youth in their recovery.
• Establish a Youth and Family Advisory Council to guide implementation of the above goals.

National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children

This initiative was awarded to the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (National DEC). National DEC is partnering with the Knik Tribe and the Mat-Su Valley Drug Endangered Children Alliance to address the opioid crisis in the region. This project aims to increase interagency collaboration as a response to the increasing substance use crisis as well as reduce negative outcomes for children and youth impacted by substance use.

Focus of Initiative:

• Create an Overdose Fatality Review (OFR) team and improve multisystem collaboration using the newly established OFR.
• Develop online microlearning courses on how OFRs can serve children impacted by substance use disorders.
• Provide trauma-informed and culturally sensitive community-based services and events.

Beginning New Outreach, Inc.

This initiative was awarded to Beginning New Outreach, Inc., a faith-based organization focusing on at-risk and underserved communities. This initiative aims to provide evidence-based substance use curricula to middle and high school students.

Focus of Initiative:

• Improve outcomes (such as academic performance) for youth impacted by substance use through mentoring.
• Reduce the number of middle and high school students who use substances through an evidence-based prevention program, Truth About Drugs.
• Increase the proportion of youth with future-oriented goals.

The General Hospital Corporation

This initiative was awarded to the Massachusetts General Hospital Corporation in Boston. This project aims to improve the health and well-being of parents, infants, and youth affected by substance use disorders by addressing key gaps in the current system of care. This initiative will focus its efforts on three tiers within the system: the patient, the hospital, and the community.

Focus of Initiative:

• Enhance support of the peripartum period, specifically, prioritizing care innovations to reduce inequities in the care of pregnant women of color with substance use disorder.
• Reduce the impact of vicarious trauma on staff members by creating opportunities structured to prepare team members for upcoming deliveries and reflective supervision to review difficult cases.
• Design and implement a structured multidisciplinary Plan of Safe Care meeting with key team members supporting an individual’s case.

Department of State Police Michigan

This initiative was awarded to the Department of State Police Michigan. This grant aims to implement community programming and peer navigation programs into rural and underserved geographic areas of Michigan through community partnerships and collaboration.

Focus of Initiative:

• Continue National Drug Endangered Children Alliance training to identify and intervene in the lives of vulnerable children.
• Pilot a peer navigator program where parents are provided with a peer mentor to assist in accessing substance use disorder treatment and support safe parenting.
• Build a partnership between Michigan State Police and Catholic Human Services to create a school-based restorative justice program.

The Alcove Center for Grieving Children and Families

This initiative was awarded to The Alcove Center for Grieving Children and Families, which will focus its project on expanding grief and trauma services to children and their families by removing economic barriers and leading the area’s efforts in reunifying and strengthening families impacted by substance use disorders.

Focus of Initiative:

• Enhance implementation of the Youth Grief Program, Youth Trauma Program, Family Engagement Therapy, Supervised/Therapeutic Family Time, and the Family Engagement Program.
• Elevate provision of grief and trauma services to children and families.
• Provide Family Engagement Services to help reunify and strengthen families that have been affected by substance use disorders.

National Indian Youth Leadership Development Project, Inc.

OJJDP funding was awarded to the National Indian Youth Leadership Development Project, Inc. to focus on the implementation of Project Venture. Project Venture is an evidence-based substance us prevention program for Native American middle and high school students.

Focus of Initiative:

• Reduce substance use in Indigenous adolescents through Project Venture, an evidence-based, culturally responsive positive youth development program delivered in partnership with local schools.
• Increase protective factors and decrease risky behaviors in Indigenous adolescents.

New Day Inc.

New Day Inc. was awarded funding by OJJDP and seeks to enhance its proposed project, Kaleidoscope. This project is a coordinated intervention and prevention response resulting in challenges stemming from the substance use epidemic in New Mexico.

Focus of Initiative:

• Incorporate youth and family voices into the planning, development, and implementation of the project programming.
• Convene diverse collaborative partnerships including youth and families to create harm-reductive educational presentations that increase awareness and reduce stigma.
• Provide effective, youth-focused individual and group treatment sessions for opioid and other substance use in a community-based setting.

Lift Community Action Agency, Inc.

Lift Community Action Agency, Inc. was awarded this initiative to launch a project titled Better Choices: Better Futures to address opioid and substance misuse in southeast Oklahoma through targeted prevention and intervention services and programming.

Focus of Initiative:

• Implement coordinated prevention and intervention responses that work together to identify and address the needs and challenges stemming from substance misuse.
• Reduce the involvement of children, youth, and their families in the foster care system because of substance misuse.
• Support the juvenile and criminal justice systems in addressing the needs of youth who have been impacted by substance misuse.

