The Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) has announced three grants totaling nearly $2 million over two years in support of efforts to address opioid and drug overdose in communities across the United States.

The grants will support programs at Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma (LASO), the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma, and Mental Health (NCDVTMH), and the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP). LASO, Oklahoma’s only legal aid services provider, was awarded $1 million to pilot a medical-legal partnership for opioid disorder clients and their children. Based at the Hektoen Institute of Medicine in Chicago, NCDVTMH will receive $346,261 to develop its substance use coercion toolkit, which helps healthcare providers identify instances in which abusive partners leverage a user’s substance abuse to control them. And NASHP was awarded $499,400 to continue its work under the FORE-supported state policy center for opioid use disorder treatment and access, which assists state policy makers as they navigate changes in substance use policy. 

“These grants represent FORE’s continued work to expand our programmatic areas of access to treatment, innovation, and family- and community-based prevention. We are continually learning from the field and identifying gaps in current activities where our funds can contribute new knowledge and solutions,” said FORE president Karen A. Scott. “These latest grants will impact individuals and families and will also allow us to expand our knowledge of the most effective ways to combat the devastating opioid and overdose crisis.” 

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Moussa81)