RIZE Awards Nearly $2m to Improve Connections to Substance Use Services

RIZE News

June 6, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Greg Turner, Ball Consulting Group, LLC
Phone: 617-243-9950; Email: greg@ballcg.com

RIZE Massachusetts Awards Nearly $2M in Grants to Improve Connections to Substance Use Services

BOSTON, Mass. (June 6, 2024) – RIZE Massachusetts Foundation (RIZE), an independent nonprofit foundation solely dedicated to funding and creating solutions to end the overdose crisis in Massachusetts, today announced nearly $2 million in grant funding for eight nonprofit organizations that will strengthen connections to substance use treatment, harm reduction and recovery services for individuals during hospital visits and after discharge to the community.

The Linkages to Care (LinC) grant program supports community-based organizations that are considered central to positive recovery results and reduced rehospitalizations. Research funded by RIZE shows that individuals who survive an overdose have a higher risk of future overdose, and linking them to ongoing services following a hospital discharge is likely to save lives.

“Since our founding, we have always believed that it will require systems change to end the overdose epidemic, and a key part of this approach is to create connections where gaps exist,” said RIZE President and CEO Julie Burns. “Our Linkages to Care grant program will help strengthen collaboration between the inpatient care system and the range of substance use services that are available to support individuals in the community.”

The goals of the LinC program are to support individuals who use substances and those seeking treatment by building connections across care systems and disciplines, and to reduce overdose deaths by increasing coordination during points of transition. RIZE invited applications from nonprofit community-based treatment, harm reduction and recovery programs located across the state and awarded the following:

  • $247,566 to AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, which will further develop its post-overdose support team in partnership with Gosnold, a behavioral health services provider, and the Duffy Health Center in Hyannis.
  • $250,000 to Community Health Connections, which will expand its patient assessment and referral services by linking with UMass Memorial Health’s Athol Hospital, HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital and Heywood Hospital in Gardner.
  • $250,000 to Lowell House Inc., which will collaborate with Tufts Medicine’s Lowell General Hospital to support individuals after inpatient stays and emergency department visits.
  • $250,000 to Metro Boston Alive, which will enhance its community supports for individuals of color by guiding patients discharged from Massachusetts General Hospital through treatment plans and challenges related to social determinants of health.
  • $249,956 to North Shore Community Health, which will embed substance use disorder treatment navigators to support patients at Mass General Brigham’s Salem Hospital.
  • $250,000 to Somerville Homeless Coalition, which will collaborate with Cambridge Health Alliance on a program involving street outreach and emergency shelters that will link inpatient care for substance use disorders with outpatient follow-up and referrals.
  • $247,832 to The Pettengill House, a nonprofit social service agency in Amesbury that will enhance its Behavioral Event and Substance Support Taskforce (BESST) along with its lead partner, Beth Israel Lahey Health’s Anna Jacques Hospital in Newburyport.
  • $250,000 to Whose Corner Is It Anyway, a Holyoke organization that is developing a peer-driven approach to build trust between hospital clinicians and people who use drugs, with linkages to Springfield-based Baystate Health.

“Harm reduction services are key to ending the overdose crisis that impacts our communities. Our organization is honored to once again partner with RIZE Massachusetts to ensure our harm reduction services are available to all,” said Dan Gates, President & CEO of AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod. “The RIZE grant will allow our team to expand these vitally important harm reduction services in towns across the Cape & Islands, ensuring our communities have access to the tools and supports needed to help those most at risk of death by overdose.”

“We’re deeply grateful to RIZE Massachusetts for their generous support of the Pettengill House and our Behavioral Event and Substance Support Team (BESST) initiative,” said Tiffany Nigro, Executive Director of the Pettengill House. “This exciting partnership will serve to strengthen and build upon efforts to break down barriers, foster collaborative community relationships, and provide person-centered services to support and empower individuals struggling with substance misuse and behavioral health challenges.”

