University of Minnesota Extension worked with the Opioid Settlement Advisory Council (OSAC) to distribute $200,000 in funding for local youth prevention, peer support and harm reduction projects.
The opioid crisis was declared a public health emergency in 2017 and still claims more than 220 lives per day. In 2021, major opioid manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies were ordered to pay billions in restitution for the role their predatory business practices played in the overdose epidemic. Thousands of counties across the country have received their first payout and are now tasked with deciding how to spend it.
In Goodhue County, which is set to receive $2 million spread out over the next 18 years, public officials settled on an unexpected approach for distributing opioid funds.
Rather than using a top-down approach with leaders calling the shots, the county called on local folks with lived and professional experience with the opioid crisis.
No amount of money can make up for the lives lost and forever changed by the opioid crisis. But as members of the local Opioid Settlement Advisory Council (OSAC) discovered, the process of distributing the funds can be a catalyst for community connection and transformational change.
Approximately 20 members of the Opioid Settlement Advisory Council (OSAC) live and/or work in Goodhue County.
50% of OSAC members have lived experience:
- People in recovery from opioid abuse
- Family members of people who have used opioids
- Mothers who have lost children to opioid overdose
50% of OSAC members are professionals:
- Narcotics Anonymous facilitator
- Probation, drug treatment court and jail staff
- Narcotics investigator
- Goodhue County Chief Deputy
- Fire/EMT Chief
- Clergy
- Youth prevention specialist
- High school health teacher
- County social worker
The making of OSAC
When Goodhue County received its first round of settlement funds in 2023, county leaders hired local consultant Laura Sand Prink to conduct a needs assessment. Prink met with dozens of community stakeholders to understand the available resources and identify gaps in care.
“What I kept hearing over and over from folks with lived experience with the opioid crisis is that they want to be involved in decision making,” says Prink.
Prink’s first recommendation to the county was to bring together a diverse group of individuals to make decisions about the funding. During the planning stage, Prink got connected to Noelle Harden, University of Minnesota Extension educator, who brought valuable expertise in participatory funding models that support community input and participation, especially from those who are most affected.
“I was super intrigued by all the new creative community-led options that Noelle presented that I didn’t know about before. I was just thrilled. It was a perfect fit for what we are trying to do with OSAC,” says Prink.
The process is the intervention
From April through December 2024, OSAC members convened in the Red Wing Public Library basement once a month to listen and learn from one another, align on investment priorities, and select which projects should receive funding and how much.
Prink and Harden co-facilitated the meetings, but both emphasized the group’s commitment to non-hierarchical decision-making. “OSAC is all about shared power,” says Harden. “The phrase ‘nothing about us without us’ was something we heard a lot from people in recovery and family members who lost loved ones.”
Extension evaluation efforts confirmed that participating in OSAC helped members gain awareness of local resources, grow their professional network, increase empathy for those affected and understand the effects of their own organization’s policies.
“Going through this process helped people see themselves as change agents and destigmatize addiction in the county,” says Harden. “Everyone in the room gained a deeper understanding of the problem and many possible solutions.”
Reclaiming power through participatory funding
For this first round of settlement funding, OSAC members prioritized projects that support youth prevention, harm reduction efforts, establishing peer support groups and access to mental health care.
While the group was tasked with making many difficult choices, it was easy to agree on youth programming because the topic hits close to home in Goodhue County. “We just had a 14-year-old and 16-year-old die from opioid overdose, and our community is still grieving those losses,” says Prink.
OSAC received 11 grant applications and chose eight projects to receive $200,035 in opioid settlement funding. The grantees include Common Ground, Ripple Drug Education and Awareness, Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office, Hiawatha Valley Mental Health Center, CARE Clinic, International Fellowship of Chaplains and RiseUp Red Wing. The money was disbursed in January 2025 and the majority of OSAC members have chosen to continue with the council.
“This is my first in-depth partnership with Extension and I am so impressed and grateful. It was an incredible asset to OSAC. Noelle brought a wealth of knowledge in participatory funding and was so easy to work with,” says Prink. “OSAC is driving cultural change in the county and will continue to do so.”