Rural Communities Opioid Response (Planning) - 2 Project Abstract Summary 2.1 Project Title Middle Georgia Rural Substance Use Planning and Capacity Initiative 2.2 Applicant and Partners Emerald City Helping Others, Inc. (ECHO, Inc.), a nonprofit organization working closely with Community Service Board of Middle Georgia (CSBMG), proposes a two-year RCORP-Planning project to strengthen the rural substance use disorder (SUD), opioid use disorder (OUD), co-occurring mental health, recovery, and supportive service system across CSBMG’s 16-county rural service area. 2.3 Target Rural Service Area The project will cover the following HRSA-designated rural Georgia counties: Bleckley, Burke, Dodge, Emanuel, Glascock, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Laurens, Montgomery, Pulaski, Screven, Telfair, Treutlen, Wheeler, and Wilcox. These counties form a geographically dispersed rural service area with substantial behavioral health access barriers, workforce shortages, transportation challenges, poverty-related needs, and uneven SUD/OUD service availability. 2.4 Project Summary The Middle Georgia Rural Substance Use Planning and Capacity Initiative will support planning and preparation activities only. RCORP-Planning funds will not be used to pay for direct SUD prevention, treatment, recovery, or supportive services delivered to individuals. Instead, funds will support the infrastructure needed to develop a sustainable rural SUD/OUD service system: network development, formal partner agreements, community assessment, data infrastructure planning, referral pathway design, provider and stakeholder preparation, sustainability planning, and development of a multi-stakeholder strategic action plan. The project responds to documented opioid and polysubstance-related need. GOCAT data show substantial increases in opioid and synthetic opioid deaths in the regions containing CSBMG counties. County Health Rankings indicators further show high poverty, frequent mental distress, uninsured adults, severe housing problems, and limited mental health provider capacity across many service-area counties. Local rural experience within the service area also demonstrates that opioid misuse often intersects with methamphetamine use, alcohol use, co-occurring mental illness, justice-system involvement, housing insecurity, and transportation barriers. 2.5 Goals and Objectives The project will address all three FY26 RCORP-Planning objectives: 1) Build relationships with network partners and community members and formalize a multi-sector rural SUD/OUD planning network. 2) Assess local SUD-related needs and assets and develop a multi-stakeholder action plan to fill gaps across the full target rural service area. 3) Prepare rural providers, service organizations, and other key stakeholders for future SUD service delivery through training plans, protocols, referral workflows, data systems, and sustainability strategies. 2.6 Major Products The project will also maintain explicit alignment with the final HRSA-26-036 priorities by using evidence-informed planning methods, data-driven decision-making, fiscal controls, local leadership, public safety partnerships, and lawful-use safeguards throughout network development, assessment, provider preparation, and sustainability planning. By the end of the project, ECHO, CSBMG, and partners will complete a written network agreement, county-level needs and assets assessment, service and referral map, provider readiness and training plan, data collection and performance measurement plan, sustainability roadmap, and final strategic action plan for increasing rural access to SUD/OUD and related behavioral health services.