Knoxville Leadership Foundation

This initiative was awarded to the Knoxville Leadership Foundation (KLF). The initiative focuses on preventing substance misuse among youth through a mentoring program as well as the Operation Prevention curriculum, a training resource written by the DEA and Discovery Education, which addresses substance misuse as well as basic needs such as housing and childcare.

Focus of Initiative:

• Provide individual-level direct services and prevention education to youth and families to increase protective factors youth need to avoid engaging in substance misuse.
• Collaborate with fatality review teams to prevent future overdose deaths.
• Expand services to address the needs of the whole family, with particular emphasis on families impacted by substance misuse, opportunity youth (youth neither in school nor working), youth transitioning out of foster care, and justice-involved youth.

Family & Children's Service

Family & Children’s Service received OJJDP funding to develop a coordinated response to children, youth, and families affected by substance use disorder. The organization will focus on increasing access to trauma-informed counseling and case management.

Focus of Initiative:

• Partner with community organizations to coordinate ongoing services for children, youth, and families affected by opioid use.
• Expand internal services for prevention and intervention.
• Create a permanent community-based collaborative called the Nashville Opioid Affected Youth Coalition to serve opioid and substance use disorder-affected children, youth, and families.
• Establish a youth and family advisory committee to inform program design.

Child & Family Services of Eastern Virginia, Inc.

Child & Family Services of Eastern Virginia, Inc. is a nonprofit organization working to bring a new evidence-based treatment model for adolescent substance use into communities, schools, and homes. This initiative will have a special focus on BIPOC communities that have historically been underserved in this region.

Focus of Initiative:

• Deliver the Adolescent – Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA) to opioid- affected youth and their families through services provided by certified clinicians and individuals with lived experience. Utilize the Community Reinforcement Theory to encourage youth to live a substance-free life.
• Understand that meaningful youth and family engagement is pertinent for sustainable change in the home.
• Address equity and access concerns youth and families have with obtaining quality treatment within their own communities.

SRI International

This initiative was awarded to SRI International. This initiative will implement the Handle with Care 2.1 (HWC) project and will provide training and resources to school staff members, create supporting tools for monitoring and intervention, and foster collaboration among community organizations with a focus on the well-being and academic outcomes of trauma-affected students in the county.

Focus of Initiative:

• Expand the HWC project into the remaining 26 schools in Berkeley County that HWC 2.0 was not able to reach.
• Build relationships and collaboration with community partners.
• Train school personnel on the effects of trauma and trauma-informed practices.

Alabama Department of Commerce

OJJDP funding was awarded to the Alabama Department of Commerce to implement the Pathways to Promise: Youth Opioid Recovery Initiative. This project aims to address the impacts of substance use and misuse on youth and families in Jefferson and Walker counties. The project will address these damaging impacts through implementation of evidence-based treatment, community collaboration, and youth and family partnerships, among other efforts.

Focus of Initiative:

• Prioritize early identification and timely interventions in youth using illicit substances through education of early warning signs of substance use and clear referral pathways to services.
• Incorporate youth and families as active members and partners through the creation of a Youth Advisory Board and Family Engagement Events.
• Collect and monitor ongoing data collection to assess the program's effectiveness.

Chicanos Por La Causa

Chicanos Por La Causa was awarded this initiative with the goal of expanding two current programs: Project Towards No Drug Abuse and Active Parenting of Teens: Families in Action (Active Parenting). These programs will offer services to youth and families in Arizona communities. More specifically, the programs aim to reach the region of Maryvale Urban Village, a predominantly Hispanic geography with a high rate of opioid use.

Focus of Initiative:

• Provide family-building opportunities to caregivers and youth with the goal of increasing family involvement, improving youth perception of family cohesion, and reducing family conflict, thus reducing youth substance abuse risk.
• Reduce the risk of substance use among youth through implementation of the Project Towards No Drug Abuse program.
• Improve positive parenting practices through case management services, skills training, and awareness education by engagement in the Active Parenting program.

Penquis Substance Affected Youth Program

Penquis C.A.P., Inc. was awarded OJJDP funding to enhance its existing multidisciplinary task force that is utilized to address safety concerns, intervention, and prevention of children, youth, and families impacted by substance use disorder. Penquis C.A.P., Inc. will complete an assessment of its service delivery methods to enhance engagement and satisfaction of clients utilizing those services.

Focus of Initiative:

• Deliver trauma-informed and/or evidence-based services such as Coping and Support Training and Children’s Program Kit as well as assess these services using pre-/post-CYRM-R assessment and surveys.
• Engage the community to ensure program effectiveness by extensively disseminating program materials, delivering appropriate trainings for professionals, and sharing lessons learned with the public.

