Rural Communities Opioid Response Program-Impact - CORE Community Organized Relief Effort requests funding through HRSA’s Rural Communities Opioid Response Program-Impact to implement CONNECT (Community Opioid Network for Navigation, Education, Coordination, and Treatment) in Robeson County, North Carolina, a rural county of 117,365 residents facing one of the highest overdose rates in the state, driven primarily by fentanyl. Robeson county also faces high rates of poverty, uninsurance, and unemployment, alongside a shortage of behavioral health professionals. The county is home to the Lumbee Tribe, the largest Native American community east of the Mississippi River, and CONNECT will pay particular attention to the needs of Native American communities, as well as justice-involved individuals and people experiencing homelessness, who face additional barriers to stability and treatment. CONNECT will address the opioid and substance use crisis through four coordinated goals: expanding prevention, treatment and recovery services; strengthening supportive services like transportation and housing; building a sustainable local behavioral health workforce; and creating a coordinated, multi-sector network of community organizations to ensure services continue federal funding ends. Direct services will include: community-based prevention programming, including overdose response and Naloxone trainings and stigma reducing workshops; SUD treatment, including medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) delivered via a treatment clinic reaching underserved, rural parts of the county; and recovery support, including case management connecting individuals to treatment, housing, transportation, benefits, and peer recovery support, alongside transitional recovery housing and transportation assistance. Workforce development activities include professional training, employment and career services, and a small grants program supporting students pursuing careers in community health, peer support, and addiction treatment fields. CONNECT will be implemented through a formal network of Robeson County partners: CORE, a nonprofit providing case management, prevention workshops and coordination, Robeson Health Care Corporation (RHCC), a nonprofit FQHC offering MOUD and transitional recovery housing for women and children; Southeastern Life Center, providing transportation, housing and meal support for individuals in treatment; Southeastern Integrated Care, delivering MOUD and clinical services via mobile clinic; the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, supporting vocational rehabilitation for Tribe members with SUD; the Lumbee Regional Development Association, providing workforce development and social services; and Robeson County Community College, providing training space and small grants for students in prevention and treatment-related fields. The network will operate under shared governance, joint decision-making, regular meetings, and a dedicated coordinator responsible for facilitating collaboration, tracking progress, and continuous improvement. This project builds on relationships CORE has developed within Robeson County since 2018 and community-based opioid response programming it has led since 2023, grounded in direct engagement with residents, including people with lived experience of substance use and their family members. Over a four-year period of performance, CONNECT will work to reduce opioid overdoses, expand access to treatment and recovery support, grow a sustainable local behavioral health workforce, and build a lasting, community-led system of care to sustain progress against the opioid and substance use crisis in Robeson County.