“At Somerville Homeless Coalition, we understand the importance of continuity of care, especially for our clients seeking treatment or transitioning out of treatment and hospitalizations,” said Hannah O’Halloran, Director of Homeless Services at the Somerville Homeless Coalition. “With the RIZE grant, we can continue our partnership with Cambridge Health Alliance’s Healthcare for the Homeless Program, operating a medical clinic within our day drop-in center and on-the-street medical support for the unhoused and vulnerable population. These important linkages to specialized health care for our clients will allow them to be treated in an environment where they feel comfortable, dignified, and respected.”

RIZE also recently made a second substantial investment in its two-year grant program, Taking Action to Improve Access and Equity in Opioid Use Disorder Care, which supports initiatives that lead to measurable improvements in opioid use disorder or polysubstance use services for Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC). The grantees are:

  • Baystate Medical Center, to implement culturally appropriate harm reduction services that better meet the needs of BIPOC individuals who smoke or snort stimulants, opioids and other drugs.
  • Casa Esperanza, to provide an acute treatment and clinical stabilization services (ATS/CSS) model that supports Latine patients who suffer from co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.
  • Metro Boston Alive and Mass General Physicians Organization, to enhance a partnership between Metro Boston Alive and the Massachusetts General Hospital Bridge Clinic to provide comprehensive addiction treatment and recovery services to Black Bostonians while bridging the recovery-clinical divide.
  • Women’s Lunch Place, to facilitate office-based opioid treatment to support unhoused BIPOC women with opioid use disorder.

RIZE also awarded nearly $400,000 in grant funding to continue its Harm Reduction Training (HaRT) Scholars program in the 2024-2025 academic year at Boston College, Bridgewater State University, Simmons University and Westfield State University. Created in 2021, the program was the nation’s first specialized internship to develop a pipeline of social workers trained in harm reduction.

Each school receives funding for up to five paid internships and support to run the program and provide shared learning opportunities for the HaRT Scholars. In turn, harm reduction training sites receive increased clinical presence and financial support to offset time for intern supervision. To date, the program has awarded internships to over 50 HaRT Scholars across the four schools.

About RIZE Massachusetts

RIZE Massachusetts is solely dedicated to funding and creating solutions to end the overdose crisis.  Guided by those with lived experience and unafraid of new ideas, RIZE is building networks, designing programming, and supporting community partners who are using novel approaches to preventing overdose and increasing access to treatment. Learn more at rizema.org.

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Position Summary

Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership (Mosaic), funded by the MA Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Addiction Services and powered by RIZE Massachusetts Foundation (RIZE), is a partnership like no other. It is a unique, public-private collaboration designed to support initiatives that are addressing the opioid overdose crisis in communities that have been historically underserved and have experienced a high rate of opioid-related overdose deaths.

The funding for Mosaic comes from the Massachusetts Opioid Recovery and Remediation Fund (ORRF), which resulted from the historic legal effort to demand justice from several private companies for the harms caused by the opioid epidemic. This is one of the first public-private partnerships of this magnitude using settlement funds for community-led initiatives.

In partnership with BSAS and municipalities receiving opioid abatement funds, RIZE manages the Municipal Training and Technical Assistance (Muni TTA) Program. This program aligns with Mosaic’s mission to ensure that opioid abatement funds are invested and remain in the communities most deeply impacted by the crisis while also fueling transformative change through grassroots, community-led efforts.

The Muni TTA project manager provides project management, data, and operational support, ensuring the Muni TTA Program runs smoothly, is well documented, and is grounded in data. This role translates program strategy into concrete workplans, tracking systems, and reporting products, and provides day-to-day task direction to the program coordinator on project deliverables.

RIZE seeks someone for this position who is passionate about ending the overdose crisis and unafraid of new ideas. Success will require a positive, can-do, learning mindset and a collaborative, team-oriented approach. We are looking for candidates who understand how complex and interconnected issues, such as funding, data systems, and municipal government structures, intersect with addressing the overdose crisis.

The project manager supports the implementation of the Muni TTA workplan and Salesforce data infrastructure, coordinates monthly and quarterly reporting, provides project management support to four regional community advisory boards (CABs), and manages the logistics and content pipeline for the program's webinar series and newsletter. This position reports to the chief program officer (CPO) and works closely with the senior program officer (SPO).

