Lewis and Clark County Opioid Committee Reviews Spring Grant Applications

The Lewis & Clark County Metro Region Opioid Abatement Governance Committee gathered March 16 to review spring grant applications, with Good Samaritan Ministries' proposed $100,000 outreach program among the key items on the agenda after the committee signaled in January it would take up the question at this meeting.

Good Samaritan Ministries has proposed hiring staff to assist with street outreach and peer support services for its Our Place day resource center, targeting Helena's homeless population struggling with addiction. The program, called the Strategic Outreach Peer Specialist campaign, or STOPS, would connect people to services through the downtown Helena facility. The committee's role is to review local applications and recommend them to the Montana Opioid Abatement Trust, which must then approve the funding.

Three projects had already cleared that process before Monday's meeting. In January, the trust approved its first local grant of $115,500 to the Lewis and Clark Detention Center to hire a medical provider for inmates with opioid-use disorder. St. Peter's Health Foundation received $215,000 through its No Wrong Door program to expand emergency department access to substance abuse treatment. Simulation in Motion Montana, a state nonprofit, was awarded $75,000 to develop a regional opioid response plan identifying gaps in care, a program it calls STORPI.

With those three grants committed for one year, the metro region carried roughly $195,000 into the current grant cycle. The Montana Opioid Abatement Trust's regional page lists $69,153.51 as available under the Spring NOFO 2026 designation, while a Year 1 funding table on the same site shows $94,935.31 remaining after accounting for all four projects including Good Samaritan's application amount. The figures reflect different points in the allocation timeline across the program's fiscal periods.

The Lewis & Clark metro region draws from an initial allotment of approximately $600,000 for the July 2024 through June 2025 period, with an additional $400,124.20 distributed for July 2025 through June 2026. The funds flow from the Montana Opioid Abatement Trust, established in 2023 as Montana's share of a $50 billion multi-state pharmaceutical settlement. The state is expected to receive $75 million over 17 years.

The county's Board of Commissioners has also been moving on separate MOAT applications for the next fiscal year. Detention Center Commander Troy Christensen presented a $215,318 grant application to the commissioners for the period of July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, which passed on a 3-0 vote. Public Health Grant Specialist Sarah Sandau separately presented an application for up to $26,181 covering the same period, also approved 3-0 by commissioners Tom Rolfe, Andy Hunthausen, and Candace Payne. The county board also voted 3-0 to participate in the Remnant Defendants National Opioid Settlement.

The governance committee, created in 2025, operates as the local recommending body before applications advance to the statewide trust. Whether Good Samaritan's STOPS campaign advances will shape how much of the region's remaining spring funding carries into the next allocation cycle.