The OneOhio Recovery Foundation has awarded $1,035,783 in second-cycle regional funding to organizations across eight southeastern Ohio counties, supporting substance-use prevention, treatment, recovery and reentry programs. The foundation is the nonprofit organization charged with distributing Ohio’s opioid settlement funds.
The funding covers the foundation’s Region 12, which includes Coshocton, Guernsey, Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry and Washington counties. The awards direct settlement dollars to local organizations working on the ground in communities across the region.
The largest award named in this round, $299,796, goes to the Project Ready Community Reentry Coalition for treatment referrals, housing, transportation and reentry support for adults with substance use disorder and co-occurring mental illness. The funding is aimed at people leaving incarceration or treatment who need several kinds of support at once to stay in recovery.
Guernsey County Children Services will receive $206,028 to keep children safely at home, find relative caregivers and support family reunification when substance use has disrupted a household. The Ohio State University Foundation will receive $162,908 for youth prevention work through Ohio State University Extension in Perry, Noble and Morgan counties.
Demand for the funding was heavy. Nearly 1,300 funding inquiries were submitted in this cycle, and applications moved through regional review, technical review and expert review where appropriate, followed by Grant Oversight Committee consideration and final approval by the foundation’s board. Grant recipients are required to report on their progress and spending.
Zanesville Mayor Don Mason, who serves on the OneOhio board and previously chaired it, wrote that substance-use disorder rarely arrives by itself and is typically connected to mental health, homelessness, family strain, employment, transportation and public safety. That is why, he noted, the awards spread across reentry services, children services and youth prevention rather than a single program.
The goal of the awards, Mason wrote, is to help a young person avoid substance use, help someone in crisis find a path to care, and help families remain connected. For residents of the eight counties, the funded programs are expected to roll out through the recipient organizations in the coming months, with progress tracked through the foundation’s reporting requirements.
Photo: Toni Leland, CC BY-SA