COLUMBUS — The OneOhio Recovery Foundation held its annual meeting on May 8 and discussed the closing of the foundation’s first funding application cycle.
In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Chair Don Mason (region 12) opened the meeting by urging all board members to help reduce the stigma around mental health conditions. The May meeting also marked the first gathering of the board since the foundation’s 2024 regional grant cycle closed its application window earlier this month. OneOhio is set to award as much as $51 million this year to support evidence-based prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts across the state.
The OneOhio Recovery Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization charged with helping distribute Ohio’s opioid settlement funds to advance substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts.
The board received an update from the Grant Oversight Committee and OneOhio staff regarding the proposals submitted in the first funding application cycle.
Upon initial review, a total of 1,530 applications were submitted by 797 different organizations, and 48 percent of the proposals seek to serve multiple OneOhio Regions. Of the proposals submitted, 415 requested $100,000 or less. Numbers are subject to change following application database review and cleanup to remove duplicate or incomplete submissions.
OneOhio Vice Chair and Shelby County Commissioner Julie Ehemann said that 68 of the applications were from region 15 which encompasses Allen, Auglaize, Champaign, Darke, Logan, Mercer, Miami, Preble and Shelby counties. Region 15 will have $1,926,393 to allocate to organizations that applied this cycle.
“As time goes on, the settlement amounts will drastically decrease,” Ehemann said.
Ehemann explained how the process works within OneOhio before organizations are awarded funding.
“Each entity applied through a portal set up by the OneOhio Foundation,” Ehemann said. “The foundation will ensure each entity has the proper registrations with the state of Ohio before making them accessible to the regions. Each region determines how they will select ‘winners’ based on local priorities but using a score sheet developed by the foundation. The regions will submit their recommendations to the State Foundation where an expert panel will review to ensure they meet the guidelines of the OneOhio MOU (Memorandum of Understanding). Once approved by the panel, they are reviewed by the State Grants Committee and then go to the Foundation Board for final approval. The State Foundation will make disbursements directly to the entities for their approved projects.”
“At this time, we project to have a grants cycle once each year. Entities will need to apply again. Regions are free to give higher priority to entities that had worthy projects but did not receive funding in the first round if they so choose.”
