[0:10] So actually he's got a position posted. In almost every. No longer covered by. I just

[0:44] recently did something like. That and. And so. And what did you do that was just, I just.

[1:20] Heard this. I'm forcing them out of their comfort zone. Yes, yes. He said, I don't I'm going

[1:34] to be speaking when I get to the Pace center for girls. No idea what you just said. I said,

[1:43] sure, probably not. Yeah, he did a great job. Good. I'm glad you take your first. So I

[1:55] appreciate that. So. Great. It's amazing to treat it right, right. We're going to go ahead

[2:44] and call the meeting to order. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance, please. Pledge

[2:53] allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it

[2:59] stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. As we go

[3:12] forward, please turn your cell phones to the vibrate, silent and offsetting the Opioid

[3:17] Abatement Advisory Board allows any person to speak regarding any item on the agenda. The

[3:22] speaker is limited to two minutes, unless otherwise determined by the chairperson,

[3:28] to allow sufficient time for all speakers. Speakers shall refrain from abusive, profane

[3:34] remarks, disruptive outward protest and other conduct which interferes with the orderly

[3:40] conduct of the meeting. Upon completion of the public comment period, discussion is

[3:44] limited to the board members and questions raised by the board. Was the meeting properly

[3:52] advertised? Madam chair, this meeting was advertised and this can be of some press on July

[3:57] 30th and August 6th. Thank you. Did everybody have an opportunity to review the

[4:05] minutes for the meeting? Yes I did. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? So moved.

[4:13] Second. All in favor I next we have public speakers. Do we have anyone signed up to speak

[4:20] this morning? There are no speakers. Okay. The next item on the agenda is the budget

[4:29] review. Good morning. Right now for the opioid abatement funding, we have obligated

[4:46] $6,379,095.59. Of that. 829,000 was for the core emergency management team, which are two

[4:59] years out. So I'm not going to count that. So for this notice of funding availability period,

[5:09] we have $1,854,560.87 to allocate. And then once the end of the year for the fiscal year

[5:24] 2526 ends, any funding that any organization has remaining will just go back into the pool of

[5:29] funding. Perfect. Thank you. So we have a number eight on the agenda, the project amendment

[5:41] request for the YMCA to add bright House ministries, and we'll have them come up and

[5:46] talk about this. So there is no additional funding request for this. They're simply asking to

[5:52] add another partner to the program. Okay, great. Oh yes. Anything you want to add? No.

[6:00] Yeah, that's pretty much pretty much sums it up. Okay. Do we need to vote on that then as

[6:07] well? Okay. Do I have a motion? So moved and a second. Second. All in favor. Aye, aye. And the

[6:17] and motion passes report and wrap up for the 2425 funding availability awardees. Ministry.

[6:27] Village at Olive. Good morning. Drayton Smith with Ministry Village. We are well underway

[6:42] with getting all of our permits and moving forward. The tractors are on the ground to

[6:47] dig the holding pond and also do all the site work at this moment. That's good news. Got

[6:53] movement? That's great. All right. Are there any questions? Thank you. The next report that

[7:02] we have is from 2526 funding availability, awardees, EMS Corps. Do you have anything for

[7:09] us to. Our mobile van clinic slash I guess everything is already in production. We're

[7:25] expecting to take possession of it in November. We have already received our Zole Xenix monitor,

[7:32] which is for the internal inside of the truck that will be used for vital signs, EKGs,

[7:39] etc. everything else. We're still going strong. We're over 738 patients transitioned.

[7:46] We've also seen a significant decline in overdoses in Escambia County this year. To

[7:53] date, we're over 450 versus last year. We were at, I think, 1700. So we this community and

[8:02] the work that everybody's doing has definitely made a dent. That is incredible. That's

[8:07] great. Great news. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Bright bridge, do they have any

[8:17] updates? Health and hope. Hope above fear. Oh, sorry. Health and hope. Didn't give you time,

[8:28] did I? Good morning, good morning, good morning. So we are currently doing well. One

[8:36] of the things that I'd like to point out to this group, we've had a 27% increase in our life

[8:42] recovery support group. Those classes are held every Tuesday, and we have 57% increase in

[8:49] patient attendance. That group is open to not only our clinic patients, but also open to the

[8:55] community as well. We currently also have a great partnership going with both Reap and the

[9:01] CARES House for their participation in our reclaiming Hope support Group. Our mobile

[9:06] outreach team is going strong with our Narcan distribution, as well as our outreach events

[9:11] and our screenings. And we're continuing. We did participate in Hope day to both sites, and

[9:17] that was a great opportunity with our community. And then from a emergency room

[9:25] perspective, we're continuing to follow up on all of our patients that are seen in the

