Opioid Settlement Advisory - June 16, 2026

This is the Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday, June 16th, 2026.

Um I would like us all to rise and call this meeting to order and do the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, so one announcement.

Under [clears throat] Mass General Law, Chapter 30A, Section 20F, this meeting is being recorded. And this evening we have a speaker, um Katherine Mathey. She's the clinical director of outpatient services at Steppingstone Incorporated. Katherine, could you come up and sit at this table and welcome.

Good evening, everyone.

Thank you for coming to speak to us and let us know all about Steppingstone.

Thank you for having me. Um so, as you said, I'm the clinical director of outpatient services. I have some notes. I also brought the annual report from last year.

If you all would like to read that as well. Just more a little bit more information of everything that we do.

Um we have been in the community serving the community for over 50 years. We have a wide variety of different services from behavioral health, substance abuse, recovery support, community wellness. I do oversee the outpatient services within the two outpatient clinics. We have one in Fall River on North Main Street and one in New Bedford. If you're familiar with Steppingstone in Fall

River, it's like we have like a lot of North Main Street with different just services in general. And then on Durfee Street we also have the homeless shelter. So, both in Fall River and New Bedford, like I said, we have the outpatient clinics. Within the clinics, we do offer MAT services.

We provide a lot of services all but methadone, as well as we're restarting our group therapy and actually expanding. So, we've kind of between New Bedford, Fall River, Dartmouth, Westport, and we actually have a lot of even some of the Cape we serve. We've kind of put it out there to our consumers of how can we serve you better? And there was a lot of conversation with maybe postpartum, a

little bit more of like Resilient Minds, and then also we serve a lot of individuals who getting released from incarceration, whether that be parole, probation, federal probation. So, starting the week of July 6th, we're offering more clinical groups, as well.

Um the fourth trimester is one of them, Resilient Minds, reentry, and um as well as our we do like offer art therapy, any traditional group therapy within the outpatient setting, as well as we do have in New Bedford, we have a women's residential program and a graduate program, and then in Fall River, we have a men's program, a women's program, a dual diagnosis, as well as a grad program, as well.

And in each of Fall River and New Bedford, we have recovery um recovery coaching.

And actually in New Bedford, we have a brand new clinic and a brand new recovery coaching center on Union Street in New Bedford. I'm getting familiar with New Bedford, so if that's something you know, it's very it's a very nice and a and a brand new building.

And we also in each program, there's all sorts of different services that really help with either reintegrating into society, um substance use, mental health, dual diagnosis, stable housing programs within 888 Purchase Street, which is where Steppingstone has recently moved to. We also have Project Fair, and they help with housing as well as serving the homeless and they have C-SPEHC workers that work with

community-based programs helping with housing. They do a lot of community outreach and they go further than just New Bedford. Danielle Brown's their project director. If you have all met her, she's lovely and she does a lot of research and outreach with homeless services.

So, we are seen in more than just Fall River and New Bedford. I know when you hear Steppingstone you think Fall River.

I think off the bat that's really when I came back to the to the town or the city I hear, "Oh, you're in Fall River." And then actually at the Feel Good Fair I met a lot of people that are like, "Oh, I didn't know you were in New Bedford as well." And I was like, "We actually service everything in between, Dartmouth, Westport." And it was really nice to mingle and and share, especially

all the new services that we're providing and not just residential treatment.

So, I know the question um especially like serving Westport, we do have a lot of individuals that I know firsthand just cuz I see the referrals come across my desk that we are going into Westport and we want to really expand how we can serve every everyone in between cuz there's I'm learning that there's not a lot of crossover from Fall River to New Bedford, but then in Westport and Dartmouth you you kind of

see both. And I know it's very similar, you can kind of like throw a rock to cer- certain places.

Uh I didn't wasn't necessarily from this area before moving to DC for 10 years.

So, it's been a pleasure really learning our consumers and serving our communities, but we do want to expand in between. We don't just want to serve the cities, we also want to serve our towns and figure out how we can best help those especially when transportation can be tough or just getting out with services can be tough. So, in our outpatient clinics especially we're trying to kind of shift a little bit with the

times and do like Zoom therapy groups and offer more telehealth services as well because we do know transportation can be tough. Our front desk staff at both places are fantastic with doing the PT1 and helping set up transportation.

But it's not always efficient and it's not always on time. So we're trying to really expand and dig deeper into helping those via telehealth services whether that be MAT, psychiatry, mental health, substance abuse. That's That's our goal for our new fiscal year that starts July 1st.

I think that Any sense of the split in your New Bedford office between Well no.

Have your Westport clientele where they where they tend to go?

I see more of them in New Bedford actually.

That's I'm more surprised.

Yes. I think So New Bedford does serve we serve a lot of those that are getting out of incarceration and whether it's parole or probation and I see some individuals with different addresses. But more of community I would say is New Bedford and a lot of the community referrals are Westport.

And that's some of individuals have said like, "Okay, it's kind of hard to get here. Like what can we do for telehealth?" And that's really what's expanded on wanting to do more telehealth services.

That's good to know.

Yeah. What will it take for you to do more telehealth services? I mean it's just sort of orchestrating it or there barriers or Actually, so far the only thing I really had to do differently was the policies.

Just making sure we had the telehealth policy separate and that way you're not really inundated by paperwork. Make sure that consent is there also. But we I was able to hire a few more staff. We also have really great interns from both UMass Dartmouth and Bridgewater State.

So we were able to bring more individuals in and offer more groups.

So thankfully as of yet no barriers. So Great. And I just want to recap cuz I don't think caught. Did you say that So there's more clients you've seen Westport addresses from in New Bedford who are coming out of incarceration or I see some coming out of incarceration, but I also see just community referrals.

Like a lot of them Yeah, when they say the reason sometimes I love when they're like word of mouth or my friend referred me. And often times that's a lot of the what we get the community referrals were more word of mouth.

One of the [clears throat] the things that we have been talking about as an advisory committee is what are ways that we can bridge to services?

And we don't have [snorts] any services for addictions in Westport.

There's certainly therapists who may be seeing people here um for a variety of mental health reasons and substance use could be part of that. But um we're trying to figure out how with the limited funds that we do have um how we can bridge to services that are already in existence.

Um and and so any ideas that you have about how we could bridge to your services or what I How would How would you um want to utilize the funds that we have if you were to apply for if we had when we have an RFP out. Um what do you see would be the ways that you would use those funds?

Absolutely.

I think really just meeting our individuals that we're serving where they're at and by growing the telehealth piece and offering more groups we're already able to bridge that gap whether it be a plan like helping them apply for that PT1, making sure their health insurance is is set up. And we like myself, right?

I'm a lead act one. I'm a licensed substance abuse counselor. We do focus more on that substance use and how can we meet those individuals where they're at. So maybe they are working full-time and doing that later group is better and being able to maybe have someone our client I'm sorry, our clinics are open late 2 days. Maybe onboarding someone new or adding more groups and having the supplies and and

ability to do that would be one way that I think we could really hone in on those individuals that maybe even getting to New Bedford or Fall River or taking that first initial step to really being able to receive services cuz you're right, there's a lot of that dual licensure where it's mental health and maybe we talk about substance use.

But really honing in on the resilient minds and the pathways to recovery groups and education that we have.

Could you talk a little bit about what what's resilient?

So resilient minds, we were able to start kind of like as a professor, right? We have our curriculum. We have like what we have, what we teach. And my staff are very they're just tremendous. They're amazing and that's just not a bias for being their supervisor. But they're like, how can we change how we're creating curriculum? How like how can we do more than just maybe a substance abuse group?

So resilient minds is is touching a little bit upon like CBT and maybe some clinical pieces, but really honing in more on recovery and I have two amazing recovery coaches as well as we have the recovery coaches in both cities.

And bringing them into the groups and doing more of that like hands-on clinical work cuz it it is a research has shown if you can have more hands-on and more evidence-based rather than teaching someone maybe what CBT is in cognitive behavioral therapy and bringing in what recovery is because it looks different for everyone.

