Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis on Thursday supported Commissioners Court’s approval to give a $1 million grant to the African American Male Wellness Agency, a nonprofit that will provide opioid prevention services and education to Black men.
The grant comes from the Overdose Data to Action (OD2A), a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program that focuses on the drug overdose crisis. The grant program is administered by Harris County Public Health (HCPH).
“The overdose epidemic is a public health emergency that’s hitting Harris County hard, especially in our most vulnerable neighborhoods,” Commissioner Ellis said. “I support the Overdose Data to Action program’s partnership with the African American Male Wellness Agency that takes a grassroots, community-based approach to address this issue in Harris County. Working together, we can reverse this trend and save lives.”
In Harris County between 2018 and 2022, Black, non-Hispanic and White, non-Hispanic adults had the highest rates of substance-involved healthcare facility visits, with a 375% and a 342.7% increase over the five years, respectively, according to HCPH.
In substance-involved deaths during that same period, all racial and ethnic groups experienced an increase with Black non-Hispanic adults experiencing the largest increase of 79.3%. The nonprofit African American Male Wellness Agency was selected to address the significant increase in opioid-related deaths among African American men.
With a strong community presence and a history of collaboration with OD2A, African American Male Wellness Agency will implement a grassroots approach that targets high-risk areas through direct support services, including recovery coaching and the distribution of Naloxone, a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose.
HCPH will provide data support, tracking, and technical assistance to ensure effective, targeted interventions.
Also, the health department will award three other partnerships that reflect various demographic groups and ensure strategies that recruit and reach diverse participants from different sectors, particularly those disproportionately impacted by overdose.