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Rockport joins regional $300,000 RISE opioid recovery grant to fund housing, transport and stigma reduction
Summary
Rockport, Gloucester and Ipswich were awarded a $300,000 municipal matching grant managed by the RISE Massachusetts Foundation to reduce barriers to opioid treatment and recovery; funds will pay for sober-housing stipends, prescription co-pays, transportation partnerships and anti-stigma work.
Dr. Ray Cahill of the Rockport Public Health Department told the Rockport School Committee that Rockport, Gloucester and Ipswich pooled $150,000 that was matched, creating a $300,000 RISE Mosaic Opioid Recovery Grant to reduce barriers to treatment and recovery.
"The 3 communities, pooled a 150,000, and that was matched. So the total grant is 300,000," Dr. Cahill said, and described the RISE Massachusetts Foundation — a Boston-based nonprofit — as the grant manager. He said planned uses include stipends to cover sober-housing costs, help to reduce prescription co-pays, and transportation support through a partnership with Uber Health, along with anti-stigma campaigns and community outreach. Dr. Cahill said memoranda of understanding with partner organizations were in final stages and that a community advisory board made up of people with lived experience will help guide spending.
Committee members asked whether the grant would support families or student-facing prevention work. Jessica DeLisi asked specifically about supports for families; Dr. Cahill replied that the grant intentionally focuses on treatment and recovery because the dollars will be spent quickly, and that family services would be provided only insofar as partner organizations offer them. He also said that, while this grant requires an opioid connection for expenditures, many of the planned programs can address overlapping behavioral-health risks (for example, alcohol or vaping) as part of broader harm-reduction work.
Superintendent Mark Brinko and other members thanked Dr. Cahill for the briefing and encouraged outreach that includes the school community, noting the time-sensitive nature of the summer window for disseminating information. Dr. Cahill invited committee members and community referrals to help populate a forthcoming community advisory panel and offered follow-up meetings once partner MOUs and the RISE Foundation's final processing were complete.
Next steps described at the meeting: finalize MOUs with partner organizations, launch community outreach this summer, and convene the advisory board to guide allocation decisions.
