DOL Grant to Assist Workers in Counties Hit by Opioids Crisis
The grant helps the New York State Department of Labor provide disaster relief jobs and employment services to eligible individuals in counties impacted by widespread opioid use, addiction, and overdoses. Funding has been approved up to $5,591,446, with an initial award of $1,863,815.
The U.S. Department of Labor has made an opioid-crisis Dislocated Worker Grant award available to the New York State Department of Labor to provide disaster relief jobs and employment services to eligible individuals in counties impacted by widespread opioid use, addiction, and overdoses. Funding has been approved up to $5,591,446, with an initial award of $1,863,815.
The grant will assist in providing eligible participants with disaster relief employment in jobs addressing the impacts of the opioid crisis, including positions such as peer supports, peer recovery navigators, and intake/coordinator aides. It will also provide employment services to participants seeking careers in health care professions related to addiction, treatment, prevention, and pain management. The state anticipates serving participants in 22 counties affected by the opioid crisis: Clinton, Columbia, Dutchess, Essex, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Herkimer, Madison, Monroe, Nassau (the City of Long Beach and the Town of Hempstead), Oneida, Ontario, Onondaga, Orange, Putnam, Seneca, Suffolk, Sullivan, Wayne, Westchester, and Yates.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency in October 2017, which enabled New York to request this funding.