Wednesday, February 5, 2025
2/5/2025
The project will create the Southeastern Higher Education Rural Opioid Consortium composed of twenty-five universities including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) who have an existing USDA Cooperative Extension program and universities that have library science programs. The 2-year proposed project will train 8,536 HBCU Cooperative Extension staff members, health care professionals, clinicians, social work students, librarians, community partners, providers, and high school students. The Southeastern Higher Education Rural Opioid Consortium will expand awareness of opioid and stimulate use/misuse, harm reduction, and options for treatment to improve the resiliency of rural communities in 168 counties in the proposed catchment while focusing on children, adolescents, and young adults. The total population of this selected catchment area is 6,303,230 with 1.3 million being 0-18 years of age, of which 51.8% are female and 48.2% are male. Despite overwhelming evidence on the need for more help, rural youth are overlooked in all facets of prevention and treatment. This project will use existing Cooperative Extension Programs and universities with library science programs and local libraries to deliver evidence-based training and related materials tailored to the needs of rural communities in the 168 rural Appalachian counties and panhandle of North Florida prone to natural disasters. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has just added to the economic hardships and has negatively impacted health conditions of area residents. The complexity of opioid use in rural communities calls for community-based organizing and engagement strategies that tap into the expertise of local, rural stakeholders to enhance community and individual resilience to reduce Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and related harms. Despite these challenges, opportunities exist in this catchment area to increase prevention and treatment options for rural communities. As community hubs and youth activity providers, libraries, and extension offices are valuable stakeholders in partnering to address youth and young adult opioid and stimulant misuse. The public libraries will connect community members to credible information and services. Rural librarians will be trained to implement the opioid toolkit and disaster toolkits and appropriately scale and develop outreach in response to the crisis in their communities. In addition to working with stakeholders, health care professionals, clinicians, social work students, librarians, community partners, providers, and high school students, within the communities, the Southeastern Higher Education Rural Opioid Consortium will provide technical assistance to local governments to expand the evidence-based knowledge across Region 4. The Consortium will prioritize providing technical assistance to rural cities and counties in the catchment area on strategies for navigating opioid litigation settlement funds with the emphasis that local government officials and Native American tribal councils must ensure that these dollars go toward actionable strategies and evidence-based solutions that will make a measurable positive impact on the communities they serve. The goal of the Southeastern Higher Education Rural Opioid Consortium is to merge knowledge and practice to promote health and wellbeing, increase awareness of harm reduction strategies and options for treatment to improve the resiliency of the rural communities in Region 4.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).