And that's what my staff there are great that we all came up with all brand new curriculum. It's not the here's this and it's very cookie-cutter mental health and we're able to really hone in on that lived experience from some of our recovery coaches, the clinical expertise from myself and other clinical um entities there and we were able to come up with this curriculum and so far it's

been a hit. We've had a lot of people interested in coming. And we named it Resilient Minds cuz we didn't want it to sound like I'm coming for another mental health group especially if your primary diagnosis at the moment is substance use. We don't want to make sure we're honing in on that and not maybe something that we should touch upon down the road.

And during the pandemic there were hybrid telehealth groups.

Yes.

Is are you doing telehealth? A hybrid or just um We stay true to doing in person. Yeah, no we we stay true to doing um face-to-face. So it was a little new for us to want to offer this telehealth piece but upon speaking with our clientele and the individuals we serve a lot the goal right is is especially with Stepping Stone right is a stepping stone to get better. So our goal is we want

individuals to then be like, "Hey, I can't come during the day cuz I just got a job." Awesome.

Let's make that at night. Or I can't come because I am helping and I have I'm doing this. I'm volunteering. I have children. All right, awesome. Let's meet them where they're at and we can have a 6 p.m. group on telehealth. And that's been what our clientele have been telling us that they need and that's where we're going with it.

[clears throat] So you're not providing at the moment you're not yet providing telehealth couns- counseling for Indi- individual counseling, yes. Group counseling no.

So you are doing telehealth Yes.

And is it um [clears throat] approximately what kind of volume are you doing? How many clients would you say are getting telehealth counseling at this point?

I would say roughly about 40%. A lot of our clientele loves to come in person and they will do telehealth and we meet them, especially if someone's like, "I can't come in today. May I do telehealth?" Absolutely.

Is it billable?

Yes.

And so um MassHealth will pay for this?

Yes.

And and what what um what are the certifications for the providers of telehealth SUD counseling?

So, with either it be So, we do um just a full preference, we offer MAT is not MAT does not We do not do telehealth, especially you can't do an injectable online. Um but our psych services do.

There is some change in the DEA regulations coming up if you guys have seen that. Um for either whether it be our psychiatric nurse practitioners or our mental health clinicians, everyone is licensed and each individual will fill or already has filled out their consent to treat, but they're also consent to utilize telehealth services, verifying where they are, every type of policy that either BSAS or um

DMH does ask for us to do. And then it's confirmed and we utilize a system called OnCall, not to be confused with being on call, but it's called OnCall. It's through our electronic health record and it's very easy. They get a link, they sign on, that we verify their address and they're able to receive those services.

Thank you.

How is your workforce? Are you having a hard time finding um um clinicians or or So far You're okay.

My Yeah, my team's really amazing. They have all together between both clinics whether it's administrative staff, recovery coaches, clinicians, mental health um and second piece all together I have 25 in between both clinics.

So we've been we've been really blessed and fortunate. And then a lot of interns too.

Yeah, a lot of interns.

Yeah.

Mhm.

So have you gone to the New Bedford Opioid Task Force meetings? Have you been in any of those?

Yes.

Okay.

And how much money do you are you receiving from the New Bedford Opioid Task Group?

So when I spoke to our grant writers, that was given to another program. So money from New Bedford, but my both of my outpatient clinics even though we do service opioids um Project SOAR is our New Bedford, so um we did not to my knowledge did not receive those funding.

Cuz I think that one of the things is that um you know, us advising the select board to put money aside for whatever programming that Steppingstone when we when we get the RFP out, I already know that Steppingstone wants to apply. How how would they tailor something to Westport? How would it be tailored to us?

I would love to come. I know I am trying to get out there more and like introduce myself to the towns, but I would love to even if you you all did like a a council meeting or like a town hall meeting, I would love to figure out how we could best serve Westport because we you can look at research, right? You can look at the numbers and serving individuals telehealth is fantastic,

right? But from what I'm hearing, that's right now our individuals in Westport is are saying, "Can we do telehealth?" or "I'd like this." or "I like that." But how can I serve those individuals that maybe have not spoken up yet or have know anything about Steppingstone?

That would be my first ask just or maybe I could go around and get to know more more of Westport and what we're looking for.

But right now we have so many services to provide and we can meet individuals where they're at if there is that transportation, but I would like to also do more outreach in the different towns.

Okay.

My understanding of [clears throat] the allowable use of opioid settlement funds is that they should not be used to um pay for services that would otherwise be paid for by MassHealth.

Mhm.

So therefore we you couldn't say "We're going to provide telehealth counseling services to Westport clients using opioid settlement fund money." Am I right?

Yes, it would have to be so similar to doing kind of program.

Yeah, so similar to like yeah, outreach or how we did resilient minds was something out of Fall River with United Way. So also figuring out whether it be new curriculum or a new group or outreach or maybe is there um we've been looking into dual recovery. Dual recovery is up-and-coming and um I just went to the gambling conference and it's really interesting. I looked we don't have that in Westport. We actually don't

even have that in New Bedford.

Can you say more a little more about that? What is that?

Dual recovery?

So anything. Though um this lady that was speaking at the gambling conference, she was amazing and she spoke up on about her own journey and whether it was like was eating and then she also went through a lot of postpartum and postpartum's an issue going on right now that needs to be targeted. But dual recovery is the way she was explaining is they do still have that fellowship similar to AA.

But they you do utilize higher power and they do utilize any type of addiction that can come to that meeting. So whether that be maybe food, maybe gambling, maybe sex, any type shopping was one thing that a lot of times they were talking about. So we've been looking into that as well, bringing that to our area.

Is um telehealth group counseling even though you don't offer this yet, is that covered in other venues by MassHealth?

Yes.

Okay, so Yeah.

That's out, too.

Yeah, and I and so you know, where we've got this dilemma of then if these things are available, how do we tailor something to Westport and Westport residents?

Um what can we either bring into Westport or provide to get increase the access for people in Westport?

Mhm.

And um and so and I know that you're in New Bedford and you're in Fall River and I know the resources in New Bedford and Fall River.

There's a lot of resources.

We don't have any resources. So the challenge is then how do you create that's here?

That's here. Is there a person that would be willing to come to Westport?

Would that be part of um the use of the funds is to have a designated to hire or have specific time and office hours in Westport?

Yes.

Um to provide groups in person in Westport.

That was something that um myself and the clinical director of behavioral health services was speaking on just because we have to go over the logistics of like a clinical license like in a space if it's in person.

Um but that's something we were talking about but also almost essentially having that like that satellite of someone coming and having office hours or is there um a a space where we could hold like you said the group or can we do a fair like a resource fair and offer certain things. So there's been more talk on how we can help those communities around us without I don't know like you can't clinically

pitch a tent and have them come and sit in the tent.

I wish you could. I think during COVID people were doing that from what I heard.

is something that um can be found.

Absolutely.

you know but it but the idea that and I you know I struggle with this cuz I'm a psychiatric nurse.

And um we have a member of our committee who is probably the person with the most lived experience because she has lost a son Mhm.

and she has another son who's in recovery.

Um and you know we were we've been discussing stuff and then she said but who do people go to?

To find out where to Who do people go to?

almost.

Who's the navigator in he in Westport to help people be the bridge to connect people to all wonderful services that I know are available in New Bedford and in Fall River. We have greater resources than we have.

Who is that going to be?

Is there a project north out this way or is there ever a talk of project north?

What's project north?

So project north we had a a contract with through the court system. So we actually we had just just that a navigator in Fall River district and New Bedford district and it was really fantastic but again it was on a grant, so it wasn't able to renew.

And only in the courts.

Yes, but you can put a nav- You can put a navigator anywhere, truly.

Especially if we're thinking along like the clinical line, right? Sometimes there is that red tape with where you can provide services with your license.

