GREENFIELD — Additional resources for people and their families in opioid addiction recovery journeys are coming to the region with the help of a grant program leveraging national opioid settlement funds distributed to communities.

The money and matching funds, $33,000 for the Franklin Regional Council of Governments and $50,000 for Orange, will supplement existing services in the region in an effort to lower barriers to addiction recovery resources.

FRCOG will use its Mosaic matching grant and town settlement funds to partner with the Center for Human Development, Moms Do Care, The RECOVER Project and Learn to Cope to bring recovery support services into northern and western Franklin County. FRCOG staff will also spend time developing a network of naloxone cabinets and researching effective opioid use prevention curricula for elementary schools in anticipation of local towns using settlement funds for that purpose in the future.

“The main priority of the 15 boards of health was that they want these services to be available outside Greenfield and Orange. Now we’ve got people holding meetings in Shelburne and Buckland and Erving, and we’re able to support people closer to their homes. It’s been wonderful,” FRCOG Director of Community Health Phoebe Walker said. “We know that while overdoses are down at the national level and in Franklin County, that doesn’t mean that we solved the problem. People and families need a lot of support in recovering from this disease.”

The money comes from the Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership, also known as Mosaic, which is funded by the state Department of Public Health and Bureau of Substance Addiction Services. The program is run by the RIZE Massachusetts Foundation, an independent nonprofit dedicated to ending the opioid epidemic. The public-private partnership funds initiatives in underserved communities that have experienced a high rate of opioid-related overdose deaths, according to Mosaic’s website.

FRCOG’s grant, which is the only one awarded to a multi-municipality project, will cover the 15 communities in the agency’s Cooperative Public Health Service, with matching funds coming from each town’s pool of opioid settlement funds.

“I think it’s exciting that we got this recognition. … These rural towns are at the forefront of trying to share these funds, and get them out on the street and doing good,” Walker said, noting that these settlements funds have been with towns for a few years now, but many of the communities received only a small amount of money and pooling the funds together allows regional programs to flourish.

In Orange, Health Agent Ashley Gough said the town will also expand on its partnerships with the Community Health Center of Franklin County, as well as Moms Do Care, to increase access and collaboration in the North Quabbin.

“Services will include an office-based addiction treatment nurse, family care planning, referral services and access to dyadic care [care of babies and their caregivers],” Gough said. “This grant match allows us to facilitate collaboration between existing programs in order to enhance the reach and scope of recovery support provided. The goal of the program will be to lower barriers to support and recovery, as well as to address the need for interdisciplinary perinatal OUD support.”

Gough said these sorts of programs open the door for whole-family support, which is a massive boost for people in recovery.

“Particularly with respect to parents navigating recovery,” Gough said, “the ability to get health care for the whole family, recovery support, referral services and family care planning all in one community-based program and, often in the same visit, can be instrumental in recovery success.”

While Orange and FRCOG were the only recipients in the county this year, the 2024 round of funding saw Charlemont’s Hilltown Youth Recovery Theatre receive $100,000 to bolster its staffing and mental health arts programming for area students.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.