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Centennial council member outlines Arapahoe County ‘Region 9’ opioid-abatement spending and priorities
Summary
A City of Centennial council member provided a detailed update Feb. 18 on Arapahoe County’s Region 9 opioid abatement council, describing allocations to jail-based MAT, workforce training, sober-living capacity and a school-based youth prevention program.
A City of Centennial council member provided a detailed update Feb. 18 on Arapahoe County’s Region 9 opioid abatement council, describing how settlement dollars have been allocated so far and the council’s priorities going forward.
The council member said the Region 9 group has spent the first year designing a process for soliciting and awarding funds and conducting a listening tour to identify service gaps. Council members emphasized that state distribution of settlement funds requires projects to include an opioid-specific component and that the county retrieves funding from the state twice a year (March and September).
“Part of our process…was really working on the process,” the council member said, describing the council’s emphasis on defining selection criteria, avoiding duplication of existing services, and prioritizing prevention as a high-impact approach.
The council member listed projects already supported with abatement money: expansion of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) inside the Arapahoe County jail, workforce development training to increase the number of entry-level addiction counselors, funding to support co-responder teams through the Aurora Research Institute, grants for sober-living facilities and expanded capacity at community recovery homes run by Tribe Community Recovery Homes, and a navigator expansion at the Hornbuckle Foundation. The council member also described a “big project” with Cherry Creek School District to run a year-long youth prevention and peer-to-peer training program that is being extended to additional districts.
The report noted investments in harm-reduction work led by Arapahoe County Public Health and identified transportation as an ongoing barrier: many clients need reliable travel to treatment sites, and the council is monitoring Medicaid reimbursement pathways and training programs for drivers who support behavioral-health transport.
The speaker said the council intends to focus more on prevention services going forward because “if you can prevent with new services, it just helps stop the spread” of opioid-related harms. The speaker cautioned that program design must meet settlement requirements (an opioid component) and warned against duplicating successful regional programs when expansion of existing providers is more efficient.
The council member said the Region 9 council has authorized funding to support in-jail MAT, workforce development, sober living and expanded school-based prevention, and that additional proposals will be brought forward for committee and council consideration in the coming months. No formal council votes were reported during the study session.
