The state has launched a grant program for awarding the hundreds of millions of dollars in opioid settlement funds coming to Georgia.
A total of $638 million will flow into Georgia, with three-fourths of the funds being distributed through the grant process unveiled Monday. Another 25%, or $159 million, will be shared among the city of Atlanta and the state’s largest counties.
Starting next Monday, groups can begin applying for the first round of grant funding. A series of workshops are being held across the state to explain the grant criteria and process, with the first one drawing a crowd Monday in downtown Atlanta.
Georgia has lagged other states in establishing the protocols to apply for the funds.
“We have one opportunity to get this right,” said Kevin Tanner, commissioner of the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. “So we want to be slow and methodical to make sure 18 years from now when the last dollar is received and spent by the state of Georgia, that we have truly turned the tide on developing a continuum of care that stops the opioid epidemic.”