Thanks to a federal grant, an organization on campus will work on a new community health project.

Marshall’s Center of Excellence for Recovery received the three-year-long 3 million dollar grant to work on rural West Virginia communities hit by the opioid crisis. 

The grant comes from the Health Resources and Services Administration and is a part of the organization’s “Rural Communities Opioid Response Program.”

The project, which will bring prevention and treatment strategies to rural communities, recognizes the need for rural addiction care, according to HRSA’s website.

“Death rates from substance use disorder (SUD) and OUD are higher in rural areas. People in these areas have a hard time getting care and treatment,” it reads.

The center will embark on this project with Westbrook Health Services, a community health service center that specializes in addiction and substance abuse disorders.

Amy Saunders, the center’s managing director, said that the grant will expand their efforts across the state in Jackson, Ritchie and Wirt counties.

“This project will allow us to improve health care in rural areas by establishing access points and service provisions in three rural counties in West Virginia…” she said in an email interview. These services will provide treatments for both opioid use disorders and alcohol use disorders.

Saunders also highlighted the grant’s relevance to the Marshall community, saying that their center plans on hiring new staff for the project. Saunders also said that they often have the ability to include graduate students on staff, providing “opportunities to learn about evaluation and research.” 

Although this is not the first collaboration between the Center of Excellence for Recovery and Westbrook Health Services, the eagerness to make a difference lives on.“We have [a] standing working relationship with Westbrook,” Saunders said, “and have worked on multiple projects together, including rural planning and other rural implementation grants from HRSA.”