Tribal Opioid Response Grant 2024 - “2024 Tribal Opioid Response” Project: Indian Health Council, Inc. (IHC) will serve American Indians in and around nine federally recognized tribes located in North San Diego County, in which overdoses by American Indians have been occurring at higher rates than in other populations in this county. The Recovery Support goals proposed for this project include workforce development activities to train and certify peer recovery specialists who have lived experience of Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT) plus counseling for opioid use disorder (both of which are offered at IHC). The Community Prevention of Opioid Use Disorder goals include holding two major community events focusing on opioid prevention per year, and strategic marketing in support of these activities. There are three primary goals for this project: the first is Recovery Support: training and state certification for 5 individuals with lived experience of at least 1 year of recovery through MAT+counseling per year, yielding 25 unduplicated trained and certified peer recovery specialists by the end of the 5-year project as a coordinated human infrastructure-building response to the local opioid epidemic. One of these will be hired as the Wellness Coordinator (=Peer Support Specialist). Additional training for 5 community members impacted by OUD in the family per year will create more support for recovery. The Measurable Objectives of this Recovery Support Goal 1: each year, ten eligible individuals will be trained, and one will be hired. Goal 2 is Prevention Support: IHC will aim to serve 630 unduplicated Individuals total in two large community prevention events each year: the Opioid Awareness Walk and the Family Opioid Prevention Summit, guided both by a Tribal Local Opioid Coalition (TLOC) which meets monthly and by 9 Tribal Leaders whom we will consult per year. Finally, Goal 3 consists of Harm Reduction Support, with Naloxone and opioid test strip training and distribution for those with lived experience, their friends and family from the community, and for IHC staff. For all three of these goals, measures of reach and effectiveness will serve to evaluate the program in support of quality improvement. Between 10 individuals per year to be trained in recovery support, 630 prevention event attendees, 35 TLOC members, 45 leaders (1 each from each of 9 tribes x 5 years), 1690 trained in harm reduction, we anticipate serving a total of 2,500 individuals over the five years.