News & Updates — FORE Announcements

Stay tuned as FORE continues to highlight grantees and programs addressing the opioid and overdose response in rural communities during the month of March. Please register for a March 26th webinar at the bottom of the page.

From the start, FORE has worked to identify and advance innovative strategies for preventing opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose deaths in rural and frontier areas, including the Crow Creek and Pine Ridge Reservations in South Dakota and remote Alaska communities where Indigenous people face sharply elevated overdose risks and significant barriers accessing supports that integrate cultural beliefs and traditional healing methods.

FORE’s awards to Indigenous-led organizations and programs, including the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, the Center for Indigenous Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Project Venture, have strengthened efforts to design, deliver, and sustain culturally-grounded prevention, treatment, and recovery supports. FORE has also supported Avivo, a Minneapolis-based organization that relies on street outreach navigators to help individuals to secure housing, connect to wraparound services, and access treatment, to prevent overdose deaths among unsheltered Native American community members.

Today, we are announcing a second grant of $550,000 to Project Venture to expand and evaluate Walking in Strength, its multisector, strengths-based effort to support American Indian/Alaska Native youth, who are not only more likely to die from drug overdoses than all other racial and ethnic groups, but also experience significantly higher rates of adverse childhood experiences, including trauma, that put them at heightened risk of suicide, depression, and substance use.

Project Venture will use the funding to expand the reach of its experiential education program, which engages youth in outdoor adventures, service projects, and leadership training over the course of a year. A recent video shows how the program nurtures ties to Indigenous culture and the natural world to bolster resilience and prevent substance use. A second video highlights how Project Venture partners with the Oglala Lakota Children’s Justice Center and organizations specializing in youth services, healthcare, education, housing, and public safety to share knowledge and deliver trainings on OUD prevention and treatment.

With the new award, Project Venture will bring its experiential education program to four schools on the reservation and continue its coalition-building efforts by engaging stakeholders in more isolated and remote areas of the reservation. The organization will also partner with the Center for Indigenous Health at Johns Hopkins to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of both initiatives, generating evidence of their impact that will support ongoing fundraising and replication of the model in other Indigenous communities.

“By supporting culturally rooted prevention programming and simultaneously measuring its effectiveness, we hope to advance holistic, strengths-based youth prevention efforts,” says Alison Sutter, FORE’s senior program officer.

Webinar: Opportunities to Improve Rural Responses to Opioid Use Disorder and Overdose (March 26, 2026)

Many rural Americans have less access to addiction treatment and recovery services for opioid use disorder (OUD) than those living in suburbs or cities, due to increased stigma, a dearth of trained providers, and a lack of non-medical supports. 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 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 ET as we welcome state leaders and FORE grantees…

• Katie Greene, MPP | Director – Population and Public Health and Rebekah Falkner, MSW | Senior Policy Associate
  Grantee: National Academy for State Health Policy
  Project: Strengthening State-Level Prevention, Treatment, Recovery, and Harm Reduction Infrastructure to Address the Opioid and Substance Use Crisis
• Nancy Winmill | CEO and Executive Director
  Grantee: Simply Hope Family Outreach
  Project: Rural Opioid Response Plan
• Kevin Ford, LAC, KCGC | Substance Use Program Director
  Grantee: The Center for Counseling & Consultation
  Project: Opioid Use Disorder Program Development
• Matthew Burgan, NRP, CP-C | Board Certified Community Paramedic
  Grantee: Frederick County Division of Fire & Rescue Services
  Project: Community Outreach and Support Team (COAST) Program

… 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

We invite you to look at our Resources page for the most up-to-date information and guidance. You can view a recording of our previous webinars below. As always, please reach out with questions and/or resources that you believe would benefits others.