Even if having a navigator through Stepping Stone, we've had that in many different entities and places is having a navigator. And for example, I had I had I used to supervise one of our navigators, and he would set up everyone up with that appointment. He would call either clinic, set everything up, whether they needed an intake, MAT, recovery coach, he would create those appointments. And

then he would also help apply for housing, all of those community resources, and had a very nice booklet that was given, and that was his job, and we had a lot of positive feedback. So, that might be a way we could help having that navigator more of a case management role.

Mhm.

Yeah, I think that um you know, knowing, and I'm sure that people in the community have some sense of resources, but the person having some entity that would be able to help people in a crisis in that moment that they could call or connect with um that we identify in Westport, that we can advertise in Westport. This is our person. This is the the If you're struggling with these issues, we want

you to call here, or this is this you know, Suzy Santos is going to be the person who's going to connect and navigate.

Absolutely.

Um and I and because it is it is um for me um I struggle with just providing money to different entities, and yet there's still nothing central to guide people.

That makes so much cuz you can you can only receive so many resource book booklets. It's different when you have that person sitting in front of you, right? Even in Fall River we we did laugh cuz it was a foldable table.

And it was there, but it was that familiar face. And if you became their navigator and and their case worker.

Mhm.

I have a question about the navigators.

Do they like say it was a Stepping Stone navigator or I don't know maybe different models. Would they refer people to whatever kind of organization had the services they need? So it's not say I mean obviously Stepping Stone is Yes.

known but there might be other services that are available or Absolutely.

closer or you know more specific to their needs. So Yes, and that's been my goal taking over as clinical director. I started a Southcoast clinical directors meeting every third Friday at 88 Purchase Street so we could all work together and see for myself, right?

We're really struggling on maybe hiring a another Spanish speaking individual that works for me.

So I'll I know Boston Neuro has that person. So the navigator doesn't just say, oh I work for Stepping Stone. I'm only going to refer. They'll sit there and figure out all the A through Z things that the individual needs and then refer where they best fit.

Any idea like what a full-time salary is like for that kind of person?

I'm going back a few years.

I mean what kind of credentials do you need? Let's let me ask you that.

Just a bachelor's? Okay, so you don't need a particular license or No, if we If we were wanting it to be more of maybe handling that crisis situation, I always rest on having the master's level and a license is is suffice, but the navigator role often times is more of that bachelor level. They're maybe going for their LADAC one or they're going for their license. And that's something we could all definitely

really fine print later on, but either way is is very suffice for the role.

So, one of the things that we've also addressed is there um how much our town administrator vests is um do we want someone to be a project manager? Meaning fielding any RFPs that come in, um being able to do any paperwork regarding our funds and where the funds are going and so forth. And so, we've had some discussions about that. Um and how much time we would need for a more of a clinical navigator role. Um

I it's not something that I think we would need as a full-time position.

Now I'm not going to make that decision. I'm thinking um out loud is is well that we may not be able to afford long term somebody full time.

That makes sense.

Because of the funds that we have the limited funds we have.

Um so, it may be looking at having a navigator for so many hours a week that might be available. But we haven't really come up with any kind of plan and that's what the RFPs will be about of the RFAs depending on how much money it's going to be.

Um the I think that one of the things that um we also have spoken about and you mentioned um the uh the peer support, the um coach.

Yes.

Um the people that are doing that are they what what's their credentials when when they become recovery coaches?

So, they do attend so it's called it's called CCARF at base out of Connecticut.

They all attend the recovery coach Academy the 40 hours and then they have about five other classes whether and it's motivational interviewing ethical consideration and that they have to attend to obtain and then take a a test to obtain their recovery coach certification.

But they know they're not they don't have to have a degree. No, they just have to be to attend They have to be in recovery.

Um you don't you can have you can be an ally you do not necessarily have to have lived experience.

Okay.

But you do have to attend that recovery coach Academy training.

How long did you say that is?

40 40 hours so a whole week eight it's usually like eight to four or nine to five.

I actually just went through it myself.

To I wanted to become a better supervisor so they allowed me to sit through it is really really awesome.

Mhm.

The um navigate the North program that you mentioned I I was just looking at the website there's no they're only at about eight cities and nothing in the South part of the state.

It's it's really dwindled down we're trying to Why [clears throat] why isn't there like one in New Bedford or Fall River?

Truly this the grant process.

It's a it's funded through the court system so it was a But it's fun it's funded directly from the the governor isn't it?

Yes there was um an MOU as well as a few others that were in place but when it went we went to reapply I think they dismembered it from really just down near us but I wasn't necessarily given So there was a program down here and it was cut?

Yes.

And when was it cut?

Oh gosh. We were still at Dover Street so at least 2024.

And was there any complaint to our representatives about this? I mean did That I'm not sure of. I know for right now in New Bedford, we are applying to assist with their recovery court. And and we just put in for an MOU in the grant process through SAMHSA to assist with New Bedford's recovery court, so we can be that streamline and work directly with them because we are in need of services over there.

You know, the funny thing the the funding comes from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and Bisas as the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services, but it is strange because given that Bisas has funds from the opioid settlement fund, why wouldn't they keep navigators? Do they think it's going to duplicate what's going to happen in local communities? I mean that I would be curious to I I'm also still curious cuz I had

someone recently ask me cuz they I work closely with I'm a I work in the criminal justice department, but I work closely with the social work and counseling department at BSU.

And they were asking if we had any of those bachelor level roles including Project North and I was like, I have to look more into that for you cuz I'm not quite sure even A part of it's federal.

The BOJ The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the federal Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs. So, that's not surprising that explain why it was cut.

that's why that does explain it.

I think it's hard to because of the lack of unless it's not necessarily that billable service. So, sometimes I think it's hard to for certain agencies to keep positions open.

the federal funding, you Yeah.

But it's it sounds like the right thing I mean, that's the place where you need a navigator.

Yes, but that's why we've tried to step up to the plate at Stepping Stone and really hone in on those especially in the court system because it's it's such a loss when you don't have that instant connection as soon upon release.

Yeah.

So, we've been trying to work closely with inside of the jails and prisons, too. Cuz though that um those programs are also on the outs. It It appears.

Have you been working with chef the sheriff um in Bristol County?

Okay.

Yeah.

And Plymouth, too. And some of the um Bridgewater and then some of up north, too.

Are they supportive? I would think that Oh, yes. I love We actually have two individuals that used to work um under me that work inside of Bristol now, and they're always reaching out for referrals and services and setting up appointments and continuing the bridge script. It It's It's really great to see.

Uh I'm curious about um the ages of the people that you're serving. So, especially in like the 18 to the young adults, the 18 to 24, 26.

Yes, we serve 18 and up.

Okay. Do you know like the percentage of what you're seeing or you know, are you seeing a significant number of the 18 to 26 kind of Definitely, especially those whether it's being released from incarceration or that word-of-mouth referral. We through um Project Fair and Homeless Services, they're doing a lot of work with with the youth. So, we've been able to also obtain some more outreach that

way, as well. But it The numbers have definitely been rising.

Mhm.

And I know the younger cohort.

Yeah.

Mhm.

Mhm.

Mhm.

I was trying to figure out some of the local universities if if they still had like counseling services and things like that. Like where is Is it maybe less in the community? So, I've been trying I have some friends that work private practice. I've been trying to figure out how we can best better serve 18 and up, cuz it sounds like that transition of Yes.

college, too.

We need some help.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm certainly concerned about you know, as the public school, you know, In fact, this a student I'm thinking of, right?

He's kind of lost right now, but he's no longer with us, but he's lost. So, where is the place for this young adult who doesn't have family support and, you know, and he really has very little service He has no services. He's kind of couch surfing.

Um So, I was just kind of curious. How many of these young adults do we see that are a bit lost?

We We do. We see quite a few, and I'd like to catch them maybe before they get involved with the justice system. Right.

Um we were just We just received a small grant from the United Way, and we're ordering Chromebooks. So, our hope is to be able to do more um substance abuse mental health, but also some maybe building a resume and more skill building. So, we're really excited about that. It's like very old school, the lock car, kind of like you see in school, and um we'll have I I believe six altogether, and we're going to start

to do a little bit more of that skill building and and helping that way.

