Opioid Abatement Authority Announces $537,076 in Early Round of Annual Grant Awards

Grants to Support Prevention Efforts and Expansion of Recovery Courts

February 23, 2024 – On February 23 the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority (OAA) approved $537,076 in grants to five Virginia communities for opioid abatement and remediation efforts.

The OAA began accepting 2024 and 2025 annual grant applications in October of 2023,and all applications must be submitted by April 1, 2024. During this timeframe, certain types of grants can be awarded on a rolling basis, but most of the grants will be awarded after the application cycle has ended.

“These five grant awards are just the beginning of what the OAA will distribute by this summer,” said Senator Todd Pillion, Chair of the OAA Board of Directors. “We have been working closely with communities across the Commonwealth and assisting them in completing their applications in time for our April 1 application deadline.”

Awards from this early round of the 2024 and 2025 cycle included the following:

• Wythe County was awarded $78,745 for a substance use prevention program for Wythe County Public Schools.
• The City of Danville and Pittsylvania County each submitted applications to fund the expansion of their shared drug treatment court in the 22nd Judicial Circuit. Danville was awarded $87,206 and Pittsylvania was awarded $118,861 for this joint project.
• Smyth County was awarded $37,525 to expand its drug treatment court in the current fiscal year.
• Fairfax County was awarded $213,739 to add capacity for young adults aged 18- 25 seeking participation in the county’s drug treatment court.

Drug treatment courts are run by judges based on criteria established and overseen by the Supreme Court of Virginia. Virginia’s drug treatment courts and alternative dockets have proven effective in reducing substance use and recidivism among offenders, lowering drug-related court workloads, and improving accountability among offenders.

About Opioid Settlements and the OAA:

Virginia expects to receive a total of approximately $1.1 billion from litigation against manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies that were alleged to have contributed to the opioid crisis. Payments from these settlements and bankruptcies began in 2022 and are expected to conclude by 2041.

The OAA was established by the General Assembly in 2021 to oversee the distribution of 55% of Virginia’s total settlement funds. Of the remainder, 30% is distributed directly to cities and counties, and the remaining 15% to the commonwealth. The use of funds is restricted by court orders and state statute, with the restrictions requiring that funds be used for opioid abatement and remediation efforts.

In November 2023, the OAA received the prestigious “Award for Excellence in the Application of the Opioid Litigation Principles ” from a coalition of national public health organizations led by the faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

For more information contact info@voaa.us