Virginia’s Opioid Abatement Authority announced more than $35.2 million in new grant awards this month to support opioid prevention, treatment and recovery programs across the state.
In Hampton Roads, the funding includes jail-based medication-assisted treatment programs, youth prevention efforts, mobile outreach, peer recovery support and Operation STOP programs targeting communities with sharp increases in overdose deaths.
OAA officials said the money is meant to help cities and counties address local gaps, including public awareness, harm reduction education, treatment access and transportation in Hampton Roads.
Executive director Tony McDowell with the OAA said the opioid crisis has changed over time. Earlier waves were closely tied to prescription opioids and heroin.
But in many urban communities now, the concern is illicit fentanyl being mixed into cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and other stimulants.
That can put people at risk of overdosing even when they do not know they are using fentanyl, McDowell said.
“A big gap that we see is education, and particularly in a field that we call harm reduction,” McDowell said.
He said harm reduction can include helping people access naloxone, fentanyl test strips and information about overdose risk.
One Hampton Roads project focuses on prevention before young people leave high school.
Virginia Beach’s Teen to Teen Social Media Campaign and Outreach Initiative received $272,360. The program is one of the larger Hampton Roads allocations for projects proposed by a single locality.
Kate Meechan with the city of Virginia Beach said the funding supports staff who run the program, student outreach, marketing and a broader citywide social media campaign aimed at teens.
She said the program grew out of town halls and listening sessions held before opioid settlement funds were distributed, and residents said they wanted more prevention work focused on youth.
The program targets students in grades nine through 12 with information about substance use, opioids, fentanyl, naloxone and fentanyl test strips.
“We wanted to take advantage of that platform and work with the students in Virginia Beach to educate them on all of these things,” Meechan said. “And then they served as ambassadors, talking about it through their own social media platforms to spread the word, educate others and influence others within their social circle.”
Meechan said the city is still evaluating the program’s first-year impact, including changes in student knowledge and the reach of students’ social media posts.
Other Hampton Roads awards include about $161,000 for substance use jail-based medication-assisted treatment (MAT) services at the Hampton City Jail; about $154,000 for Newport News jail-based MAT services; about $20,000 for the Virginia Beach Police LEAD Program and Community Outreach and nearly $20,000 for a prevention project in Poquoson.
Jenni Sawyer, the OAA’s local government liaison for the Eastern region, said transportation and access remain barriers even in urban areas like Hampton Roads. Some localities are using mobile units to meet people where they are and connect them to care.
Several Hampton Roads awards fund mobile treatment and outreach programs. Efforts include a mobile van for primary care and substance use disorder services as well as a recovery high school in Virginia Beach.
The funding also renews Operation STOP awards in Chesapeake, Newport News, Norfolk and Portsmouth. OAA officials said those programs focus on prevention education, harm reduction and community connections in places where fatal overdoses have disproportionately affected Black residents.
Sawyer said the goal of these investments is straightforward.
“The outcome that we expect is to save lives,” she said.