Interesting.

I would um encourage you to talk to the grant writer.

Yes.

And to think about ways that um that you may be able to address the vacuum that's Westport.

Yeah.

Um that that there is, you know, again, no services here. We have to connect with services in New Bedford and Fall River.

Um How can we fill some of this empty space with the services that are already available in other places, but bring it here?

Absolutely.

Not just transport people there. If If there's a person that could connect in the community who could educate and say, "We're available these hours in Westport to meet with anybody." We can advertise for that. We can let people know with the with the funds that we have that we have this of service now available in Westport. And but I I encourage you to think about that cuz when we get the RFP

out there in the community, you'll be ready to come in with what we are planning with.

Absolutely.

Your [clears throat] organization employs a consulting firm to write grants.

Right?

We actually have three amazing grant writers on staff.

In- in-house cuz on your I on your 990 that?

On on your 990 form it says you're using um a consulting firm called Datacorp.

So, yes, we do use um Datacorp. So, through some of the federal grants, we utilize them with the data.

So, it would be interesting to know what the professionals think about how they can apply for opioid recovery money.

Yes.

Cuz they know how to do this.

Yeah, I I work we do.

I work really closely with them, so I can definitely ask them.

Yeah, it would be really interesting to pick their brains about how they could tap into this relatively large pool of money.

Absolutely.

Uh to fund these you know, your um charitable or charitable organizations.

We can definitely and our our three grant writers also I I think um a few of them are known in the community. They They come up with great ideas, too. So, I'd like to pick kind of com- compare. I think that's a great idea.

Cuz if you could get back to us with some of their ideas, that would help us Absolutely.

formulate our RFP.

I can definitely do that. The So, when I spoke about like the Resilient Minds and the Chromebooks, that was myself and our grant our three grant writers, the three ladies, we collectively came up with those ideas. And I know firsthand they're very creative, so I can I would love to hear what Datacorp has to say and then what our in-house providers have to say. I think that would be

great. And I can definitely provide that to you all.

That would be wonderful. I want to go back to the question of age again. So, you talked about Stepping Stone's services are for 18 and up. But, back to the navigator having a different role, could the navigator or a navigator serve uh people under 18 and their families?

Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

be able to refer them again to Stepping Stone's services, but they could So, like a location could theoretically be the schools or referrals from the schools or, you know.

Absolutely. And And that's really our goal when even when we had the navigator spot is really encompass what every service is in the surrounding communities. So, whether that's referring to child and family because of the age bracket, right? Or maybe Boston Neuro because individuals need a different language that might not be offered at ourselves or maybe High Point or um child and family. So, the goal is

to really have that full wealth of knowledge and be able to pass it to everyone, not just Oh, I don't know. We don't have that at Stepping Stone. We want to be able to give everything.

And we're We are looking into serving youth. There's a lot that goes into that process.

Uh myself and the clinical director of behavioral health services are navigating through that. So.

Mhm.

It's There's a need. That's for sure.

is.

Well, you definitely see it in the schools.

So, people don't live in a vacuum and there's a need for family work. There's a need to help families also navigate the recovery because we know or I know as a um a mental health professional that when one person is in recovery and starts recovering, the other parts of the family may not be used to that. And there may be this change back kind of behavior cuz they don't They have to change too.

And a lot of times family needs to understand how then they they need to adapt to what's happening and support the person in recovery.

Absolutely.

Um so um and and from um all my experience in mental health and what I've watched many people get better from depression or anxiety and family react to them in a way that um makes I want to say makes them fall back, but contributes to their relapse of symptoms Absolutely.

in mental health. So um educating the family, being available to help the family navigate those changes, too, is really important.

Yes, I I agree. Especially with a lot of the MAT growing and just educating on that stigma as well. So myself, my nurses, we're coming up with we want to try to host groups directed towards the family of like almost like a Q&A.

Mhm.

That's something I think all of our communities right now need of education for the family perspective because it truly takes a village.

Mhm. Mhm. It really does.

Mhm.

It does.

Mhm.

So we do. We have a a lot of new things to come in our new fiscal year, so we are excited and we're excited to help. And I mean I mean this sincerely, depending no matter where it goes with the funds, I mean we're here for you all, so and I That was my goal is just coming out and meeting everyone in the surrounding. A lot's changed after I was gone for

almost 10 years in DC and a lot changed when I came back.

Yeah.

Just meeting everyone and kind of reestablishing that. So whatever you all need Stepping Stone did with the um the shelter. I remember the shelter before Stepping Stone came in and redid the shelter and um I think they you increased beds to it when when it was done, so um I'm familiar with Stepping Stone and the work that's that's done, but to know um that you're actively reaching out to communities like ours

um is really important.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So I thank you for being here. If anybody have any other questions so we can let let her leave and and thank you so much.

card?

I don't.

You didn't bring a card?

I I need to get them.

It's it's on my to I'm not used to in my prior line of work I didn't like having a card so but I would I be able Donna to email you my information and then I can send what the grant writers and yeah, you can do that.

Um and at some point I may I'm in Fall River that I may stop in at Steppingstone and get if get your business card.

Yes.

So we can have that available as well.

Absolutely. And then I'm going to leave these just for you all to to look at.

But I appreciate you all having me.

Okay. Thank you Cathy.

and see you all again.

much for coming.

And for the work that you're doing too.

Mhm. Thank you.

I do I appreciate You do like my horse.

It's so cute.

It is.

Okay.

Not enough of Not enough of this.

Yes.

I might be short one so I apologize.

That's okay.

We'll share.

All right. So if there's no other discussion I like to move on to approve the minutes of April 21st, 2026.

Are there any questions about the minutes or changes?

If not I would like a motion to approve.

So moved.

Second?

No.

Okay. Val seconds. All in favor?

I.

I. Okay.

Um there are no minutes to approve from the last minute meeting but there are notes that I've given to everybody so that you can look at what we discussed in the meeting last month. We did not have a quorum therefore there are no official minutes.

All right, so let's go to member updates and reports.

I'd like to start by saying that uh we did um I think represent well at the June 6th Feel Good Fair.

Um David, do you have any thoughts about uh David was uh there to support me and and came to uh the Feel Good Fair and helped me break down the tables and do other stuff, too. So, I appreciate that.

Thank you, David.

Any thoughts about the fair or no?

No.

Did you meet Were there other people that you I went to all the booths and I you know, increased my fund of knowledge about what's going on.

So.

I learned a lot.

Okay. Anything that you think is important for the rest of us to be aware of?

Yeah.

This this what we heard today?

Yeah, I think that was the most substantial uh interaction that I had. Um and um there's one other organization, but um you know, we we really [clears throat] What all of these organizations have grant writers who will seek who have their radar out for RFPs.

Mhm.

That's that's their meat.

And when they get a hold of the RFP, they'll figure out a way to ask for money.

Yeah.

And and that's the key thing.

Yeah.

Um And I mean ev- everyone Mhm.

that I asked about that they said, "Yeah yeah yeah yeah."

Mhm.

They're looking.

Yeah, but um I mean, the problem is it's a nationwide problem that uh opioid settlement fund Mhm.

money isn't getting spent.

Mhm.

And uh a lot of it is getting spent improperly.

Mhm.

And that's received a lot of coverage in ma- mostly the alternative press, not the not the mainstream. See it in the Globe. I haven't seen a story in the Globe yet.

That would be a good spotlight Mhm. Mhm.

thing in the Globe eventually.

Mhm.

But um uh I mean, there's bill- there are billions of dollars sitting out there for um non- mostly nonprofit organizations and providers to to tap into.

And they should get used.

Mhm.

Yeah. So, um there were some other agencies there that did not do not rely on grants. They're smaller groups like um Sunflowers for Sally.

That was a Yes.

Yeah.

That was a Um she started it after losing her mother and realized kids need support.

Yeah.

So, um it is an organization to tap into.

Yeah.

Sunflowers for Sally. Um the other one um So, uh at the table with me was also uh Mary Jo, um who is Medeiros, who is um an adjustment counselor.

