This brief is part of a series highlighting partnership projects that are part of the Rural Responses to the Opioid Epidemic project; it discusses the WestCare Tennessee, Inc. and Northumberland County partnerships in Tennessee and Pennsylvania, respectively.
This Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) document on harm reduction describes the Rural Responses to the Opioid Epidemic (RROE) project. The RROE project aims to serve residents with substance use disorder (SUD); it supports 21 rural sites across the United States in order to develop or enhance efforts to do the following tasks: strengthen epidemiologic surveillance and public health data infrastructure; implement effective community-level opioid overdose prevention activities; and establish or enhance public safety, public health, and behavioral health collaborations. The document notes that sites may also expand peer recovery and recovery support services that help people start and continue with recovery. Another project focus is to make more efficient use of limited resources. The two partnerships featured in this brief are WestCare Tennessee, Inc. (WestCare), and Northumberland County (Northumberland) in Pennsylvania. The focus of the document is Youth and Families Prevention and Intervention. The brief addresses the issue of one in eight children aged 17 or younger living in homes where at least one parent has a SUD. WestCare is a non-profit organization located in 16 states and three US territories; the brief highlights its work in Tennessee, where it has established two valuable partnerships with a children’s book author and the Tennessee Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (TADEC). The brief’s section on Northumberland describes the organization’s youth-focused initiatives that expand on a pre-existing school-based prevention activity, the Strengthening Families Program (SFP 10-14). Lessons learned recommend filling in gaps in conversation surrounding SUD, transcending existing job descriptions to meet community needs, and connecting with youth outside of the school setting.