The Buncombe County Commission meets this Tuesday, October 4, 2022 at 5 pm. You can attend the meeting at 200 College Street, Room 326 in downtown Asheville. You can watch the meeting online via Buncombe County’s Facebook page. The full agenda is here.
URGENT
- 0 items
PROBLEMATIC
- 0 items
EMAIL TEMPLATE
Use our prepared email template to take action on this week’s items.
YELLOW:
Things of concern, more information needed
County Commission Agenda – New Business: Budget Amendment for FY23 Opioid Settlement Funds Financial Plan
This is a request for the County to allocate more funding to various programs addressing the opioid epidemic, with particular emphasis on: “collaborative strategic planning, evidence-based addiction treatment, recovery support services, recovery housing support, early intervention, and reentry programs.”
The request references the strategy of “using trusted community partners to outreach historically marginalized groups,” but offers no specifics on who these “partners” are and what “historically marginalized groups” they will target for outreach. This makes it challenging for us to evaluate whether these programs have been administered in a way that addresses the needs of Black community members.
Things to do
We encourage you to reach out to the Buncombe County Commission via their contact page or by using our template and encourage them to ask for demographic data on the recipients of prior Opioid Settlement Funds, and the plans for distributing these new funds in a way that address the needs of Black community members.
EMAIL TEMPLATE TEXT
You can open this email in your own email program by clicking here. To proceed manually, you can paste this into the County Commissioners’ contact page or address it to them individually using these email addresses: brownie.newman@buncombecounty.org, jasmine.beach-ferrara@buncombecounty.org, alfred.whitesides@buncombecounty.org, amanda.edwards@buncombecounty.org, terri.wells@buncombecounty.org, robert.pressley@buncombecounty.org, parker.sloan@buncombecounty.org
Subject: Are the Opioid Settlement Funds Supporting Black People?
Dear County Commissioners,
I’m writing to you today in reference to the request for additional funding to address the opioid epidemic. The request references the strategy of “using trusted community partners to outreach historically marginalized groups,” but offers no specifics on who these “partners” are and what “historically marginalized groups” they will target for outreach. Will you ask staff to provide that information, so that we all can better evaluate whether these programs are addressing the needs of Black community members?
Thanks for your service,