[9:28] emergency room. We have three of our behavioral health team members that have completed

[9:33] their substance peer certification training, and we currently have our mental

[9:38] health director that is in the process of getting eMDR training completed as well. And

[9:44] then we completed our internal family systems training and continuing to offer our CPR,

[9:50] BLS, as well as our hands off, hands off CPR with our community members and our

[9:57] patients and our health and wellness classes. We also have added about 23 classes

[10:03] conducted last month and then offering with our translation for our Spanish community,

[10:08] being able to participate in the health and wellness activities as well. And last

[10:12] month we conducted or distributed 180 boxes of Narcan and provided education. Along

[10:19] with that, in addition to 97 of our behavioral health and social determinants of health

[10:24] screenings and 167 counseling appointments. So we are doing very well and super excited.

[10:30] And thank you. You're doing a lot. And congratulations on the peer certification. That's a

[10:35] big thank you as well. Thank you, thank you. Anyone have any questions? Okay. Hope above

[10:42] fear. Good morning. Good morning. Let's see. So I think. Did your questions. No I'm

[10:58] going to do just like what was just done and just explain everything to you. Right? Yeah.

[11:02] So I think right now our biggest program over the summer was our teacher story. And so

[11:09] to date in 2026, so far, we've hosted 18 experiences. We've had 200 teens register of that,

[11:18] 236 attended more than or between 2 and 16 times. So we had a significant increase in

[11:25] our repeat students. And then 46 new registrations came through. And so we over the

[11:35] over the summer, we hosted one every single week. And now that school is back in, we'll go

[11:39] back to twice a month. And our diversion program has launched its new branding. So our the

[11:48] new name is reset and that our first class begins in two weeks, and then we will be having new

[11:58] orientations every. I think it's I think it's scheduled out for every two weeks. That is in

[12:04] partnership with all of the high schools in Escambia County. And then we have began the

[12:10] discussion on having students referred to us also through justice involved students

[12:17] referred to as from JPS as well. So. That's good. Thank you. Do you have any questions? Next we

[12:26] have Ministry Village. Oh I'm sorry, do you have anything else you need to add? We're

[12:36] almost at full capacity so we do need this new building quick, great offensive. Good morning.

[12:53] Brad Bishop with offensive. So July July held a lot of of of new things that we're really

[13:03] excited about right here. These are the first legal xylazine test strips being distributed

[13:11] in our community. A little over a month ago, these were illegal. And I wrote a bill that was

[13:19] sponsored by Rep Salzman and Senator Gates and signed into law July 1st that

[13:26] decriminalized these. So now we can detect this in our supply before it shows up in the

[13:31] medical examiner's report. So if anybody would like any. We've got plenty. So we'll

[13:40] start off with that. Last week we had our big O Street forum. We had quite a bit of our

[13:47] community partners here participate Escambia County Court. We had a speaker, Wendy

[13:53] Shine, from Cor Shoe. She spoke as well as she was on our panel, Denise with Ccdc. She was there,

[14:01] made the comment, Denise is the only data center I would vote for in Escambia County. So

[14:08] thank you all for participating. Unmasked our Resocialization program. So we just completed

[14:16] eight weeks. We're handing out certificates today. This is to overcome the barrier of

[14:23] communication and relationships. So once we've got mental health stabilized, once we've got

[14:29] substance use stabilized, there's still a barrier of communication and navigating

[14:34] society as we do on a regular basis. So that's focused on teaching offense mechanisms and

[14:42] managing defense mechanisms. So we've reached eight weeks on that, and we're about to start

[14:48] it again. On this second round, we're going to be doing two versions. One is going to be at

[14:55] camp and one's going to be open to the public. Also last week this was a big deal to me. I

[15:06] met with Sergeant Burkhart at the sheriff's department. He's the lead for the Co-responders

[15:13] unit. After a long talk, he he he agreed to bring us in and give us a two hour block at

[15:21] their crisis intervention training. So originally it started out as 30 minutes. But

[15:27] as I got to tell them about it, he's like, well, I'll give you two hours. This is something

[15:32] that was funded by the opioid abatement funds. And so now not only did we get it started, but

[15:39] now we're now we're becoming a regular part of the crisis intervention training with

[15:45] hopes to get into the academy. And to explain what Xylazine is so they'll understand the

[15:59] importance of the. Okay. So. Xylazine. Xylazine, we're actually a little bit behind

[16:08] the curve now because now there's Medetomidine as well. But what we're talking about is

[16:13] veterinarian tranquilizers, sedatives that are being added to fentanyl to make fentanyl

[16:20] last longer, like it's heroin, but it's really two different things. Fentanyl is fast acting.

