The UT Grand Challenges grants are intended to foster partnerships that develop innovative solutions to some of the state’s most pressing issues (strengthening rural communities, overcoming addiction, and advancing K-12 education). UT SMART has been awarded two and has advanced to the second stage in the selection process for a third within the mission of overcoming addiction.
For the two grants that have been awarded, UT SMART is part of teams that will work to map key addiction and recovery data across the state.
The first is the Recovery Ecosystem Asset Mapping project that was utilized in “Phase 1” of Roane County’s opioid settlement funding plan. UT SMART will lead a multi-institutional team (ETSU and UT campuses at Knoxville, Martin and Southern) to create a statewide, user-friendly, interactive and living map of essential components of a healthy recovery ecosystem, charting information on resources that range from treatment and recovery services to reentry programs and recovery court to faith-based programs and harm reduction organizations.
The second project, led by UTK’s Dr. Liem Tran, is titled Unraveling the Interconnection: Substance Use and Health-Related Behaviors among Youth in Tennessee.
By assessing the prevalence estimates of tobacco, alcohol, and drug use among youth, as well as mental health issues at the census tract level across all Tennessee counties, this program aims to discern local variations and disparities in these health indicators within Tennessee counties in order to facilitate targeted interventions. These findings can also support health-related policy analysis, providing valuable insights to inform resource allocation strategies aimed at addressing the overdose crisis and other pressing public health challenges in Tennessee.
At the federal level, UT SMART has been awarded an ARC Inspire planning grant to launch Recovery Ecosystem Mapping for Appalachian Development and Employment (R.E.M.A.D.E.). Building on our recovery ecosystem mapping, which has already identified hundreds of resources in the East Tennessee area, we will be conducting needs assessments in five economically distressed and at-risk counties (Campbell, Claiborne, Cocke, Morgan and Scott) to identify gaps and opportunities for recovery-friendly workforce development. These findings will be compiled into reports for the counties to consider for opioid settlement and other funding, while connecting recovery services to the workforce development opportunities offered by our sister agency, the Center for Industrial Services.