Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Centers Network Coordinating Office - Rural communities develop innovative solutions to complex behavioral health challenges every day, yet those solutions often remain isolated within individual regions. The University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) proposes to serve as the Rural Opioid Technical Assistance (ROTA) Network Coordinating Office (NCO), building the national infrastructure needed to discover, connect, mobilize, and scale the expertise, innovation, and implementation experience distributed across the ten Regional Centers (RCs), national partners, and the rural communities they serve. Through national coordination, collaboration, and training and technical assistance (TTA), the ROTA NCO will strengthen prevention, treatment, recovery, and implementation efforts across rural America. The UMKC ROTA NCO will provide national coordination and implementation support to the ten RCs serving rural communities nationwide. Rural communities continue to experience disproportionately high rates of opioid, stimulant, and polysubstance use while workforce shortages, geographic isolation, and limited behavioral health infrastructure impede access to evidence-based and evidence-informed services. The NCO will strengthen the Network's capacity to respond by facilitating collaboration, accelerating implementation of effective practices, reducing duplication, expanding access to expertise, and supporting continuous quality improvement (CQI), while preserving each RC's flexibility to address regional priorities and local needs. The primary audience for the NCO is the ten RCs. Through the RCs, the Network will support professionals and paraprofessionals with diverse educational backgrounds working in prevention, treatment, recovery, healthcare, public health, Tribal, criminal justice, faith-based, community-based, and other rural-serving organizations that support individuals and families affected by opioid, stimulant, and polysubstance use disorders. The ROTA NCO will deliver Universal, Targeted, and Intensive TTA through a coordinated national approach that includes a national needs assessment, work planning, the Rural Solutions Exchange, a centralized website and resource repository, webinars, learning collaboratives, office hours, expert consultation, implementation coaching, strategic partnerships, communications, and network-wide evaluation and CQI. During the three-year project period, the NCO will provide Universal TTA to 2,250 participants, Targeted TTA to 150 participants, and Intensive TTA to 60 participants, reaching 2,460 participants overall (560 in Year 1, 820 in Year 2, and 1,080 in Year 3). The project will: (1) build and sustain national coordination that maximizes the collective impact of the ROTA Network; (2) expand access to expertise, peer learning, and technology-enabled TTA; (3) accelerate dissemination and implementation of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices across the Network; (4) strengthen the Network's capacity to support implementation across diverse rural settings; and (5) advance network-wide evaluation, performance measurement, and CQI. Measurable objectives include implementing a national coordination infrastructure that engages all ten RCs in coordinated planning and shared decision-making; establishing national faculty and strategic partnership networks; launching a centralized website within 120 days; disseminating evidence-based resources and implementation tools; facilitating cross-regional learning communities; and implementing a network-wide evaluation and CQI framework. By the end of the project period, at least 90% of RCs will report improved coordination, collaboration, access to expertise and peer learning, implementation capacity, and effectiveness of the ROTA Network in advancing SAMHSA's strategic priorities to prevent substance misuse, improve access to evidence-based treatment, support long-term recovery, and identify and address emerging behavioral health threats.
