$125K In Grants Issued To Help Fight Opioid Crisis In DuPage Co.

WHEATON, IL — The DuPage County Heroin/Opioid Prevention and Education (HOPE) Taskforce recently announced that $125,000 in grants had been awarded to local organizations to help fight the county's ongoing opioid crisis. The grants will be used to help provide harm reduction, outreach and counseling services to opioid users.

Here's a roundup of the grant recipients, their grant amounts and their recent efforts to combat opioid misuse:

• Hope for Healing received $32,000 in support of a harm reduction mobile outreach unit to help opioid users.
• Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital received $25,000 to aid its ongoing efforts to help those with opioid use disorder.
• NAMI DuPage received $31,000 to help fund a support group and peer counseling to patients who have a dual diagnosis.
• Haymarket Center received $37,000 to help provide a recovery coach for inmates at DuPage County Jail.

“Combating the opioid epidemic is as critical as ever, and it requires the dedication and ingenuity that local, community-based partners bring to the fight,” DuPage County Board Member and HOPE Taskforce co-chair Greg Hart said in a news release.

Hart went on, “That’s why the Taskforce is comprehensively addressing the needs of those struggling with addiction within DuPage County and recommending effective and actionable policies, initiatives, and programs.”

Funds for the grants are made possible by DuPage County Board's commitment to provide $100,000 a year to the HOPE Taskforce to support its efforts in providing treatment for substance use disorder, mental health and overdose prevention.