Cecil County

Cecil County, Maryland, through the Department of Community Services, was awarded OJJDP funding to support its Opioid Affected Youth and Families program. The focus of the program is to address substance use prevention, harm reduction, and ancillary supports in the community.

Focus of Initiative:

• Convene an Advisory Committee consisting of youth and adults with lived experience to guide efforts and provide a voice for those who have been previously impacted by substance misuse.
• Complete a Youth Voice Project to include education and awareness to the community about the unique needs of children and youth impacted by substance use and misuse.
• Expand provision of community services including trauma therapy, SUD prevention and education, parenting classes, Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies to children, bereavement support, and socialization opportunities for foster/adoptive/kinship families.

PreventEd

PreventEd, a community program to address substance use in Franklin County, Missouri, was awarded funding by OJJDP to focus on prevention, treatment, and recovery resources to children and families impacted by substance use. The project intends to identify and address gaps in existing programming to ensure that those living in rural Franklin County have equitable access to these community resources.

Focus of Initiative:

• Convene the county task force and gather data on current SUD programming and effective strategies to enhance the existing programming.
• Determine where additional outreach is needed within the community and collaborate with other providers to elevate and maximize outreach efforts.
• Implement improved prevention and intervention program delivery while continuing to analyze program effectiveness.

Cape May County Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, Inc.

This initiative was awarded to the Cape May County Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, Inc.’s project, Kinship Connection Project. This project focuses on the kinship family, a family unit in which a relative or close friend is the primary caregiver, and aims to build protective factors in youth who have been impacted by substance use and misuse.

Focus of Initiative:

• Enhance prevention efforts in the community by building on protective and compensatory experiences (PACEs) in youth.
• Mitigate the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in youth through case management intervention strategies.
• Improve the interagency referral and monitoring process to support kinship families.

Richmond County District Attorney

The Richmond County District Attorney (RCDA) was awarded this initiative to continue its work with the Staten Island Fentanyl and Overdose Task Force to focus on the needs of opioid-affected youth on Staten Island. The Task Force, enacted in 2023, gathered comprehensive and diversified data to identify strategies needed to combat this crisis. The RCDA will use OJJDP funding to implement those findings that were released in a 2024 data report.

Focus of Initiative:

• Implement strategies identified in the 2024 Task Force report highlighting Staten Island’s Ripples of HOPE as the sole provider on the island that offers youth SUD services to address the needs of substance-affected youth.
• Increase the quality and quantity of direct services provided by Ripples of HOPE to substance-affected youth on Status Island.

WestCare Texas, Inc.

WestCare Texas, Inc. was awarded this initiative to support the needs of children born opioid-addicted, young children living with parent(s) in recovery, parent(s) in substance use recovery themselves, and grandparents/caregivers of children impacted by their parents’ use of illicit substances. WestCare will develop and implement data-driven prevention and intervention strategies to respond to and treat these individuals with the goal of reducing crime and increasing public safety throughout the local community.

Focus of Initiative:

• Create a continuum of care through community partnerships and collaboration.
• Implement evidence-based parenting training to mothers and caregivers with a substance use disorder.
• Provide early childhood education and developmental resources for babies born opioid-addicted and children living with a parent with SUD.

Council on Juvenile Justice Administrators

The Council on Juvenile Justice Administrators was awarded OJJDP funding to implement HOPE, the Holistic Opioid Prevention Engagement program. HOPE is a data-driven program that will use a systems thinking approach to inform juvenile substance use disorder (SUD) needs in Washington State using a three-step process—assess, implement, evaluate. The long-term goal of the project is to inform juvenile SUD strategies and data for other regions across the country.

Focus of Initiative:

• Establish a HOPE Task Force to define system goals and identify trouble spots to assess juvenile SUD needs and thus identify evidence-based solutions to these needs.
• Implement identified solutions through training and technical assistance to community providers.
• Evaluate and reassess system performance and client outcomes.

SRI International

OJJDP funding was awarded to SRI International to increase youth engagement in schools and improve behavioral outcomes. This initiative will focus primarily on providing services to children and youth who are living in kinship care or with their grandparents.

Focus of Initiative:

• Engage a task force to build a sustainable community-school network that collaborates and improves engagement with kinship caregivers and grandfamilies (KCGs).
• Lead training sessions for school staff members focusing on evidence-based practices and community resources available to support KCGs.
• Utilize data collected to monitor and improve implementation of strategic outcomes to engage and support KCGs.