Following an aggressive, thorough, and thoughtful timeline, The Helios Alliance and the City of Mobile are pleased to announce the results of its first ever Opioid Abatement Award Allocation process.

During the grant proposal process, 33 applications were submitted from 40 organizations, totaling more than $7 million in funds requested. Ultimately, The Helios Alliance recommended 16 outstanding applications for approval by the City Council; these applications represented 18 organizations, with a collaborative footprint of more than 60 local groups, serving all seven Council Districts, and impacting all four components of an abatement plan.

Each of these applications was approved by the Evaluation Team, a group of seven Mobilians who brought expertise, love of community, lived experience, commitment of time and talent to the group. Though its process was quiet to the public, there were multi-layers of transparency built into the Team’s deliberation methods. After receiving crash courses in the opioid litigation, guidance from Attorney General Marshall, abatement plan components, System Dynamics modeling, the Evaluation Team studied and reviewed redacted applications – followed by the non-redacted forms, grading rubric, and evaluation score sheets. After weeks that allowed for individual meetings with evaluators and site visits and interviews with applicants as requested, the Team convened to assess the applications and make its recommendations for funding.

The Helios Alliances believes that the programs recommended — ones that focus on prevention and community education, survival and recovery, peer support, reentry and reintegration services, housing, transportation, and, importantly, stigma — create an incredible mosaic of committed care and tangible support for those in the community who need it most.