Mhm.

And she was there representing the Hope Squad.

Um which was which was really nice because she brought some things, but she walked around. She had a Hope Squad shirt on and she walked around and she talked to everybody.

Okay.

Um and so, I was very happy and she posted something on the the school web page or the school Facebook page um about it. It was a nice collaboration.

Um and I've been trying to keep collaborating with the school department because I value the importance of addressing mental health issues in kids and families.

So, that was really nice. Um it was a great collaboration with the town of Dartmouth.

Um David Matt, Rachel DeZoglio, who is the substance use um director or coordinator. I'm trying to remember if she's a director or coordinator of services um and uh Dolores Johnson, who is their youth advocate.

So, they have and they also have a communications director Dartmouth.

Um so, it it was wonderful to collaborate with them because they had more resources to offer than we did. Um they um had their community access TV there.

I asked them to please um the heat the community access TV person said, "Can I send you the film?" And I said, "Could you send it to our community access TV?"

So, I need to follow up on that when we have a debriefing next week.

Um so, that people could watch and see what happened. Um there was um uh some the other things that they had available were the obviously the communications person. So, the communications person did all the publicity stuff, wrote the press release, um created the flyer, um uh did some other communicating in the community about about the Feel Good Fair.

And um and and it was it was nice to work with them and they're considering this something we're going to do every year.

So um uh so that's something that we have to consider and think about. The other thing to consider and think about, which goes along with us, is whether or not when we talk about a project manager, whether we want Chris Fidalgo to go forward and ask the town of Dartmouth whether or not they would be willing to do the that administrative piece.

Um do not know what that's going to cost, do not know how many hours cuz we never decided that, but I asked Chris to not go forward and try to pursue asking Dartmouth that until after the Feel Good Fair Fair.

Um After the what?

After the Feel Good Fair. That that that I wanted to do this collaboration without any kind of interference or this hovering over whether they're going to they're going to be able to assume that responsibility or they want to assume that responsibility. So, um so I asked him just to hold off until after the 6th um to pursue it.

Um I still don't know if if um I have to talk to Chris to tell him to go and move forward with it if that's what the the committee wants.

And so the Chris has asked us to have a project manager to manage the RFPs and the the information that comes in.

And whether or not that has to do with um distributing the funds or or and also doing any of the paperwork about how we're spending funds cuz that's what I did last year. I'm going to have to do it again this year.

But to keep track track of the funds and then document and communicate with the state as per the abatement agreement.

So.

And so the conversation would just be would they be open to exploring it?

Well, I asked um the first time I met them and Delores said absolutely not.

And Delores was one of the people that got um, to hire Rachel. She may may not feel the same way after we've done the collaboration.

But, um, it's still that's again, that's the administrative piece.

Um, it's not having her do all the stuff that she does in Dartmouth.

Mhm.

So, So, anyway, so that the feel good fair went well.

It is a positive collaboration with the town of Dartmouth. Um, they are talking about us doing this this is our they said this is our first year whether we're going to do it with them again next year will have to be something the committee will have to decide on.

It's not my decision.

Um and and the benefit to to Westport to do this. So, my experience with it is there were only two people from Westport that came up and said hello to me. I don't know if there were other people from Westport there.

I was going to ask if you have a sense of Westport Two people came up a woman came up with her daughter and spoke with me for a bit. I did not have a sense no one else from Westport came up and we don't we didn't ask people when they came in where they were from.

Yeah, it would would be more likely to run into people from New Bedford uh, New Bedford or Fall River from Westport than in Dartmouth because you get this old neighboring towns the differences.

Mhm. Well, it was also held at UMass Dartmouth.

So, you know, that's another thing I I think about when doing these things doing it at a school and getting the school people to come but's but historically I will say this um, when I've run different events in town the response is not great.

In town In town. There I the recreational stuff is usually there's a better response, but to other stuff, I've not experienced that with any mental health stuff anyway. So.

So it's something to think about. We don't have to decide right now.

Um but it is certainly up for discussion and in decision-making and next steps and we need to talk about that what we want to do about the administrative piece because we're going nowhere until we take care of the administrative piece.

And we have been stuck in this spot for quite some time.

So as far as other updates from me, um I did go to the NA meeting in town.

Um it's on Wednesdays at the Grange.

Um and it ends at 7:00, but I think they have their gathering um like at 5:30 to 6:00 and then they have an hour meeting.

Um I went to that. Um it was open.

Um and I sat and marveled at the 20 people that were there.

There were 20 people there.

And the originator, um the two people who um started this NA group, um I have had discussions with on the phone.

So when I said who I was, they were like, "Oh, we've been talking to you on the phone." And and somebody else came here. Pam had gone to a meeting there.

Um so again, we've had nothing related to nar- um use of substances. We have AA meetings in town, but we've never had an NA meeting in town and I was delighted to see that many people in that meeting.

How long has it been meeting?

It's been I don't want to say it's a year, but it's been going on for a while now. They have postings around town.

Um just flyers around town, but people come from all over. They're not all Westport people.

That's what I was going to ask. Yeah.

Yeah, well, I mean I didn't poll them to find out, but I knew some of them that were were from New Bedford and they talked about they had some kind of legislative thing that they had to be available for that they couldn't come to the Feel Good Fair cuz my ulterior motive was to say, "We're having this Feel Good Fair on Saturday and you know, you probably want to come. There's yoga

and there's this. There's free food."

Cuz we did we had free food. We had yoga.

Um there was music.

There were games to play. So, it was a nice family day, but but they all were going to march in for some legislative thing so So, I think it's really important that the community know that this is available.

And um that's one resource that we have for anyone who uses substances other than alcohol.

That makes me think again, this is a project I guess at this point someone on the committee would have to do, but we could do you know, we could put it on our website basically. You know, the the NA meeting.

Um I'm sure it's listed other places, but our I would love for whoever was doing the project management stuff would manage manage that because that's leaves it up to me.

Right. I don't want to leave it up to you, but I'm at this point without somebody we're left to us.

Right. So, so anyway, so that's you know, something else to consider is that whoever is in this role, will they also manage that level of communication and can they do that?

Um So, that's that's all my updates. Are there any other updates from anyone else? Yes, David.

Well, I I think we should look into more seriously and more deeply the idea of having the committee itself administer the uh application process, the review process, and then the grant management process.

Um if you And there are a number of ways of looking at this. One way to look at it is that if we meet once a month and we have Say we have five people.

That's five five-person hours per month of grant administration.

So we don't have to sit and talk about what's going on in the community. We could sit and talk about the grant applications that we have.

And we could actually um assign as I mentioned before, we could assign the management of a grant of a given project to the primary reviewer of that application. And that would entail uh a certain amount of homework on the part of the committee members.

But one way to get a one way to improve the uh workload would be to consider adding adding to the committee a couple of people who are interested in in in managing this.

Um I don't see that once we've reviewed an application that there isn't but a couple of hours a year or maybe maybe 4 hours a year of administration time because once we disburse the money the recipient would only have to report on a bi-annual basis.

And then all we would have to do is write the report on an annual basis.

And I think that the hours that we are committing to meet would cover uh the amount of time needed to do all of this.

And I don't think we'd be handling a large number of applications. I don't know that we'd be handling a large number of awards. The only thing that we can't do is we can't decide who gets the money and we can't actually write the checks.

So, that's something that the town would have to do anyway.

Which they're saying they won't, I think.

So, without, you know, which could doesn't have to be a big number of hours. I mean, I would say I would say to keep things moving look at a very small amount of hours for the administrative work for someone to liaise with the town and you know, get the contract set up, get the check cut, you know, that that bare minimum.

For now.

For argument's sake, let's say Stepping Stone um makes the application and they they say, "Well, we want $20,000 and we want to provide this kind of telehealth group recovery that's not covered by MassHealth. Let's say we're allowed to fund that or recommend that it be funded and the select board gives them the money.

So, what what actual work do we have to do to administer Stepping Stone's project?

