Opioid Abatement Authority offers new grants portal for state agencies; proposal window set to open

The Opioid Abatement Authority on a training webinar demonstrated a new grants portal for state agencies and outlined how to register, submit proposals and manage awards. Charlie Lintingham, director of operations for the Opioid Abatement Authority, said the portal replaces an older email-attachment process and that his office will provide technical support during the rollout.

"My name is Charlie Lintingham. I am the director of operations for the Opioid Abatement Authority," Lintingham said as he introduced the session and described OAA's role overseeing grants and outreach to agencies. Matt Terrell, OAA senior business analyst and the portal lead, said the system is intended to streamline applications and reporting: "It makes a much more streamlined process."

OAA officials said the proposal window is planned to open on the 14th, close May 27 and that the OAA grants committee will review and decide funding on August 1; they noted those dates are planning-stage and could change. Agencies must register on the OAA site (the Abatement Academy section); registration requires designating a primary contact and uploading a primary contact letter for approval. Once approved, registrants receive an email with a link to set a password; OAA warned those password-setup links expire after 72 hours.

Charlie Lintingham said each agency should appoint a primary contact (designated by the agency head or a deputy). The primary contact can invite up to five secondary users; secondary users may create and submit applications but only the primary can add or remove members. Matt Terrell demonstrated the dashboard and application flow: applicants choose organization type 'state agency,' select their agency from the autocomplete list, enter project and budget details, attach evidence or documents, and submit a summary proposal that ranks multiple projects by priority.

Terrell showed the portal's grants-management features, including a view of awarded projects where agencies can send MOUs for signature, view contingency-document requests and download historical documents. Signatures are collected through Adobe eSign, and OAA stressed that authorizing signers do not need a portal account to sign; OAA sends the package by email to the signer for Adobe eSign completion.

The portal includes a communications tab that allows account- or project-level messages, file attachments and @-mentions of OAA staff; those mentions trigger email notifications and provide a searchable communication history tied to projects. Terrell also covered budget entries, performance-measure guidance (hosted on OAA's website), objectives, evidence links and required fields; the system validates that requested funding matches listed revenue sources.

OAA staff demonstrated renewal and carry-forward handling with an example: if an agency was awarded $20,000, spent $10,000 and carried forward $10,000, the agency should include the carry-forward amount in the current year's request (for example updating the request to $30,000); the system will flag unused carry-forward amounts as needing to be returned to OAA.

Attendees asked about file formats and file-size limits. Terrell said common formats are accepted (Word, Excel, PNG, JPEG and similar) and noted uploaded documents should be under 25 megabytes. He said the system runs on Salesforce and that OAA selected it for its customization ability to handle complex funding flows.

For technical problems or registration issues (including password resets), OAA asked agencies to email info@voaa.us or contact OAA staff directly; Terrell offered to reset problem passwords on the back end when users encountered self-service loops. The agency also said it will post the webinar recording and Terrell's slides on the OAA website and will host open Q&A/support webinars during the proposal period.

The webinar closed with OAA urging agencies to reach out for help and with a reminder that official guidance and quick-start materials are available on the Abatement Academy portion of the OAA website.