Bernalillo County and the City of Albuquerque — along with global health organization Vital Strategies — are seeking a short-term consultant to help plan how to spend millions of dollars in opioid settlement funds.
The money was awarded as part of litigation brought by states and local political subdivisions against pharmaceutical distributors that inflicted damages through the marketing and misuse of synthetic opioids.
Read our previous coverage on how the planning for the settlement funds here.
As part of the planning process, Vital Strategies is looking to partner with a short-term consultant with experience in equity-centered community engagement, community relationship building, public meeting facilitation, and data gathering. The consultant will be supervised by Vital Strategies and collaborate with the city and county to support the development of a community informed strategic plan by facilitating a public engagement process. The timeline is a 6-month period from April 25 through Oct. 31.
To learn more and access the request for proposals, click here. Questions can be directed to overdose@vitalstrategies.org.
The combined opioid settlement funds received by the county and the city as of Dec. 31, total $22.5 million. Mirror resolutions passed by the Bernalillo County Commission and the Albuquerque City Council in October set forth several requirements that must be met before they can spend the funds, including an estimated life of settlement fund balance and a timeline and solicited input from other local governments, impacted communities, providers and business groups.
Some of the anticipated outcomes from the engagements are:
- Improved coordination across the county on caring for people who use drugs.
- Improved community engagement with directly impacted people.
- Established protocols for developing updated spend plans.
- Equitable reduction in overdoses.
- Equitable increase in access to medical, behavioral health and other supportive services for people who use drugs.