Grantee Spotlight: Simply Hope

In their applications for a stake of the $50 billion federal Rural Health Transformation Program fund, nearly all states signaled they plan to make expanding access to behavioral health and substance use treatment services in rural communities a priority. As they develop implementation plans, we hope they will consider the outsized role that community-based organizations (CBOs) play in identifying and meeting local needs, particularly in rural and frontier areas where health care providers are often in short supply.

A new video of Simply Hope Family Services, a FORE grantee in rural Burley, ID, demonstrates how CBOs 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.