Local groups get funds to fight opioid crisis

BOSTON, Mass. (SHNS)– Eighteen small, community-based organizations that work to address the opioid use and abuse crisis are getting the first wave of money, $3.75 million in all, from a new partnership that wants to facilitate better access to statewide opioid settlement funds for grassroots groups.

Organizations in Springfield, Charlemont and Northampton are among those receiving funding.

The Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership was developed by the Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Addiction Services and RIZE Massachusetts to ensure equitable allocation of Opioid Recovery and Remediation Fund (ORRF) grants to municipalities and local groups that often face significant obstacles to accessing traditional funding opportunities.

The 18 organizations getting first-round funding will receive between $16,000 and $150,000 annually over three years to focus on one or all of the following areas: prevention, harm reduction, connections to care, recovery supports, trauma, grief, and family supports.

First round Mosaic grant program awardees:

• Access HOPE, Mashpee
• AIDS Project Worcester, Worcester
• Black Behavioral Health Network, Springfield
• Camp Happy Place, Barrington
• Centro De Ayuda Y Esperanza Latina, Bedford
• Choice Recovery Coaching Inc., Springfield
• Extreme Kid, Inc., Springfield
• Fishing Partnership Health Plan/Fishing Partnership Support Services, New Bedford
• Hilltown Youth Recovery Theater, Charlemont
• Harm Reduction Hedgehogs (HRH413), Northampton
• Safe Exit Initiative, Worcester
• South Shore Peer Recovery, Scituate
• The Commission on the Status of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren of Massachusetts, Boston
• The Psychological Center, Lawrence
• The Sun Will Rise, Braintree
• Torch Light Recovery, Boston
• Troubled Waters Inc./Bridge Club of Greater Lowell, Lowell
• Uhai for Health Inc., Worcester

“Opioid settlement funding has created a rare opportunity to provide the people and the communities most impacted by the overdose crisis with the resources to support locally led prevention, treatment, intervention, recovery and harm reduction services,” Deirdre Calvert, director of the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services, said. ”Mosaic will be the bridge that connects our statewide overdose prevention strategy to local efforts.”

Massachusetts anticipates receiving $1 billion over the next 18 years through settlements related to lawsuits brought against opioid manufacturers, distributors and others. The money — 60 percent allocated directly to the ORRF and 40 percent dedicated to municipalities — is slated to be used for substance use prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery efforts. One of those cases — a landmark $6 billion opioid settlement that would have steered up to $110 million to the Bay State — was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court in June.

Gov. Maura Healey’s office said the Mosaic program “represents a commitment by the Commonwealth to dedicate $5 million annually over the next 18 years (or 18 percent of the total opioid settlement funds in the ORRF) toward funding locally led initiatives to address the harms caused by the opioid epidemic.”

State officials said in June that there were 2,125 confirmed and estimated opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts in 2023 — a 10 percent decline compared to 2022, when the epidemic claimed the lives of 2,357 Bay Staters. Opioid-related overdose fatalities have exceeded 2,000 per year since 2016.

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