By Lowell Sun
LOWELL — The Life Connection Center — a community center offering meals and other support for those in need in Lowell — will get a $45,000 harm reduction grant from a non-profit foundation working to end the opioid overdose epidemic.
RIZE Massachusetts announced the grant as part of about $1.1 million in grant funding the independent organization is distributing around the state in the battle against opioids.
The Life Connection Center, 192 Appleton St., previously received almost $90,000 from the Enabling Health: Enhancing Harm Reduction Services Grant program overseen by RIZE Massachusetts, according to a press release. RIZE says the grants are aimed at “investing in novel harm reduction interventions and the development of low threshold addiction treatment.”
Those getting the grants provide services like overdose education, syringe services and naloxone distribution, according to a press release.
“Program outcomes since 2019 include the distribution and return of 50,000 clean syringes a month, 250 individuals engaged through mobile outreach vans per week, and growth in engaging minority clients and women,” RIZE said in a press release.
The Life Care Center and five other organizations split about $490,000 in RIZE grant funding via the program this year, according to a press release.
“In less than two years, these six grantees have demonstrated that thoughtful, person-centered interventions — backed by medicine and science — lead to positive outcomes for individuals and their communities,” said Dr. Sarah Wakeman, RIZE’s chief medical officer and medical director for the Massachusetts General Hospital Substance Abuse Disorder Initiative.