West: Gibson County

The Gibson County Opioid Board received six applications from local organizations, requesting funding for programs that would:

• Expand access to transportation to substance use disorder services, 
• Provide direct services through the local Community Kitchen, 
• Deliver prevention services from birth through age 17 at emergency housing,
• Launch school-based interventions,
• Onboard navigators to increase the breadth and timeliness of interventions for those involved with the criminal justice system, and more.

These strategies address recovery from multiple angles, demonstrating a comprehensive approach.

The Gibson County Opioid Board has made $200,000 available for this year of funding, and the requests total $272,000, so some tough decisions will have to be made at their next meeting. 

Middle: Sumner County

With over half of the local overdoses going through the area’s flagship hospital, Highpoint Health, the Sumner County Opioid Abatement Committee funded a collaborative project to improve connection between services. The partners on this project are many and cover nearly the entire recovery ecosystem: Highpoint Health, Volunteer Behavioral Health, Sumner Health Department, Sumner Prevention Coalition, Sumner EMS and Sumner County Risk Management. 

While we have previously highlighted Sumner’s work before by showcasing the breadth of the representation on their Opioid Abatement Committee, this quarter we are highlighting a specific position that is being funded with settlement dollars: a Substance Abuse Recovery Navigator in the hospital, to help connect individuals directly to treatment and recovery services before they even leave the Emergency Department. 

Furthermore, the county is looking toward the future as they are considering multiple large projects for the next round of funding, with options including building housing for participants in the recovery court, expanding the recovery court’s capacity, and other options.

East: Anderson County

Of all the counties that SMART has supported with carrying out a community grant process for their opioid settlements, Anderson County has by far received the largest number of proposals to date. During the one-month window, community organizations submitted 28 applications totaling $1,366,414 in requested funds. 

However, the Anderson County Opioid Settlement Committee only had $425,159.28 available for this round of funding, so after an extensive review and scoring of applications, 15 projects were approved for the following organizations:

• Free Medical Clinic: $81,648
• Anderson County Recovery Court: $65,000
• Foundation House: $60,000
• New Purpose: $45,000
• Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP): $38,796
• PPS & Focus Group Ministries: $35,000
• Boys & Girls Club: $30,000
• Main Street Baptist Church (Rocky Top): $20,000
• First Methodist Church (First Recovery): $18,500
• Celebrate Recovery at Heritage: $13,500
• Isaiah 117 House: $10,000
• Anderson County Government (Project Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet): $10,000

Anderson County’s process, developed with assistance from SMART, is a user-friendly scoring matrix for proposal evaluation, scoring, and ranking proposals. This useful tool can be replicated by other counties that have opened their opioid settlements to community grants to improve the ease and efficiency of their scoring process, while also bolstering transparency. This is especially useful for counties that receive an unexpectedly large number of requests, which may increase as awareness of the opioid settlements rise over the next decade and a half. SMART will continue working with the Anderson County Finance Department to draft the contracts and reporting guidelines for the funded organizations, as well as other assistance.