 

Key Responsibilities

1. Workplan & Data Management

  • Oversee the Muni TTA workplan and Asana project management structure across six program goals: Proactive Outreach; Communications and Engagement; Quality Assurance and Team Development; Evaluation and Reporting; Intermunicipal Collaboration and Partnerships; and Community Advisory Boards. Monitor and keep progress, and identify risks or adjustments needed to keep deliverables on track
  • Set and monitor Salesforce data quality standards, oversee the Mosaic Muni TTA dashboard in coordination with the program coordinator, and produce reports; identify data quality issues and recommend adjustments to tracked metrics as the program evolves.
  • Monitor case documentation and tracking; compile monthly quality-review summaries for senior management review.
  • Support municipal capacity assessments by synthesizing results, identifying gaps, and helping the SPO draft action plans that reflect program priorities and municipal needs.

2. Reporting & Leadership Support

  • Compile regular qualitative reports, drafting the consolidated narrative of outcomes, barriers, and strategic adjustments for the SPO to finalize.
  • Develop regular progress updates, data summaries, and briefing materials for senior leadership, translating program activity and outcomes into clear talking points for internal review and external stakeholder discussions.
  • Coordinate senior leadership meeting preparation by identifying needed inputs, shaping agendas around key decisions, and ensuring materials are ready for review and follow-up. Coordinate post meeting follow-up.
  • Participate in cross-sector coordination meetings as needed to support data, reporting, or project management needs.

3. Community Advisory Board & Event Support

  • Provide project management for CAB implementation tracking progress and outcome metrics.
  • Direct administrative support for CABs, including materials preparation and outreach coordination.
  • Coordinate logistics, timelines, materials, follow-up, and slide preparation for regional and statewide presentations, meetings, and events.

4. Communications & Content Pipeline

  • Project-manage Mosaic TTA webinars: in coordination with the program coordinator maintain the topic and speaker pipeline, coordinate scheduling and logistics, and track post-session evaluations.
  • Project-manage Muni TTA bulletin and newsletter production, coordinating content collection, drafting, and oversee program coordinator with distribution timelines, and tracking engagement analytics.
  • Direct the program coordinator's development of training materials and slide decks; review for quality and program alignment before routing to senior leadership for approval.

 

Qualifications

Required

  • Strong organizational and time management skills
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, and virtual meeting platforms
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Preferred

  • Experience in public health, behavioral health, or harm reduction
  • Familiarity with workforce development initiatives
  • Experience supporting coalitions or multi-partner collaborations
  • Experience working with communities disproportionately impacted by substance use and overdose

Core Competencies

  • Commitment to harm reduction philosophy and health equity
  • Cultural humility and trauma-informed approach
  • Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment
  • Strong interpersonal skills and collaborative mindset
  • High level of discretion and professionalism
  • Bachelor's degree in public health, public administration, business, or a related field and a minimum of five years of relevant experience; or a master's degree and a minimum of two years of experience.
  • Demonstrated project management experience, ideally within a public health, government, or nonprofit setting.
  • Strong data and systems management skills; experience with Salesforce, or a comparable CRM/database strongly preferred.
  • Experience managing workplans, timelines, and reporting cycles.
  • Experience with supervision preferred.
  • Excellent written communication skills, including experience drafting reports and briefing materials for review by senior staff.
  • Proficiency with Salesforce, Asana, Microsoft Office 365, and virtual conferencing platforms; familiarity with Canva, WordPress, and Constant Contact a plus.
  • Knowledge of the Massachusetts opioid settlement funding landscape and municipal government structures preferred.

Skills, Abilities, Attributes

  • Strong organizational skills and sound judgment in a fast-paced, small-team, collegial environment.
  • Comfortable managing competing priorities and shifting timelines with minimal oversight.
  • Demonstrated track record of sustained high-quality, independent work in fast-paced environments.
  • Effective relationship-builder able to coordinate across internal teams and external stakeholders.
  • Ability to exercise discretion in handling confidential or sensitive information.
  • Motivated by a keen sense of mission and values with a willingness to embrace and actively support RIZE's agenda.

Work Environment

The Municipal TTA project manager is a full-time, hybrid role. RIZE is in downtown Boston; travel, primarily in-state, will be required for meetings and events as needed. This role may require evening and occasional weekend work.

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