As part of the Michigan Opioid Partnership activities, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, in partnership with global public health organization Vital Strategies, announced grants to ten community foundations located throughout Michigan to reduce overdose deaths by expanding harm reduction services.

A $50,000 grant is being awarded to the  M&M Area Community Foundation – for development and resource expansion for public education and naloxone distribution and to support implementation of syringe services in Menominee County in partnership with Public Health, Delta & Menominee Counties.

Even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s overdose epidemic continues to be a leading cause of death for Americans. More than 72,000 Americans lost their lives due to overdoses in 2019, making it the worst year in the nation’s decades-long drug overdose epidemic. Overdose fatalities in Michigan are among the highest in the nation, behind just nine other states. Preliminary data from 2020 suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the trend, both locally and nationally.