BAY COUNTY, Mich. (WNEM) – Four Bay County organizations are set to receive opioid settlement funds.
Nearly $400,000 will be distributed in the first round of settlement money.
The funds will go to organizations whose main purposes are to help people through the recovery from addiction.
“It was given to us based upon the lives lost in this epidemic. All of us in this community want to take this money and do the most good with it,” said Lori Ziolkowski, of FAN—Face Addiction Now.
Each nonprofit organization will receive close to $100,000. That amount of money can help bring in new resources and ensure existing resources remain available.
“We’ll have more access to harm reduction supplies and services. And also be a point of contact for us to link to other communities,” said Kyle Hanshaw, Operation Coordinator for Peer 360.
Bay County commissioner Chairman, Vaughn Begick said maintaining resources is especially important to Bay County.
“We focused on the areas that are needed. Hopefully that’ll get the ball rolling and hopefully sustain it,” said Begick.
Begick says the county can expect to see those funds delivered over the next 16 to 18 years.
So far, the county has received $1.7 million, but this is the first round of funding the nonprofits will receive to help their causes related to the opioid epidemic.
Members of Peer 360 and Face Addiction Now say they plan to add members to their staff.
This includes adding recovery coaches, and a law enforcement liaison. Both organizations believe the change will help them make a difference in the opioid epidemic’s impact on Bay County.
“We have not seen a significant decline in the folks being impacted by this—so we are still in the midst of an epidemic. And this is not the time to pull back funds. It is absolutely the time to continue to pour resources into stopping this,” said Ziolkowski.
“These funds are really going to mitigate the loss that all these families, all these individuals are having to deal with,” said Hanshaw.
Funding will begin distributions starting in 2025.
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