Denver’s health department announced on Tuesday more than a dozen newly-funded projects designed to address the opioid crisis across the region.

The Denver Opioid Abatement Council received more than 30 applications for round one funding and awarded $4.8 million to 12 organizations for 15 contracts.

“Denver took an innovative approach to the distribution of Opioid Abatement Funds by putting them in the hands of organizations in our community working directly with people impacted by the opioid epidemic,” Mayor Mike Johnston said in a press release. “These projects will reduce overdoses, increase accessibility to care, and will ultimately save lives.”

Among the awarded contracts:

• The Naloxone Project received $493,714 to develop a pilot program to train more than 3,000 emergency medical, police and pre-hospital personnel to assess overdose risks and distribute 5,000 doses of naloxone in “leave behind” kits.

• Denver Health and Hospital Authority received $145,256 to create network of youth in Denver to prevent overdose and other opioid-associated harms among their peers while promoting a model for engaging young people with lived experiences.

• Advocates for Recovery received $338,709 to expand its services for racial minorities in Denver impacted by opioid misuse and overdose with the aim of reducing access disparities.

Denver Public Schools also received a $292,753 award for Substance Use Prevention Float staff who will be dispatched, as needed, to schools to support students in the beginning stages of substance misuse.

Scott Pribble, a Denver Public Schools spokesperson, said the positions the award is helping to fund will allow the district to reach about 350 students a year.

“The first round of projects using Opioid Abatement Funding exemplify the important work happening in our community to address the opioid crisis,” Bob McDonald, interim executive director for the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment, said in a statement.

“We are proud of the creative strategies selected, which are vital to addressing opioid use in Denver,” McDonald added. 

Denver has received $7.1 million in settlement funds since October 2022.

The state is expected to receive more than $750 million from national opioid settlements, according to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.

Under the distribution framework, 60% of settlement allocation go directly to the state’s 19 opioid regional councils, which includes Denver.

Opioids have killed more than 8,500 Coloradans over the past two decades.

In 2022 alone, Colorado had roughly 1,160 opioid-related overdose deaths, according to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.