Rural Communities Opioid Response Program-Overdose Response - Kittitas County Recovery Community Organization (KCRCO) will serve adults with substance use disorders (SUDs), including those with co-occurring mental health disorders, in rural Kittitas County, Washington. With a population of approximately 44,000 spread across a geographically expansive area, Kittitas County faces significant challenges in addressing the needs of individuals in recovery, particularly those re-entering from incarceration. The county experiences a poverty rate of 14.5% (higher than the state average of 10%), and residents struggle with limited access to housing, transportation, and recovery support services. This project will implement comprehensive prevention, treatment, and recovery services across KCRCO's three strategically placed locations in Ellensburg, Cle Elum, and Kittitas, ensuring geographic accessibility throughout the rural service area. KCRCO will address critical service gaps through coordinated activities from both Tier 1 and Tier 2 categories: (1) limited emergency response options for overdose events, with rural response times often exceeding 20 minutes, will be addressed through Quick Response Teams (Tier 1.2.3) utilizing a purchased passenger van and Tertiary Prevention (Tier 1.1.1) via naloxone and fentanyl test strip distribution; (2) lack of accessible transportation to treatment and wrap-around recovery services will be remedied through Supportive Social Services (Tier 2.2.1); (3) critical shortage of affordable recovery housing, particularly for justice-involved individuals, will be alleviated through Recovery Housing support (Tier 1.3.1) providing housing stipends; (4) barriers to employment and life skills development will be overcome through Employment and Life Skills programming (Tier 2.2.2) featuring monthly workshops and biannual employment summits; (5) insufficient youth prevention programming in rural areas will be enhanced through expanding 509Teens, our Youth Prevention initiative (Tier 2.3.1); and (6) limited support for justice-involved individuals will be strengthened through Recovery Community Organization (Tier 1.3.2), Justice-Involved Populations programming (Tier 2.3.2) and Peer Recovery Specialists (Tier 1.3.3), with staff receiving Clinical Training and Support (Tier 2.1.3) to improve service delivery across all areas. As an organization operated by individuals with lived experience, KCRCO is uniquely positioned to provide peer-based services that build authentic connections with peers and foster trust within the recovery community. Our approach emphasizes comprehensive, coordinated care that addresses the multiple determinants of recovery success through housing assistance, transportation support, employment services, and peer recovery support. Anticipated outcomes include: responding to 95% of overdose calls through the Quick Response Team; distributing 250 naloxone kits and training 40 community members in naloxone administration; providing housing stipends to 6 individuals monthly, with 70% transitioning to stable housing within six months; providing 500 transportation instances with 85% of transportation requests accommodated; serving 75 individuals through employment services; increasing to 550 peers annually with 2,300 peer visits and 3,000 referrals; serving an additional 150 peers through the expanded Kittitas location; serving 100 youth through prevention programs; and serving 415 justice-involved individuals while ensuring peers attend 35 treatments and mandatory probation dates. This project builds on KCRCO's established presence in the community since 2019 and our rapid growth to meet community demand, including expansion to two additional locations within the county. By implementing evidence-based practices tailored to the rural context, KCRCO will strengthen the recovery infrastructure in Kittitas County and create sustainable pathways to long-term recovery for individuals with substance use disorders.
