May 9, 2024 | NEWS | By Caroline Moffitt
Last month, a council of elected leaders and others from El Paso and Teller counties met at the District Attorney’s office in downtown Colorado Springs to vote once again on local proposals aimed at mitigating one of the largest problems facing American life: the opioid epidemic.
In 2022, four giant U.S. companies — Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson — agreed to pay roughly $26 billion to settle lawsuits that claimed the way they did business hurt people who got addicted to their products.
Last year, a regional group of elected officials and others, known as the Region 16 Opioid Abatement Council, launched an initiative to help filter tens of millions of dollars of that money through the local community. The group first met in July of 2022.
In March, the council voted to distribute nearly $7 million for local treatment and prevention projects.
At its most recent meeting, held April 11, the council voted to direct another roughly $4.5 million to local initiatives.
The largest piece of the pie this time went to the El Paso County sheriff’s D.A.R.E. program to the tune of $1.7 million. About the same will flow to addiction resolution programs like Serenity Recovery Transitions, Face it Together, Homeward Pikes Peak, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and Open Hearts and Open Doors for Recovery Supports and Transitions.
Others who will get money include Colorado State University which received around $659,000 for youth prevention research, and Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention Partnership for research and increased resources in Youth Prevention. $175,500 went to Hard Beauty Foundation which aims to increase education around opioid misuse in El Paso and Teller counties, and Status Code 4 for training first responders in dealing with the opioid epidemic. Around $520,321 will make it to the City of Colorado Springs, and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office for Medically Assisted Treatment/Medications for Opioid Use Disorder projects. The Colorado Springs police department also got around $320,000 for what it calls Family Advocate Services.
“I think that the council was disappointed that there weren’t more proposals in the youth prevention space and we are looking to expand opportunities in that area in ensuing rounds of funding,” Teller County Commissioner and vice chair of the council Erik Stone, said in a statement to The Catalyst. “That being said, there were some great proposals we funded that will definitely impact those who truly need help in transitioning from non-productive and even illegal activities into sobriety and rejoining society.”
The council is made up of 15 voting members and multiple non-voting members. The group spent months listening to proposals from different organizations and nonprofits and scored each applicant on a list of criteria.
Applicants earned a score for their response to different topics and questions within their proposal. Criteria included: experience with similar projects, organizational capacity and how they planned to use the funds. Scores were then combined and weighted to give each application a general score out of 100.
Voting members include representatives from the cities of Colorado Springs, Victor, Monument, Manitou Springs and other elected officials from both El Paso and Teller counties.
Michael Allen, Colorado’s 4th Judicial District Attorney, chairs the council.
The money will flow to the selected proposals over the next 18 months, with some recipients getting lump sums and others on a payment plan.
The council announced $8 million in additional funding would soon come in from a second-year cycle, and the council also voted to reopen applications to award that money.
The council discussed working to find other organizations in El Paso and Teller counties that could fill gaps in youth prevention by focusing on decreasing substance use in young people through educational programs and an assessment of needs.
There was also discussion about the unequal distribution of funds between El Paso and Teller counties. El Paso County, which is home to Colorado Springs, is the most populous county in Colorado. Teller County, by comparison, is quite small and largely rural.
The council discussed reaching out to organizations in Teller County for the next application period.
The panel did not, however, discuss any gaps in areas such as community prevention and harm reduction. Asked about his thoughts on this, District Attorney Allen, said that the group is focusing on youth prevention at this time and will evaluate other gaps as they identify them in the future.