Massachusetts Awards $1.25 Million in Matching Grants to 18 Communities for Opioid Crisis Response

The Healey-Driscoll Administration announced $1.25 million in matching grants to 18 municipalities and community-based organizations across Massachusetts, targeting areas disproportionately impacted by the overdose crisis. The awards represent the latest phase of the Mosaic Opioid Recovery Partnership, an initiative designed to help cities and towns expand prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery efforts in ways that reflect the specific needs of their communities.

The program, developed in 2024 through collaboration between the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Bureau of Substance Addiction Services and RIZE Massachusetts, addresses a persistent challenge in opioid settlement fund deployment: ensuring resources reach smaller community-based organizations and municipalities that often lack the administrative capacity to compete for larger grants.

"The Mosaic Municipal Matching Grant program emphasizes community, collaboration, and meeting individuals where they are," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kiame Mahaniah, MD. "By encouraging cities and towns to work together, pool resources, and prioritize the involvement of persons with lived and living experience, these grants are designed to support efforts and initiatives that are community-led and culturally responsive."

A Flexible Approach to Local Needs

Communities had multiple pathways to access funding. Municipalities could apply directly, partner with nonprofit organizations, or collaborate with neighboring towns to pool resources and funding. This flexibility acknowledges that the overdose crisis does not respect municipal boundaries, and effective responses often require regional coordination.

The one-year grants range from $5,000 to $150,000, supporting initiatives across seven focus areas: prevention, harm reduction, access to care, recovery services, trauma support, grief counseling, and family supports. Each receiving municipality must earmark matching funds from their previously distributed opioid settlement allocations, creating a multiplier effect that stretches state resources further while ensuring local investment in proposed initiatives.

RIZE Massachusetts, the nonprofit partner administering the grants, will provide technical assistance and learning opportunities tailored to each grantee's specific needs. This support aims to strengthen organizational capacity and develop sustainability beyond the grant period.

Two Tracks for Different Stages of Development

New to this funding round, the program introduced two distinct project tracks based on communities' current stage of opioid abatement spending. The first track supports municipalities in early planning stages, helping them design, implement, and evaluate abatement strategies responsive to local needs. The second track serves communities with established strategies, providing resources to start, expand, or continue existing efforts.

"This program continues to adapt to the needs of communities as well as to the needs of those municipalities and organizations that are engaged in abatement efforts," said Deirdre Calvert, Director of DPH's Bureau of Substance Addiction Services. "Our ability to meet individuals and communities where they are is strengthened by our efforts to provide tailored support to those who are developing and expanding programs and initiatives to serve those communities most impacted."

Building on Early Success

An initial round of one-year matching grants totaling nearly $1.5 million was awarded in 2025, establishing the program's framework and demonstrating demand for flexible, community-driven funding approaches. The current awards bring total Mosaic program investment to approximately $2.75 million, with one additional funding round planned for 2027.

Over the program's three-year lifespan, RIZE Massachusetts will award a total of $4 million in matching grants, creating a sustained funding stream that allows communities to build programs, demonstrate effectiveness, and establish sustainability plans.

"Mosaic's Municipal Matching Grant program demonstrates what is attainable when communities come together," said Julie Burns, President and CEO of RIZE Massachusetts Foundation. "By building partnerships locally and across city and town lines, the grantees are advancing new responses to the overdose crisis that reflect the realities on the ground. This is the promise of Mosaic in action: connecting strategies, places, and people to drive lasting change statewide."

Part of a Billion-Dollar Commitment

The Mosaic grants flow from Massachusetts' Opioid Recovery and Remediation Fund, established in 2020 to receive and administer funds from legal settlements with companies connected to the opioid crisis. Over the next 18 years, Massachusetts anticipates receiving approximately $1 billion through these settlements, with resources directed toward substance use prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery.

The $7.4 billion Purdue Pharma and Sackler family settlement that took effect May 1, 2026, will contribute up to $105 million to Massachusetts' opioid abatement efforts, ensuring continued funding for programs like Mosaic while supporting larger statewide initiatives.

Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein, MD, PhD, emphasized the broader significance of the community-level investments: "These grants offer a unique opportunity to build and support municipalities' capacity to address the overdose crisis through non-punitive, health-centered approaches. They also represent an ongoing commitment to investing in strategies to address the impacts of opioids that are data-informed, evidence-based, and that center the needs of the communities, families, and individuals who have been deeply impacted by this crisis."

A Model for Other States

Massachusetts' approach offers lessons for other states navigating opioid settlement fund deployment. By creating a matching grant structure that requires local investment, the program ensures community buy-in and shared responsibility. The technical assistance component addresses capacity gaps that often prevent smaller organizations from accessing funding. And the flexibility to support both planning and implementation phases acknowledges that communities enter this work from different starting points.

As overdose deaths have declined approximately 19% nationally since their August 2023 peak, programs like Mosaic represent the kind of sustained, community-centered investment that public health officials credit with the progress. Whether Massachusetts' model can be replicated elsewhere depends on each state's settlement structure, administrative capacity, and political commitment to directing funds toward evidence-based approaches rather than general budget priorities.

For the 18 communities receiving awards, the grants represent more than funding—they represent recognition that local knowledge, lived experience, and community trust are essential ingredients in addressing a crisis that has claimed more than 800,000 American lives.