Mary Alice Reporting – OhioOne Foundation Region 11 members met Friday to discuss option on how to use settlement funds.
Along with Tuscarawas County, other individual’s part of the meeting were from Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison, and Jefferson counties. As part of the opioid settlement, more than $800 million will be distributed over 18 years.
Kathryn Wittington, from the Foundation, said that counties were split into specific regions so that partnerships could happen on spending the dollars in the most effective way possible.
“Areas that were impacted, that may not resources, could pull with others and so it’s really important for that collaboration and if there’s that need.”
She added that the money can be spent on a variety of sectors, but it must relate to drug treatment or prevention, which could include crisis support, criminal justice, mother centered treatment facilities
“There’s a lot. Supportive and recovery housing, supportive employment, it talks about economic development [and] harm reduction. There are a lot of categories in the drug abatement world.”
Kennedy Blakely noted that now is the time for communities, within the region, to consider plans on utilizing the money and what area would be best suited to curb drug addiction.
“Start planting those seeds in the community about what the community may want and start some thinking about what it’s going to cost, where we’re going to do this.”
The next meeting is scheduled for April 26th.
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