Review board selects groups to receive first opioid settlement funds

By Cameron Montemayor

After weeks of planning and discussions, opioid settlement funds are now on the doorstep of local agencies and organizations after groups were notified this week that they were selected to receive funds.

The Opioid Settlement Review Board selected six city organizations and two county agencies to receive a piece of $156,000 in 2024 funds. The settlement totals more than $2 million but $156,000 will be made available for funding cycles each year until 2039.

Groups selected to receive funds include:

Buchanan County EMS: $13,500

St. Joseph Metro Treatment Center: $5,000

Mission House Covenant Community: $1,150

The Samaritan Counseling Center: $41,450

St. Joseph Youth Alliance: $10,000

St. Joseph Museums: $3,000

Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office: $7,450

Community Missions: $45,000

An additional $15,000 is also on hand year-round for emergency needs related to treatment and prevention, which would include small-scope initiatives occurring within a six-month period of time and mini grants for one-time projects. Ten percent of funds have been set aside for administrative costs associated with filing applications, reviewing invoices and quarterly reports.

One St. Joseph resident, Zachary “Popeye” Fetty, knows how vital support services from places like Community Missions can be to help turn a person’s life around. He hopes opioid settlement funding will provide a boost to the community.

“It means a lot and it’s making it just in time,” Fetty said. “I have tremendous respect for Community Missions and how they’ve helped impact my life. I owe a lot of my life to these girls.”

Community Missions intends to use opioid settlement funding to help staff an aftercare specialist. The position is crucial for helping people transition out of homelessness and avoid a cycle of substance abuse.

“A lot of times people don’t want to come to grips with it, but with community outreach and aftercare … it’ll enable them to get one-on-one without being around the crowd that’s going to judge, make preconceived notions,” Fetty said.

The Samaritan Center is seeking funds to help boost the nonprofit’s service capabilities with help from a peer-support specialist. A peer specialist would help patients in recovery and those in treatment but in danger of relapsing.

Buchanan County EMS is looking to enhance its education pieces on Narcan and other drugs with settlement funding while the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office applied for a one-time funding request to boost maintenance for its mass spectrometer, a key device for law enforcement that analyzes and identifies compounds in drug samples.

Opioid funding agreements will now go before the St. Joseph City Council and Buchanan County commissioners for vote, which is expected in April.

Going forward, the review board will submit summary reports every two years on the organizations and funding. An agency or organization must provide the review board with statistical outcomes on a quarterly basis so members can evaluate evidence and determine whether the funding has made a positive impact.

Sticking to terms of the opioid settlement funding agreement established between the county and city, funds in 2024 and groups who apply in future funding cycles must use funds for opioid treatment, prevention or education in St. Joseph or Buchanan County.

“It makes a hell of a difference … I have a few friends that are survivors. They beat it down and are two or three years clean and still going strong,” Fetty said.