Roane County is honored to announce it has received an award for Excellence in the Application of the Opioid Litigation Principles. These principles, crafted by a coalition of organizations across the substance use field and expert faculty from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, represents a set of evidence-based strategies designed to guide state and local policymakers on effective utilization of the national settlement funds.
This award recognizes Roane County’s exemplary adherence to the following Principles:
1. Spend the Money to Save Lives
2. Use Evidence to Guide Spending
3. Invest in Youth Prevention
4. Focus on Racial Equity
5. Develop a Fair and Transparent Process for Deciding Where to Spend the Funding
UT SMART is proud to have worked closely with Roane County leadership and stakeholders on their opioid settlement strategy. The Recovery Ecosystem Asset Mapping project, a collaboration between UT SMART and ETSU, was utilized in Roane County, as mentioned in the full press release. You can learn more about the mapping project, which was recently awarded a UT Grand Challenges grant to be extended across the state, here.