Posted March 1, 2024
In July 2021, an historic $26 billion agreement was passed by the courts that will help bring desperately needed resources to communities harmed by the opioid epidemic. The agreement resolves litigation over the role of four companies in creating and fueling the opioid epidemic. To maximize funds flowing to North Carolina communities on the front lines of the opioid epidemic, the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) allocates 15 percent of settlement funds to the State and sends the remaining 85% to NC’s 100 counties and 17 municipalities.
As a result of the opioid settlement, Granville County government will receive at least $6,896,563 over an 18-year period.
Before spending settlement funds, every local county or municipality must first select which opioid mitigation strategies they would like to fund. A MOA between the State and local government directs how opioid settlement funds are distributed and used throughout our state. To ensure that funds are used effectively across the entire state, the MOA documents several evidence-based strategies that settlement funds may be limited to, including twelve specific strategies (see below).
After surveying community members, assessing the current landscape of opioid-related prevention, treatment, and recovery services, and consulting with public health experts, the Granville Opioid Advisory Committee has determined the following three strategies to deserve priority in the review of proposals: Evidence-based addiction treatment, Recovery Support Services, and Post-overdose response team.
Prioritized strategies:
– Evidence-based addiction treatment: Fund local programs that offer Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) and other evidence-based addiction treatment to people with opioid use disorder.
– Recovery support services: Recovery support programs provide a range of support services to people who are in recovery from drugs, such as peer support and assistance in accessing health care.
– Post-overdose response team: Post-overdose response teams follow-up with a person who has recently overdosed. They provide support, education, and connections to healthcare and treatment.
Total funds available: A total of $1,000,000 is available in 2024 for vendors to implement their proposed strategy(s). Only proposals with one-year implementation plans will be awarded. The Granville OAC will consider no-cost extensions for programs that demonstrate success during their first year of implementation. We require a cost-conscious, clearly appropriated budget using population-level data to support planned expenditures. The Granville OAC has the liberty to fund proposals on a partial basis.
As demonstrated in Figure 1, a larger amount of settlement funds are available to support proposals during the first few years of the opioid settlement distribution plan, with the amount available in every future year being smaller than the prior year. While it is the hope of the Granville OAC to use future settlement funds to support programs that have demonstrated success, a limited amount of funding will be available to do so. Because of this, priority will be given to proposals that can demonstrate sustainability plans which do not strictly depend on future settlement funds (see Section 3.4 for more information).
Number of proposals awarded: The Granville OAC’s goal is to fund as many projects as possible to maximize the impact of these funds throughout the community. The Granville OAC will fund at a minimum three proposals, with at least one proposal per priority strategy. It is the intent of the county commissioners to distribute this amount across several different proposed initiatives. Thus, we expect that many proposals will request less than $1,000,000.
Overview of Award timeline:
– RFP Solicitation Release Date: March 1, 2024
– RFP Informational Webinar: March 15, 2024 (Follow this link to join)
– Application Deadline: May 1, 2024
– Expected Award notification date: August 1, 2024.
– Expected Performance Start Date: September 1, 2024.
– Period of Performance Duration (Months): 12
Download the full RFP and Application Template