$35.2 Million in New Grant Awards

The Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority (OAA) has approved recommendations for over $35.2 million in opioid settlement fund investments to support impactful, evidence-based programs and services addressing opioid use disorder and substance use across the Commonwealth.

The awards, approved by the OAA Grants Committee on June 15, 2026, include funding for 150 projects to cities and counties working individual and in regional partnerships with community organizations throughout Virginia. The investments will support a broad range of initiatives focused on prevention, treatment, recovery support, harm reduction, workforce development, criminal justice diversion and services for individuals and families impacted by substance use disorder.

“Behind every one of these awards is a community that refused to accept the status quo,” said Senator Todd Pillion, Chair of the OAA Board of Directors. “Virginia continues to lead the nation with its opioid settlement fund investments which are doing exactly what they were intended to do — reach people where they are, expand access to the treatment and recovery they need, and give local leaders the resources to solve problems they know better than anyone.”

Full details of the various new and renewed projects awarded are available here.

Award highlights by the numbers include:

• 157 applications submitted for Fiscal Year 2027 awards
• 150 projects awarded
• 64 Individual Distribution projects, including 13 new projects and 51 renewals
• 79 Cooperative Partnership projects, including 21 new projects and 58 renewals
• 7 Operation STOP! (Specifically Targeted Overdose Prevention) projects, all renewals supporting cities and counties with fatal overdoses disproportionately affecting Black residents. Cities and counties partner with community-based organizations serving this population to implement immediate, short-term programing to reduce overdoses and deaths while also developing long-term solutions.
• Over $35.2 million in new funding for Fiscal Year 2027, representing the largest amount awarded by OAA to date

Combining previous award totals with this announcement, the OAA has awarded over $150 million in awards to cities, counties and state agencies to date since its inception in 2021.

Among the notable projects recommended for funding during this performance period are regional recovery ecosystems, medication-assisted treatment programs, recovery courts, mobile treatment and outreach services, recovery housing, peer recovery support initiatives, youth prevention and treatment programs, naloxone distribution efforts, and workforce development initiatives designed to help individuals in recovery achieve long-term stability and employment.

Examples of investments include:

• Multiple projects that specifically support pregnant and parenting women
• A regional residential treatment program for adolescents in Northern Virginia (first one established in the Commonwealth)
• Multiple mobile unit programs providing medications for opioid/substance use disorders, therapy, outreach and harm reduction
• Three regional recovery high schools (Chesapeake, Chesterfield and Waynesboro)
• Multiple recovery court initiatives (behavioral health, treatment and veterans dockets)
• New workforce development and recovery-to-work programs supporting individuals in recovery
• A regional stigma reduction campaign
• Multiple jail-based (local and regional) treatment, recovery, re-entry programs

Funding for the OAA grants and awards is a result of Virginia’s participation in numerous national settlements from manufacturers, distributors, retailers and other organizations in the sphere of prescription opioids. The payments, which began in 2022, from the various settling companies are expected to exceed $1.1 billion in total funding and conclude by 2041.

The OAA was established by the General Assembly in 2021 to oversee the distribution of 55% of Virginia’s total settlement funds. Of the remainder, 30% is distributed directly to cities and counties, and the remaining 15% to the Commonwealth. The use of funds is restricted by court orders and state statute, with the restrictions requiring that funds be used for opioid abatement and remediation efforts.