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Jasper County expands opioid education campaign after New Life Center data shows high overdose involvement
Summary
County health partners outlined a two‑pronged opioid response: a $62,000 contract with New Life Center for overdose mapping and $110,000 in SCORE funds for a one‑year education campaign. Staff said New Life Center tracked 45 opioid overdoses in 2025 and 12 opioid fatalities, and set metrics to reduce opioid incidents by 20% by August 2026.
Heather Wrath, presenting for Jasper County, summarized the county's opioid response and the partnerships supporting it, saying the county is continuing two projects funded through opioid settlement resources: a $62,000 contract with New Life Center to manage ODM MAP overdose mapping and a $110,000 SCORE-funded one-year education campaign run by Foresight Communications.
Wrath said New Life Center and county partners tracked 45 opioid overdoses in 2025; state EMS entries accounted for 27 and New Life Center logged 18 additional opioid events. She said New Life Center tracked 12 opioid fatalities and an additional 10 non-opioid overdose fatalities countywide. County data show roughly 39% of overdoses were among residents ages 25 to 44, and men accounted for about 62% of overdose incidents.
The education campaign, selected through a council-approved RFP process, will use neighborhood-style media, community workshops, localized signage, community ambassadors and radio/TV placement, with focused outreach to pregnant mothers, faith communities and high-school students. Wrath said campaign metrics will include media reach, surveys and event attendance; staff and its contractor aim to reach 80% of Jasper County residents and to achieve a 20% reduction in opioid incidents and a 30% increase in awareness of campaign messaging by August 2026.
Wrath described ODM MAP as the state's overdose tracking system and said New Life Center fills gaps in the county by coordinating local first responders and service providers (Sheriff's Office, local police, EMS, fire departments, detention center, coroner, Novant Health and Highway Patrol). She credited New Life Center with facilitating 27 local meetings in 2025 and with contributing fatality counts and incident details that are not fully captured in state EMS inputs.
County officials and councilmembers asked about funding source, longevity and staffing. Wrath said the funds stem from state opioid settlement distributions and that Jasper County's settlement allocation is on an 18-year cycle; the county is currently in year four. She described New Life Center as a local data-collection and coordination partner and Foresight Communications as the firm running the media campaign. Courtney Yan, Foresight's principal, and New Life Center representatives joined the meeting to answer questions.
Next steps: staff said it will continue workshop scheduling, community ambassador recruitment and campaign rollout; county officials will monitor the campaign against the stated evaluation metrics and return to council with progress updates as results become available.
