In 2022, Rutherford County experienced 130 fatal overdoses, a 37% increase from 2019.
To respond to this need, Rutherford County established the Rutherford Opioid Board in 2022 to oversee strategic dissemination of opioid abatement funds to repair and
strengthen the community. These funds are provided to counties in Tennessee as part
of a $26 billion national opioid lawsuit involving pharmaceutical distributors and
a manufacturer, with Tennessee receiving $700 million in anticipated payouts over
18 years from 2021-2038.
Rutherford County has directed these funds as available for community and government
organizations to apply for on a rolling basisto meet needs pertaining to local work addressing opioid use disorder. Organizations interested in applying for these funds can access the online application
below and review instructions on requirements for submission.
Use the section below to ensure all sections of your application have been completed
prior to submission.
Project Summary
This document overviews the applicant's proposal and identifies a target population,
outlines goals and objectives, selects a main strategy, anticipates number of people
served, provides a cost statement, and more. Applicants must also include the identification
of an assigned agency contact for overseeing and reporting on grant progress.
This narrative of the proposal is capped at 5-pages and focuses on describing the
population served, identifying the need that you will address, outlining the goals
and objectives used to measure success, identifying evidence-based practices for implementation,
planning for metrics to measure progress and success, and explaining your organization’s
capacity to achieve your goals. Narratives longer than 5-pages will not be reviewed.
Project Budget
This detailed budget breakdown with description of line items, any in-kind support
from the agency, and budget justification for each line item requested.
Use the resources below to help inform and strengthen your application prior to submission.
Tennessee Opioid Abatement & Remediation Uses
This list outlines allowable uses with Rutherford County Opioid Settlement funding
stratified by the Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council's six main strategies. All activities
outlined in an organization's proposal must be found from this list.
Proposals will be reviewed and scored by a committee from the MTSU Office of Prevention
Science and Recovery. Proposals will be evaluated based upon the proven ability of
the applicant to meet the goals of the project description in a cost-effective manner
with a maximum of 100 points available. This in-depth rubric outlines the breakdown
of eligible points that can be awarded per application section and the standards use
to compute that score.
This resource provided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) outlines how to develop strong goals concerning programs related to substance
use and can help applicants strengthen goals for their application.
This resource developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outlines
ten rising evidence-based practices for preventing opioid overdose in the United States.
Applicants can refer to this resource to incorporate evidence-based practices within
their grant application.
To assist with providing examples of strong evaluation metrics for prospective applicants,
this resource outlines example metrics within each of the six main strategy categories
that includes allowable uses of grant funds. Applicants are not required to choose
from this list for their metrics used in their application, rather these are just
examples.
While there is no set maximum on how much an organization can request in their proposal, the maximum funding per agency will be determined by the Rutherford
Opioid Board. All funding request amounts need to be justifiable and reasonable.
When is the deadline to apply?
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis with proposals being voted on monthly by the Rutherford Opioid Board. To be considered for funding during monthly review of applications, applicants must
submit their entire application by the 15th day of the month prior to the application
review meeting by the Board. Applications received after March 15th may potentially
not be effective until the following fiscal year, starting July 1st.
How long would the grant period last if I were to be awarded funding?
All grants will be awarded within the timeline of the Rutherford County fiscal year.
Once an organization is voted to receive a grant award, that organization will receive
funding for the remainder of the fiscal year, unless otherwise specified by the Rutherford
County Commission. Rutherford County operates on a fiscal year schedule that begins
July 1st and ends June 30th. For example, if an organization receives approval for
funding in December 2023, then their grant would be awarded funds from January 2024
through June 30th, 2024.
When will our organization hear back on if we were awarded funding?
The Rutherford Opioid Board will vote monthly on all grant applications received during
the previous month to decide awarding. Following the ROB's decision to award funding, grant awards will
need to be approved by the Rutherford County Commission's Budget Committee and the
full County Commission. These other local approvals will delay the timing of directly
receiving grant funds from the County by up to four weeks following the ROB vote.
What are the reporting requirements if we were awarded funding?
Grantees are required to submit evaluation metric updates quarterly based upon the specific data points cited in their grant proposal. This data will
be submitted to the MTSU Office of Prevention Science and Recovery (OPSR) quarterly.
The OPSR team will work individually with each organization to track success of their
grant program to report back to the Rutherford Opioid Board. Organizations are also
responsible for tracking spending of grant funding throughout their grant term to
provide documentation to Rutherford County at the conclusion of their grant term of
all grant funds being entirely allocated.
Grant Writing Workshop
This resource explains the Rutherford Opioid Settlement Grant Application in-depth
and provides potential proposers with resources to submit high-quality proposals.
Rutherford Opioid Settlement Grantees
Below you can view all grantees from the 2023-2024 Rutherford County fiscal year stratified
by their identified opioid abatement strategy.
In this section you will find reports on the work accomplished by the Rutherford Opioid
Board and strategic planning for potential future projects funded by the ROB.
2023 Rutherford Opioid Board Impact
This 2-page resource highlights the impact that the ROB accomplished locally during
the year 2023 through opioid abatement funded grant projects across the county.
This report highlights areas of need within Rutherford County and outlines five areas
of priority the Rutherford Opioid Board seeks to address through distribution of opioid
abatement funding.
