Community Engagement

The Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention works with and supports community members throughout Colorado to help coordinate the state’s response to the misuse of medications such as opioids, stimulants, and sedatives. Local partners often include regional and local coalitions, county health departments, regional health districts, law enforcement, and public health and government entities, along with many others.

Our objective is twofold – to share best practices from across the state and to help elevate the voice of local communities with regard to needed resources. Through the collective voice of local community members throughout our 64 counties, we are able to help better inform state leaders and guide legislation to more significantly impact local challenges related to substance and opioid use disorder.

External Relations Strategists

Our External Relations team is a vital link to grassroots efforts and provides a wealth of knowledge and technical assistance to communities working on prescription drug abuse prevention. Our strategists can share knowledge and resources, help develop and implement programs, and ensure people in Colorado communities have connections with state and national leaders in addition to having access to the latest research and resources.

Our External Relations team is eager to support those working to address prescription drug abuse in their local communities. For more information or if you’d like to get more involved in our work, contact the External Relations Strategist for your part of the state.

Coalitions

We know every community is unique, and we are grateful to collaborate with many local and regional efforts across the state to address the prescription drug epidemic. Locals know best what is effective in their community and a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t the solution. While the map below identifies counties with existing coalitions, we know there is impactful work happening in all counties across the state, even if there’s not an established coalition.

Technical and Grant Writing Assistance

We know there’s a need for capacity building in local communities to help secure funding for prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery, and criminal justice/diversion programming. Through our grant writing assistance program, we help match your organization with established grant writers to support grant writing needs. This program is open to Colorado nonprofits, government entities, law enforcement, and public health entities working to address the prescription drug crisis and substance use on a local level. For more information about how the program works, please go to the program’s page.

Community Toolkits and Resources

Whether your coalition is just beginning or has been making headlines for months, we have many tools that can increase functionality in your coalition and help spread the word in your community. Check out the Community Reference tool kit and other resources.