Inspiring and accelerating action to end the opioid crisis.
FORE is a national grantmaking foundation committed to convening and supporting partners advancing patient-centered, innovative, evidence-based solutions.
With Second Grant, Project Venture Will Expand and Evaluate Its Walking in Strength Initiative for Youth on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota
New Video Highlights Vital Role Community-Based Organizations Play in Rural Opioid Response Efforts
National Methadone Access and Quality Commission Established to Improve Access To High-Quality, Patient-Centered, Evidence-Based Treatment for OUD
FORE supports evidence-based responses to perinatal substance use disorder (SUD) care, but evidence-based does not mean one-size-fits-all. So, we partnered with the @perigeefund, @amchp_dc, @ucsf’s Team Lily, @renewal_house, and @ncdvtmh to hold a Perinatal SUD Care Skills-Builder session at the #AMCHP2026 Conference to offer hands-on guidance for adapting and sustaining effective perinatal SUD care interventions to meet community needs and support families impacted by SUD to stay together safely and lead healthy lives.
A new video of Simply Hope Family Services, a FORE grantee in rural Burley, ID, demonstrates how community-based organizations can form the connective tissue between schools, government agencies, and treatment providers that share an interest in preventing and treating opioid use disorder and supporting families affected by it. The nonprofit was launched a decade ago by Nancy Winmill and Sheri Allred, two mothers whose sons have survived opioid overdoses. Both wanted to reduce the stigma facing families affected by substance use disorders (SUD) in rural communities and foster resiliency in youth by offering a continuum of supports. “We wanted to create the space and center that we needed when our kids were in crisis,” Winmill says.
Winmill and Allred launched a weekly support group for families in 2015 and expanded services as they discovered an unmet need for programs to prevent suicide and substance use among youth. In 2022, they opened a drop-in center that offers after-school programming for young people. “A lot of the kids are considered old enough to be home alone, but they don’t want to be,” Winmill says.
Simply Hope also established the Safe Teen Assessment Center that now screens more than 300 children and youth (ages 5-18) a year for substance use, suicide risk, and other behavioral health needs. Staff make referrals to higher levels of care and can make direct admissions to residential treatment programs and partial hospitalization programs in Idaho and Utah. “They can skip the ER and come to us,” Winmill says. Therapists in private practices have begun turning to the organization’s case management staff to support patients with food or housing needs so the therapists can concentrate on addressing behavioral health issues, says Jon Maher, LMFT, Simply Hope’s clinical director. “We’ve been able to create that connectivity. The counselors understand [they’re] not alone in this anymore. [That’s community-building] as well,” Maher says.
Nearly 1 million Americans over 65 are living with #opioid addiction, a fast-growing and often overlooked population.
In their latest episode, #FOREgrantee @tradeoffspod goes inside a Baltimore #methadone clinic that’s finding creative ways to go the extra mile for this group of vulnerable patients, combining #addiction treatment with support for complex health and social needs, including diabetes, heart failure, and housing insecurity.
Check out the story to learn more about what comprehensive, patient-centered addiction care can achieve — and what’s at stake at https://tradeoffs.org.
A big congratulations to one of FORE`s inaugural grantees, @alisterfmartin, on being named the new Commissioner of @nychealthy.
In 2020 with FORE funding, Dr. Martin led @getwaivered, a national effort to encourage emergency medicine clinicians to get a waiver needed at the time to prescribe buprenorphine, a gold standard medication for opioid use disorder. The campaign leveraged social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as behavioral science principles, to make the case for getting waivered and to start treatment in the emergency department. His efforts and advocacy would eventually help to remove the waiver requirement entirely, removing a common barrier patients faced while seeking treatment.
We look forward to working with you, Commissioner Martin!
The Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts has awarded a grant of $917,027 to @yale to establish the National Methadone Access and Quality Commission (NMAQC), a new national initiative focused on improving access to methadone, an evidence-based treatment for people with opioid use disorder (OUD).
The Commission, chaired by David Fiellin, MD, Director of @yaleaddictionmed and Professor of Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Public Health at @yaleschoolofmed and @yalesph, brings together leading experts from #addictionmedicine, #publichealth, policy, and health care delivery, as well as individuals with lived experience of #methadone treatment for OUD, to inform policy and clinical practice change and increase public understanding of methadone treatment.
The Commission include the following members: David Feillin, MD; Malik Burnett, MD MBA MPH; Denise Curry, MPA, JD; Bridget C.E. Dooling, JD; Lucas G. Hill, PharmD, FCCP; Dominic Hodgkin, PhD; Ayana Jordan, MD, PhD; Anita Kennedy, CRPA; Michelle Lofwall, MD; Dennis McCarty, PhD; Beth Meyerson, MDiv, PhD; Robert Sherrick, MD; Kenneth B. Stoller, MD; and Zachary Talbott, LADC, LMSW
Read more about the Commission at forefdn.org.
The entire team at FORE wishes a happy holidays to our #FOREgrantees and all who are working across the nation to address the #opioid and #overdose crisis in their communities!
In the spirit of the season, FORE is pleased to highlight @casa.esperanza.ma, a bilingual and bicultural behavioral health center in Massachusetts empowering individuals and families to recover from #addiction, trauma, mental illness and other chronic medical conditions; overcome homelessness; and achieve health and wellness through comprehensive, integrated care, and support them with a holiday gift. If you would also like to support their mission, please visit https://www.casaesperanza.org/get-involved/ways-of-giving/.
Webinar: Opportunities to Improve Rural Responses to Opioid Use Disorder and Overdose (March 26, 2026)
With the authorization of the Rural Health Transformation Program, a $50 billion federal initiative to empower states to strengthen rural health systems across America, there is a prime opportunity to expand and improve access to opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment and responses to overdose in rural America as part of the broader challenges facing rural communities today. FORE grantees are finding innovative ways to reach those affected by OUD and overdose in rural communities and are overcoming the barriers that can keep them from getting treatment and recovery services.
Please join us on Thursday, March 26th at 2-3 pm EST as we welcome FORE grantees, state leaders, and others as they discuss the current barriers and opportunities on the horizon for rural communities to strengthen access to OUD treatment and overdose services.
Register for the Webinar Here
Recognizing An Urgent Need
The opioid crisis is impacting families and communities across the country. An estimated 121 Americans die every day (44,026 in the past 12 months) from an opioid overdose1, and an estimated 4.8 million experience an opioid use disorder2, affecting individuals, families, and communities across the nation.
Now more than ever, it is critical for us to think creatively, test new approaches, remove silos, and enhance and expand activities proven to prevent and reduce opioid use disorder.
1Provisional reported as of October 2025, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2026
2Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2025
We are committed to convening and supporting partners advancing patient-centered, innovative, evidence-based solutions addressing the opioid crisis. With patients at the center, we are focused on promoting excellence and supporting programs and grants in four key areas: Professional education, payer & provider strategies, policy initiatives, and public awareness.
See Our Grantmaking Approach