We have to read a report I think I think twice a year.

Yeah, I think I think the biggest thing is you you um I've done this in some of my jobs.

you have to train citizens in how to keep proposals and how to keep proposals. But once once you do it Yeah.

Once you once once you go through the first run Well it it becomes sort of group mentoring. I mean, because you will have people that do that on a regular basis and many times believe these committees will have senior piece senior members.

They're all volunteers.

All of us have done that though, right?

I mean, you've reviewed grants, you've you've reviewed you've Okay, you've reviewed grants and you've reviewed grants and I've reviewed tons of grants.

Yeah, I don't think I don't think this person's role would be to review the grants.

I mean No, I'm going to be thinking train they they could say they could create a structure Like a rubric to score by do that.

Yeah.

Yeah potentially.

Yeah, and you could you could hypothetically contract with another entity.

But I don't I don't see the workload entity with that experience.

I don't see the workload as being particularly large.

If we if we are very well focused in what we want it won't If we go on a fishing expedition we'll we'll we'll get a lot of things that'll and and um What What do you mean by a fishing expedition?

Non-specific RFP.

Yeah.

We need to be really specific about what we want.

If we get application so we we get an application review it and we say, this is not a good application. But time and energy. If we get 20 applications that are you know, it still takes it takes more you have to you have to be specific enough to know what you're looking for.

But you if you're not going to give out a lot of money and we had this conversation last time I came.

Yeah.

You you you can't put all sorts of requirements in the in the RFP or RFA Mhm.

that would sc- scare people away.

So, um oh, we can make I mean, we can we can craft an application form easily based on what other towns have done that um makes it clear that there are eight categories of projects, you know, all that stuff that we've been talking about for 18 months. Um and see what see what we get.

And um I bet we're not going to get a lot.

And we can divide it up.

I mean, I I'm very accustomed to reviewing grant applications uh and um the the workload would be several applications per member Okay.

at most.

And and then we would meet and we would um talk about the applications and then vote to recommend or not recommend. But the review process is very very uh straightforward.

And and as I said, most of us have participated in these processes and that that's what I really signed up for in the beginning 18 months ago.

And I think that we can do it without without a coordinator or a uh navigator. And I don't think that the role of the committee should be to be a clearinghouse for all mental health uh services in the town. I think what we should do is try and review applications so that we can recommend the select board to give out the money to responsible providers Okay.

in town.

Okay.

How about you, Fran? What are your thoughts?

On all of this? I mean, I just want to be more definitive. The The workload that needs to happen is someone needs to finalize this RFA, right?

Yep.

Okay. So, that's the next steps.

So, that's number one. So, are you um and then kind of okay it with the town administrator? So, there has to be a little bit of that back and forth.

So, are you envisioning Donna or I mean, is it who's doing that? Is that That's the question.

Well, we We had a discussion and and I asked Craig to, you know, begin fixing what we needed cuz you brought up the idea of it's too cumbersome. So, if we did something like an RFA, and so, you know, how how how far along are you in reviewing it and doing it?

I'm frustrated I'm I'm I'm not frustrated. I have a block because we don't have We haven't articulated what we're giving away for what.

Right. And that's being more specific.

We need to be more specific.

we had a fairly They did a very good job of putting together a a logic model for a a good detailed RFP.

Mhm.

But, that would um that would probably result in funding very few projects.

Mhm.

And then, we haven't And we we still haven't decided Yeah.

We've come in a direction, but we haven't decided if we want to front-load some of our money for for for research and development. In other words, we've got we've got accumulated uh earnings, so to speak, from our our our payments.

And and and and Val put presented um a good route a good model Mhm. for viewing this differently. And I think if the process of setting up a grant proposal system or a grant system might be one of those things that, you know, it's a it's it's almost a one-off.

You pull committee members, you put together some ideas, and and you have a consultant um help us guide us through that.

I would say, I mean, honestly, I I just tried to list like what are the things someone have to do at this basic level that we, you know, the town has asserted there's not capacity within the town to do. Some of them, you know, you started listing them um Dr. Boy, finalize the RFA, okay with the town administrator, post the RFA, catch the proposals, literally, however they come in to email X for them to us, um

develop a rubric. I mean, I've always thought I never thought the review was ever to be considered by anybody else. I always assumed and do that it we're the group that would review and score and discuss and then make a recommendation.

So, then there's the communication of the recommendation to the select board.

And then once there's a agreement to inform all the applicants of the decisions, liaise with the town for all the administrative work to set up the contract, assistance to pay grantees, with us write a report format if we want the grantees to have a report, you know, collect that, manage any administrative issues that come up, and then do the final report on spending to DPH.

I think that's not actually a ton of hours, you know, I think that's fairly minimal um but you want somebody that knows how to do those things. I don't think all those things should be the committee. I think we should be the give the input, make the RFP, you know, maybe someone else could like help final like get it to the finish line better than we can. But we do the content. We

review the proposals. You know, maybe they make a rubric, but we we shouldn't be administering kind of the logistical details with the town. So, honestly, I would say let's have I don't have another way to approach this at the moment that's easier than having Chris ask Dartmouth.

And actually ask the if that is an option, ask Rachel how many hours does you know this take? Is it It's going to be a little front loaded, but it's like five a month? I don't know. It's It's like pretty small except it's a little bit front loaded. So, I It's not as much of a financial burden in the skeleton version of it as I think we were concerned.

Um I'm concerned to not attempt something because we're trapped. And I'd rather use our committee time and expertise in like let's decide more specific RFP. Let's, you know, So, it sounds like you we would need somebody, let's say, I don't know, we had a retired town administrator.

Something like Rachel wanted options.

Right, right. Who just cuz it's like a grant It's almost like a grant management piece. We're supposed to be doing the advisory.

And they, you know, listen to this meeting. Okay, I'm going to give you the rough draft. We come in and we decide the da da da.

But he's the somebody else she or he or somebody else is putting it sort of quickly together. Otherwise, one of us is just going to have to sit down, put something together, and say everybody review it.

We've already done that.

Done. But that we did And then and then we So, it got presented and then it was put back cuz needed changes. And then we had a change of administrator, and we went to the administrator, and he said it wasn't He wouldn't feel comfortable putting this out because it certain needed certain other things in it. And and I'm I was getting just really overwhelmed because I've never done done this.

And I you know, I'm just as frustrated as everybody else that we want to get this going and um and it's been it's been difficult. So so we already have a foundation.

Um we just need to fix and then and then simplify in an RFA so that smaller amounts of money could be requested without having to jump through 10 hoops.

And that the bigger money is 10 hoops.

I mean, honestly, if you Yeah, I can't remember where what draft we're on. If you give that to me, I can use with the support of Florida I to narrow it down and then somebody but in but then now it's the legwork of going to the town, going to the select So so that I will gladly do and if somebody wants to go with me, anybody who wants to go with me to do that, I will

happily do the talking with with the administrator and working through all the administrative stuff.

But the RFP and when I started working on it, I got so frustrated because I'm like, this is all foreign to me writing one.

big, I would say for you know, to Craig's point what we're trying to do.

So I don't mind taking cuz I'm getting frustrated too. We come here every day and we have this conversation.

the same conversation.

And I'm you know, it's the end of the year so it's June so I'm tired but if you if somebody if you want to just re-email so I know I have the latest version, I can work on something that might be simplified. I mean, I don't think that would take me that long.

do anything on it yet, Craig? Okay.

You want to and then you know, and just kind of model it and then I've sent it out to all of you and if we think that's fine, then we deal with the town side and say what's your issue with this because Right.

That's sort of, you know, some of the complicated things that I'm doing right now, it's kind of like, "Okay, this is what I think." And then it comes back, "Well, there's this, this, and this."

Okay, so then we work on those individual pieces. But we need something to get that moving. So it's a very specific Right, that's the issue, not a broad thing.

Right. And and and the politics of all this is it would be That was first thing maybe I should be the the liaison to Christmas and I thought, you know, I may be the worst one.

