A Greenspire Solutions partner began his involvement in June 2019 with a rural county of 45,000 residents by committing to assist with the development of a comprehensive collaborative opioid prevention, treatment and recovery plan for the county funded by a HRSA grant. This was a successful one-year engagement that brought together over 40 stakeholders in the community to work on plan priorities and development. Results of this planning process include:

• The coordination of services between community mental health providers, inpatient substance use services, the court system, community corrections, probation, and the county health department.
• This coordinated approach to addressing opioid and substance use disorder has allowed the county to table plans for a $30 million jail expansion project.
• With support of the county consortium a residential substance use disorder recovery facility has opened its doors.
• The culmination of this grant process was a decision to apply for a three year HRSA opioid implementation grant.

Subsequent to the opioid planning grant, the Greenspire Partner was asked to participate in the implementation of the Stellar Community designation achieved by the county and to co-chair the Health and Wellness committee of the program. This has involved prioritizing health and wellness activities and programs within the county for the next five years, using the millions of dollars of funding that follows the Stellar designation. In the short term, some of the committee’s work has shifted to addressing consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the immediate needs of residents dealing with sudden unemployment.  Short-term grants have been received and are being deployed to address rent and utility payments, food insecurity, and childcare needs.  Childcare providers in the county have closed creating problems for employees in critical industries including healthcare and food sales.

Greenspire Solutions has developed a creative plan to assist county employers and the local United Way.  Greenspire Solutions is providing a robust tax advantaged health engagement and wellness program to employers that provides employees with a participatory health engagement process  towards improved health status.  A secondary benefit of the program is financial.  Employers experience an increase to their bottom line due to a reduction in FICA and other taxes.  Employees gain an increase in take home pay due to the favorable tax treatment of the program.  Greenspire Solutions has entered into a revenue sharing agreement with the local United Way to support their many programs in the community.

This is the multi-faceted way that Greenspire Solutions has been able to positively affect the quality of life in one rural county.