Health and Human Services outlines next steps for opioid settlement spending and reports on youth activities pilot

Dona Ana County Health and Human Services Director Jamie Michael gave a two-part update: highlights from a first-year youth-activities pilot and next steps on proposed use of opioid-settlement funds.

Michael reported that four contractors delivered after-school and summer programming across several community centers in the county last fiscal year. Contracted providers included Community Action Agency, Boys & Girls Club, YMCA and DAVA; collectively the programs logged just under 4,000 participant encounters in the year. Participation varied by site and contractor: Community Action Agency’s entrepreneurship week had about 10 youths per location per day; Boys & Girls Club averaged roughly three children per day at two sites; YMCA averaged six children per day; and DAVA averaged about two children per day at two sites. Michael said Chaparral had higher participation because of park access and proximity to a community center, while recruitment remained difficult in La Mesa.

On the opioid-settlement funds, Michael said county staff narrowed recommended strategies, target populations and settings after a joint work session with the City. The plan is to bring a resolution to both the city and county commissions by the second BOCC meeting in August to set the strategies, populations to be served and initial-percent allocations for the first two years. Michael said staff will also answer trustee-related questions and present proposed percent-of-funds allocations and scopes of work when the resolution is presented.

Commissioners had no substantive questions after the presentation; Michael said she would return with a resolution for board consideration and more detailed scopes of work and spending proposals.