Why?

Fran might be the best one because I don't know about right now, but I think She's ready for a vacation.

With Donna.

I have a comment. Before you start and I Yeah.

If you want to operate on it, I and I think giving it to Claude is an excellent idea. But before you feed it to Claude, I think you should delete the um editing or the additions that the administrator had put.

Okay.

Because there were a number of egregious additions such as the idea of having um governing boards of organizations meet.

Do you remember that part? There were certain Oh, yeah, there were things that that I think would have scared people off.

You know what I You know what I'm talking about?

Where he had added He had added it.

Maybe it's much bigger than we're That that it's a charitable organization the the a governing board of the charitable organization had to sign off on the application.

now, I bet you a stepping Well, maybe Stepping Stone cuz they're a little on the small side, but I can't imagine uh uh What's the name of the organization?

Um it Star.

Star.

Star.

They're They're not They're not going to have a board meeting to talk about an opioid settlement, $20,000 grant. Yeah.

I know. Yeah, I know.

but I think you should I think you should operate on it before you feed it.

Cuz it it Yeah. If you just somebody resend it to me whatever the latest version is and I'll I'll keep that in mind.

And you know, it's so wonderful that you can even say, "Oh, if this is the Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I can put it in there.

But there's still some decisions we'll have to make in terms of like how much money like the question about are we front loading or just dividing equally roughly? You know, thinking about that.

Yeah, and I I think that this is just a kind of get us going, right? So we can meet be more specific and we could say I mean, I think from our perspective it the problem is it's so broad. It could It could be anything.

It's broad.

It could be anything from, you know, the school based request that I'm making to sober homes or you know, or program like this. So it's very hard for us to say we're only going to do X, Y, and Z Yeah.

in in that way. So I think maybe that's your point even about let's open up and see who's who's out there.

Um unless the committee as a whole unless you'd like to think about it to to take those categories and put them smaller. But it doesn't seem that way because every time we come back, we all have a new idea and we have a new idea and we met this person and we met this person.

Today we discovered navigators.

Yeah, right? So now we have navigators, right?

Then we had a couple of weeks ago we we the police had was was losing a grant.

Oh let's let's ask the police department.

Which is real. We're learning. I mean, part of it And things are and things are changing and um I Michelle and our um cap- captain Smith, Chief Dunn, is not here um to say what the progress has been with that because she said that they were probably going to get it back. She had sent me an email and said they were it back, and then when she was here last the last meeting, she said, "We haven't

We're in the process." So, um and also fat the fast team, which really would help, um as well. But, what I would like to try to focus on though, to help us not be so global, is to take the input we have received from the community and focus on the top three areas.

That's what I would like to do.

Because the top three areas are people we we had, um whatever it was. It may be a small sample. Maybe we can do it again at the next police night out. We can do the same thing we did last time and have people fill that out and see if there's consistency with the input from the community, cuz that's the number one thing in the abatement agreement.

yeah, do it for this I I guess third, right? Or something like Yep. And and then, so if we do that, then we'll have compiled another set of input, and we can focus our effort on the top areas that people are identifying that are in the need. We're asking for people to people in the community, "What is it that you think we should do with this money?" And some of

them are telling us, and I think we should focus on that.

I think that I think that makes [clears throat] sense. I would just say instead of doing I mean, I'm not opposed to doing another police night out, but I would say the kind of unfinished work about people with lived experience input what Star kind of backed away from.

If there's another way to do that, What about the NA group?

That's what I'm thinking, whether via NA.

Well, that's they they have boundaries around that stuff in the in the NA, yeah. They I they said they cannot do that kind of thing in the NA group. Um we might be able to hand out the code and see if they want to go online and fill it out, but then the people in the NA group are not necessarily Westport residents.

But they could that could be one of the questions, Are you or are you not? So at least we can weight it.

So that that is a possibility. Um but I think that we need to take the data that we have and do the RFP RFA based on the data that we have and and go with that for an RFP RFA. So if if the top one was education or um uh anti-stigma, then we need to put energy into those areas and ask for RFPs and RFAs around those issues.

Yeah.

I'd like to make the point that we have a very small data set.

Right. Yeah.

So I think we got what 40 responses.

Mhm.

I don't think that that's representative of what's out there. I and I don't think we should limit applications other than the eight the eight acceptable areas that the governor put out.

And they're all related to that we should cross any of those off the list.

Yeah, no. Yeah.

So I mean certainly the data that we have suggests that um among people who go to the police night out Yeah.

that's what they think. But I I don't think we've said we've sampled anywhere near what what the community as a as a whole wants. And I think that there are at least 10 providers within the community to who do private practice who see substance abuse.

But they didn't answer our survey.

Right. That's the problem.

Well, so but I can't base But that doesn't mean that they're not going to apply for funds.

It doesn't mean they're not going to apply, but I I think that we're going to stay stuck if we're expecting um unless we put out this huge ad or put it on TV that we are having this big meeting and we want people to come and tell us what they think should be done with this money.

I don't think we're going to get bigger responses. I I don't.

me let me just give you an example of what I think might happen. Let's say, you know, you're you're therapist in the in Westborough and you have a private practice and some of your clients are are uh op- op- opioid users.

Um and you see this RFA out there.

And you say, "Hey, I have an idea for a group. And if I could get if I could get 15 or 20,000 dollars to fund this, I would do it." So, I think that putting putting an application out and notifying the public that there are these funds that people can apply for um might stimulate people to formulate applications that are appropriate that we could consider.

Yeah, I think it's a good idea.

and I think that's the way that's probably the way we'll find out what's out there. Once Once you put it's like putting chum in the water for Right. Right. It is.

Yeah, the The other thing that I'm planning on doing is going before the select board again and just giving them an update and telling them what's going on.

And let the community know more people probably um participate in watching the select board meeting and um that we're still looking for input and but I I I s- said to Chris Vitali that I wanted to go and appear before the select board again. So, um and if somebody wants to go with me, that would be fine.

Yes. Um I just want to go back to both your points and I think I think we do need to come to some form of decision on what our priorities are while also keeping the RFA open, you know, to other things that can come because we're we're going to have to make a decisions based on shared priorities. So that can include I mean I think it's the data, it's also the presentation by experts.

And I need to sit down with Dr. Roy. I'm overdue to do that to look at both the data, you know, and your and the survey.

Um so perhaps before we leave the room tonight we can make Yeah, I can I I mean I have the survey up right now. I mean I if you want to get more survey data, right? I mean I have it electronically now. So people can just take it online. We can get it a barcode.

And if you just want to get that out, we can put it on multiple places and ask people to and I can add in I owe Westport resident yes or no.

Um and then we can ask multiple people to take it. Like and we'll get what we get.

We'll get bigger than just the Police Night Out.

Mhm.

Um I might want to just take one more tweak at it now that I know that the data's going to be, you know, if we're going to get more we can ask Chris to put it on the Westport page. I can send it out. I don't know. You can just send it out as a flyer with a barcode and people can just go like that and take it if they're sitting and you

can ask the who the clinicians or the physicians that you were talking about that you sent it out if they would you know, have that as a paper and people while they're in a waiting room can take it out, right? If you depends on how how crazy you want to get with that.

I mean it'll all work out. We're trying to do that. You know, one clinician there did it with her clients, but they could do it more broadly at outpatient services. Maybe a simplified version.

Maybe Star would consider if we literally just sent them a QR code. So I think there are some things So yes, so now that my academic semester is is over. I know yours isn't yet. But about collecting the data, but then there's also kind of compiling everything that we have. And sort of that's also a the Claude AI project which includes the surveys and also all the experts that we heard

from, you know, in the data because, you know, and that doesn't we it still depends on what we do with it with the caveats, with the waiting, but we'll have to think about what seems most important to us.

yeah, so you got to like let's just think about the survey.

You've heard from lots of experts in the field. A survey is a survey.

I I think I got to ask the question, do you think you need more information?

Cuz you have people who have the lived experience of working in the field or, you know, are in recovery.