[16:29] It's in and out. So adding these tranquilizers extends the half life. And they're kind of

[16:38] not really, but it just makes it last a little bit longer to what they know. Right. But it

[16:43] comes with a whole lot of other side effects. Xylazine has these skin wounds that they

[16:50] take years to heal. But, you know, if they're not treated, you know, it looks like an

[16:55] alligator took a bite out of somebody's limb, right? So that's in it. Medetomidine.

[17:04] It's a, it's another version of it. It doesn't come with all the wounds and everything, but

[17:10] it's still a veterinary tranquilizer. These things are being added to the fentanyl

[17:14] here in America. It's not something that's coming across the border. It's black market

[17:19] veterinary deals that that's taking place that that is getting this into our our

[17:24] community. And it's showing up in the medical examiner's report. Xylazine at a high rate

[17:31] and Medetomidine also. But up until now, we couldn't test for it out in the streets like we

[17:37] do with the fentanyl test strips. And we're able to identify fentanyl and all this

[17:41] other stuff. The Xylazine test strips now allow us to detect the xylazine that's in the

[17:46] system. Next will be Medetomidine. One thing to note about these two things that are

[17:52] being added is they do not reverse with naloxone, and currently there is not a

[17:58] reversal agent for humans for this. For these two things there is for animals so far. So

[18:06] I don't know, hopefully coming soon. But so yeah, that's a little background on those

[18:10] things. Thank you so much. Anybody have any questions? Thank you, thank you thank you.

[18:20] Next we have three. Good morning. Vinnie Whibbs, Executive director, Reentry

[18:30] Alliance, Pensacola, reporting on our particular program. Some some good news. We have both a

[18:38] men's and a women's house. Each of them now only have one space available for them. We've

[18:48] quickly learned that the benefit of peer support specialist. And so now we have

[18:52] one completely certified peer support specialist and another one that is in the process of

[18:57] getting that certification, which will be expected within the next 30 days, kind of a

[19:01] deal. We also actually had our first graduate come through the house, had been in our program

[19:09] for about three months, complied with all the, you know, the restrictions, requirements,

[19:14] the training and stuff like that secured a permanent position and job working full

[19:21] time. We have actually followed up a couple of times since they left our program. So so we're

[19:28] very excited. Keep moving forward. No particular problems that we're aware of. Basically

[19:32] our budget right now, we've we've expended about 25%. We would anticipate some some of

[19:41] the, some of the items that we had listed in the in the budget. Medically assisted treatment,

[19:46] some some funding for that and some funding for computer printer kind of a deal. We

[19:54] probably do not anticipate using that. We don't know whether or not the process for

[20:00] transferring the funds that were allocated for that. If we could use that, we're certainly

[20:04] going to be short on funding for our housing. Both the utility costs have gone up and

[20:09] the residential costs, so we would probably submit a request for transfer those funds. But

[20:16] nothing, nothing important. Thank you. Questions? No. Congratulations on The graduate.

[20:22] Thank you. We're we're excited about the program. We're working well. Lakeview AIM.

[20:34] Quite a weekend of gardening. Patty Hyde for Lakeview Adolescents in Motion. We are

[20:43] fully staffed now. It's taken us a little while to get there. Our groups, we're holding them

[20:48] every week. The attendance is anywhere from 6 to 9 people, adolescents. And so we're

[20:56] hoping now that we're fully funded to go up to at least 15 per week. And we're that's

[21:06] about it. We're in the middle of reapplication for our salaried people. Great

[21:14] questions. No thank you, thank you. And the YMCA. As of right now, we put the program on hold

[21:36] because we wanted an increase to core patients and non core patients. I think now that we

[21:43] have it approved, we can definitely get started with Bright Bridge and attending it

[21:48] there and Northwest Florida as well. Thank you. Next we have the 2627 opioid Abatement

[22:04] Notice of funding availability update. So as of right now, the it has been advertised, the

[22:12] application has been released. We had our pre-application meeting on July 9th in which we

[22:20] had eight nonprofits participate. So we're seeing an increase every single year with

[22:25] who, who shows up to these meetings, which is very, very, very promising. The application

[22:30] due dates are September 11th, and then we will go through the evaluation performance

[22:39] committee process, and it should be brought back to you guys on the gosh, the next

[22:44] meeting, October 12th, October 12th. So we will bring forth the applicants that we've

[22:50] received for this funding year, for you guys to have a chance to review it, talk to them, ask

[22:55] questions, and then hopefully get another round of funding out the door. Great. Thank you.

[23:02] Is there any new business? All right. Our next meeting is scheduled for October the 12th

[23:11] at 10:00. The meeting is adjourned.

Opioid Abatement Funding Advisory Board

Agenda

Transcript