Greenville County Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Other Substance Abuse Initiative

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO) located in Northwest South Carolina requests $1,599,990 from US Bureau of Justice Assistance FY 2022 Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Site-based Program (Category 1a: Competition ID C-BJA-2022-00093-PROD) to implement and deliver a law enforcement led diversion to treatment initiative in Greenville County (Population of 516,126). Per the objectives of Category 1, the project will develop a comprehensive local response to the county’s substance abuse problem through synthesizing grant resources with existing practices and personnel to support planned activities per allowable use of funds to: 1) enhance existing PAARI program with law enforcement and first responder deflection and diversion (30% of budget); 2) implement in collaboration with the coroner's office and research partner a data dashboard and real-time overdose tracking program (5%); 3) provide naloxone (Narcan) for law enforcement and first responders (11%); 4) support school-based prevention and parental education programs to connect law enforcement with K-12 students (8%); 4) deliver evidence-based substance use disorder treatment including MAT, counseling, and connections with certified peer support specialists (15%); and 5) embed a case manager into GCSO to divert individuals with substance use disorders as early as possible in the Sequential Intercept Model (16%). To aid in implementing this plan, recovery community stakeholders from the county, including law enforcement agencies, community behavioral and mental health services, addiction services, state representatives, and hospital and emergency services will be included on the multidisciplinary Substance Abuse & Recovery Coordinating Council (SARCC) to participate in ongoing meeting sessions with the project team and serve as a permanent standing body with the mission of increasing cooperation and collaboration to sustain substance abuse and recovery efforts (see MOUs). The project supports OJP Priority Area 1(A) by addressing issues related to racial equity and the removal of barriers to access and opportunity for communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by inequality through providing enhanced implicit bias training for law enforcement and treatment services targeted to underserved minority communities (see pages 9, 10, 11, 13, & 15). Additionally, the application is responsive to the FY 2022 Program Priority Consideration by forming a strong research-practitioner partnership with the Center for Justice and Social Research at Clemson University to provide a scientific mixed methods program evaluation to provide empirical feedback for program improvement and dissemination of process and outcome findings to the law enforcement, and research communities