FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Michelle McKenzie, Ball Consulting Group, LLC
Phone: 617-243-9950; Email: michelle@ballcg.com
RIZE Massachusetts and MA Department of Public Health Announce First Grant Opportunity from Opioid Settlement Funds to Support Community-Based Organizations
$3,750,000 will be awarded over three years through new Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership
BOSTON, Mass. (May 15, 2024) – RIZE Massachusetts Foundation (RIZE), a nonprofit foundation solely dedicated to funding and creating solutions to end the overdose crisis in Massachusetts, and the MA Department of Public Health (DPH) announced today it will award $3,750,000 over the next three years through the Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership.
DPH’s Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS) contracted RIZE to develop and implement a community grantmaking program that would create a pathway of access for municipalities and nonprofit organizations to apply for Opioid Recovery & Remediation Fund (ORRF) funding, particularly those based in historically underserved communities which have experienced a disproportionately high rate of opioid-related overdose death.
“This is a grant program like no other. Our partnership with the Commonwealth will bring settlement funds directly to the communities most impacted by the opioid crisis,” said Julie Burns, President and CEO of RIZE. “Mosaic is more than a grant program. It is a commitment to the people and communities suffering most from the harms of opioids and an opportunity to center the voices of people with lived or living experience so that the programs we fund save lives and improve communities.”
The Community-based Opioid Response Efforts (CORE) grant, the first round of grants through Mosaic, will fund community-based organizations that are working to reduce the harms caused by the opioid epidemic. It is intended to help organizations deepen their impact and build a strong and sustainable infrastructure to meet the needs of the populations they serve. The three-year grants will provide general operating support with a focus on capacity building and will range from $50,000 to $150,000 annually, depending on the organization’s size and budget.
“Community-based organizations all across the Commonwealth work tirelessly each day to address the harms caused by the opioid epidemic, and Mosaic is an opportunity for us to invest in the amazing work they’re doing and help them bring that work to scale”, said Undersecretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) Dr. Kiame Mahaniah.
“Grant funds are often restricted, but this round of ORRF funding is unrestricted, which allows organizations to address urgent and emerging issues, sustain operations, strengthen their infrastructure, or meet different operational needs,” said Burns.
The application was released May 15, 2024 and will be available on the RIZE website: rizema.org. Applications are due June 14, 2024. The grant period will begin in August.
“We’re excited for RIZE to release the first round of Mosaic grants, and look forward to announcing the next round this fall that will include matching grants with ORRF funds and municipal opioid abatement funds for municipalities who are adopting best practices, utilizing Care Mass resources, conducting community outreach and needs assessments, and leveraging resources”, said Deirdre Calvert, Director of the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS). “With Massachusetts expecting over $900 million in opioid settlement funds over the next 18 years, we believe Mosaic will help connect the state-level work funded by the ORRF to the community-based efforts that are underway at the local level.”
About RIZE Massachusetts
RIZE Massachusetts is solely dedicated to funding and creating solutions to end the overdose crisis. Guided by those with lived experience and unafraid of new ideas, RIZE is building networks, designing programming, and supporting community partners who are using novel approaches to preventing overdose. Since 2017, RIZE has granted over $13 million to community organizations in Massachusetts. Learn more at rizema.org.
About the Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Addiction Services
As SAMHSA’s Single State Authority for Massachusetts, Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS) serves all residents in the Commonwealth by providing content expertise and best practices to ensure high quality of care, licensing treatment facilities and addiction counselors, gathering data, performing analytics, and identifying trends funding new and innovative programs, and ensuring access to treatment as the payer of last resort. BSAS’s mission is to support accessible, effective, and culturally responsive prevention, intervention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support principles, programs and practices.
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