Is do you see us getting this data and it changing anything?

I don't think so.

I mean, only if it's lived experience. I mean, to me that's like the gap.

We don't have a constant small hand.

And we have to define lived experience.

Is lived experience going to be somebody who is struggles with addiction, um substance use disorder.

Um we have somebody on our committee who is lived experience, living experience with her children.

Um and I forgot to mention that I went to a memorial service um for those parents who have lost their children, and they broadened it to other issues other than substance use disorder.

Mhm.

And it was down at Horseneck Beach, and I went to support Pam.

Um it was the date of her son's overdose death.

And I talked to a few people there, and three of them said to me, "If we could prevent this from happening, we wouldn't be dealing we wouldn't be having this experience tonight."

So prevention came up several times.

Mhm.

Um and one father said to me, "This is a horrible thing to go through.

if we could have just prevented it from happening. I'm going to get teary.

It was very emotional.

And so I think prevention is a big part and what goes into prevention is having education is being having resources to support families those kinds of things but but I don't think the data is going to change very much.

Right. Let's [snorts] just stick there right for a second because you all have been doing this longer than I am. I mean this is sort of why we're advising right?

We all have some sort of sense of expertise or experience with this right?

So we could do something if we think about a committee it could be something that's broadly preventative right? And if I take preventative it could be everything from not just preventative but mental health right? Because of the entanglement it could be preventative mental health it could be preventative specific to substances. It's say that there. The other option then if we want to frame it in another umbrella what

would be the second that would be treatment at treatment treatment right?

bridging in some way Yeah right. So then there's people who are either bridging to treatment or this the treatment piece and then maybe a third bucket are the sort of the the larger family piece right? Because everyone's impacted in a family by this.

You know I'm trying to think of the and then maybe the RFA in a way is structured around those three things and then we can make a more informed decision at that point or we can be more So what would be the third what would you call that? Is there another one another bucket?

harm reduction in with treatment and that's broad but um Yeah.

Well harm reduction is the the availability of Narcan or other other things yeah.

Yeah yeah.

so, I mean, that but I think that we I agree that we have data.

And um David did a great job organizing it and showing us how many people, even though it was a small group, um I should share that with New Bedford and see if they come up with the same kinds of of information. They would have a larger database than we would have if they've done um but but I think that's the place to start. And I um I will say that um one of the, you know,

the the harm reduction, having Narcan available, whether the federal government's going to have any available, whether that's going to be something we're going to want to put money into, that has to be considered. Um but in Olive has already put one Narcan um the the the box and the lock box in the annex.

And she and I are going to put up a bulletin board with all the resources that we know of for for community members.

But it's still not a well-traveled area.

But at that So so and this um display behind me, um this issue of stigma came up quite often in the Mhm.

in the Mhm.

um the survey. Um so these displays came from McLean Hospital. Um we had them at the um the Feel Good Fair. Um they were paid for by the uh collaborative.

Um and on each side there is a statement from somebody who has is in either recovery from mental illness or from substance use. This gentleman um said, "Don't be afraid to ask for help." Um he says, "I I want people to know that change is possible when you're in the uncomfortable part, that's the growing season. Don't give up on yourself. And so he's somebody who struggled with addiction.

Um and um I think that that certainly anti-stigma was also at the top of the list.

Um so whatever we can do to in in decrease in the stigma so that people will access the help.

Um but I I'd like to make two points about the RFA.

First of all, when we get applications, if we put out a broad net, we get applications.

Mhm.

We're going to be reviewing them and deliberating on them.

Okay.

And we will be allowed to make qualitative decisions Mhm.

about them. And the RFA should state explicitly that applications will be considered in light of what the advisory committee deems to be Mhm.

the communities needs.

Mhm.

So that that there will be applications that will fall into one of those eight categories that are wildly inappropriate for this town, possibly.

Sure.

And we we will say no, we're not going to we don't think we should fund recommend this to be funded. But the people who submit the applications um might not be happy about that.

Okay.

And so we would have to be able to No, really. I think that's I think But we have to be able to say We have to be able to say that we don't feel that this is what the community wants.

Right. Well, we're And that And that allows us to invoke invoke the surveys and all the research that we've done over the last 18 months.

We'll we'll have that opportunity to not fund things that we as a committee don't like.

Yeah.

I don't really use the word "totally" like that. That's Yeah. That That don't meet the needs for our community.

Yeah. Don't meet And And then again, then once we review them, then we have to take them and go to the select board and say, "We recommend." And they could say, "No."

But But I think you got to do more than meet the needs given the resources we have.

Yeah.

Because the limitation is going to be the resources.

Mhm.

So somebody can come in with a knock-down proposal, but if it's impractical or it misses the mark or it's not as good as the other person who wrote the other organization that's written a proposal for the same thing.

Right.

You know.

We could have four proposals that meet the needs, but we can't fund all of them. So that is also our discretion.

There has to be that kind of descriptive language in in the request for proposals that protects us, so to speak, from from um unfair uh criticism of our review process.

Yeah. Well, that then I would suggest that's like a quick have a lawyer look at it quickly, right?

Like, you know, once we kind of come up with this Sure.

and we have counsel look at it like quickly. Yeah.

They'll look at it anyway. Yeah.

Right. So I'm saying I think that, you know, I mean, we would rely on them for that kind of Do we need the the broad statement that says Yeah.

whatever. Yeah.

I will What I'll do is I'll forward the last email that I got from Chris Vitali that said he needed all this stuff.

And then um then after we had Well, we had our meeting and then he changed some stuff on it. So I will send that to you.

I sent it to you, Craig. I sent everything to Craig.

Okay.

Um I'll send it to you. Yes.

I'll take a look at it and just try to clean it up and make it a little simplified and we'll just go from there and then at least it's a step in the right direction.

That's our That's our next step. We're at a standstill because of this the RFP, the RFA.

Um Val and Fran are going to meet to to talk about some of this stuff and the um um the using the AI to consolidate multiple data points that we have.

And also, did you have you sent out the survey?

No, but I it's it's ready to go, but I don't want to necessarily You want to think about it first.

don't want to send it out if we're not going to use it.

Yeah, like you know, did you understand and again it's it's such a limited So, when I'm sending it out, I am just sending out to people with children.

That's all right.

small group.

Well, it's but people with children who are people who probably some of them may have some addiction or substance issues.

I don't want the survey to you know, if there's if there are groups of people that we know we're not accessing through the survey, then we probably need to make other efforts to get their input.

I think both are important. I think there was always a plan to get more info from people, you know, with kids in the schools as well as people's lived experience.

Then I'll I'll send this out. I mean it looks pretty much just like that. I apologize for holding you up.

I can send it out.

And you know what? Why don't I look at it right now?

Okay.

All right. Well, you can you can do that. I'm just thinking at the time.

Yes, well, I mean after the meeting.

You you could do it after. I mean because my my person is out on sick leave for about a week, the person who will send this out for me. So Okay. No rush.

So, so yeah. So, don't worry.

So, um so those are the next steps.

We've got to get through this RFP RFA process, get that solidified, and we will then be able to move forward. Um and I will have a contact with Chris Vitali just to make sure that I'm understanding what his expectations are of a project manager. Um so that um and then whether or not um um cuz he wanted us to say how many hours we need, but I still need to understand what his expectation of a

project manager is and how many hours does he think that that's I will I mean, I've been jotting down some notes, so I can share that that, but it includes and I would suggest you might give them here's the list of tasks that we've identified and like here's the ones the committee can do. Here's are these the ones, you know, and please add or specify, you know, so that yeah, we're looking at the same.

Okay.

We're on the same page.

Well, you and I can meet at some point and and talk about that, too.

All right. So, are there any other reports?

Okay. So, um our next meeting is July 21st, 2026. I can see about a hybrid meeting.

Um I'll talk with um with Bob to see if he can help with that.

And Okay.

All right. So, if there's no other business, I need a motion to adjourn.

Fellows, I move.

I'll second again.

Okay.

So, uh Mr. Dutra moved