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Dunn County wins nearly $100,000 in matching funds for jail harm-reduction, peer supports and overdose review staffing
Summary
Dunn County officials said they received just-under-$100,000 in matching funds from Vital Strategies to support a 24/7 harm-reduction vending machine in the jail lobby, peer-support expansion with Wisconsin Milkweed Alliance and staffing for an overdose fatality review team; the county executive must approve a pending budget amendment.
Dunn County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council criminal justice director Sarah Benedict said the county has received matching funds from Vital Strategies, a funder focused on local opioid response, to support several local opioid-settlement priorities.
Benedict said Vital Strategies is providing just under $100,000 in matching funds and that the county has a pending budget amendment with the county executive to provide required local matching dollars. The Vital Strategies funds, Benedict said, were targeted by the funder toward harm-reduction work.
The application that public health led includes support and installation of a 24/7 harm-reduction vending machine to be placed in the jail lobby; Benedict said the machine will dispense Narcan and other harm-reduction items. The award also provides increased capacity funding for peer-support services through the Wisconsin Milkweed Alliance and staffing dollars for the county’s overdose fatality review team, Benedict said.
Benedict said the award also provided funds to human services to maintain peer support for the Choices program and first-episode psychosis work, and to increase same-day assessment capacity at Arbor Place for people with substance-use disorders. She described the matching award as a “multiplier” for local opioid settlement dollars and said some of the funding requests were already approved by the county board’s health and human services committee and are now moving to the county executive for approval.
No formal vote on the grant was recorded during the meeting; Benedict said she would proceed with the application process and the pending budget amendment. She did not specify an exact total budget for the full local opioid-settlement allocation beyond the approximate matching funds figure from Vital Strategies.
County officials did not provide a list of exact effective dates for the awards during the update or say when the vending machine would be installed. Benedict said she would submit clarifying language before any external distribution of the survey or summary materials.
