AHEI Grants Support
Communities Nationwide
Celebrating Impact: Stories from AHEI Grant Recipients
At AHEI, our Grants Committee and Board of Trustees are continually inspired by the meaningful, impactful programs
and projects submitted during our grant cycles. These initiatives reflect the dedication and creativity of individuals
and organizations working to improve health and education in communities across the nation.
We are honored to be a small part of the big Differences You Are Making.
This new section of our website is designed to be a resource—a space to highlight the successes, innovations,
and positive outcomes achieved through AHEI-supported grants. These stories not only showcase the power
of grassroots efforts but also serve as inspiration for others striving to make a difference in their hometowns.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to the contributors who generously shared their stories so others can learn,
grow, and build on their successes.
Making A Difference
Kent County Medical Society Alliance
Opioid Awareness Community Education Forum
Grand Rapids, Michigan
2017
The KCMS Alliance hosted a community educational forum targeting parents of middle and high school students. The education was focused on prevention efforts and speakers who discussed statistics on opioid users, who were impacted, how to identify behavioral cues in one’s children, where to find support, and how to properly dispose of prescribed narcotics. A drug take-back service was also made available.
KCMS Alliance holds parent forums,
launches social media campaign on the opioid epidemic
By Alexis Boyden, President, KCMS Alliance, 2017
The opioid epidemic has touched the hearts and minds of the people of every state, it knows not socioeconomics, race, age, or gender. Yet with all its devastation, it has also brought a more compassionate justice system and a better understanding of the disease of addiction.
With the AMA’s focus on the physician community’s role in the epidemic, it is a natural fit for the Alliance to take up prevention efforts. This is exactly what the Kent County Medical Society Alliance (Grand Rapids, Michigan) set out to do last year (2016) with its task force made up of nine dedicated members (Karen Begrow, Alexis Boyden, Eileen Brader, Jennifer Bruce, Elizabeth Junewick, Kathy Kendall, Debbie Shumaker, Barb Uhl, and Pam Vitaz).
Last May, the KCMSA held a health forum, “Opioid Awareness for Parents and Guardians,” in Grand Rapids, and is currently launching an online public education campaign using footage from the event.
The forum, which was a collaboration with the local chapter of Families Against Narcotics included panelists from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives - a parent who lost her son to overdose, a recovering addict, and an Overdose Prevention Manager at The Red Project Grand Rapids that works to put naloxone kits in the community, an addiction specialist, a forensic pathologist, a prosecutor, and a psychiatrist. The event was moderated by Dr. Jeanne Kapenga, Board President of Families Against Narcotics Grand Rapids Chapter.
Due in part to a grant from the AHEI, the KCMS Alliance was able to hire a videographer to film the forum and create videos of each speaker to help reach a larger audience via social media. Videos from the forum that are included in the online campaign are “Just a Regular Family,” “How Addiction Begins,” “Addiction is a Disease,” and “We Cannot Arrest Our Way Out of This,” “Naloxone Saves Lives,” and “The Science of Addiction.” The first was released on August 31 in recognition of International Overdose Awareness Day.
The event also included a drug takeback facilitated by the County Sheriff’s Dept. Eight pounds of prescription drugs were collected that night which is 16% of what is normally collected in the county for one month.
You can follow the KCMSA and its opioid awareness education campaign on Facebook (@kentcountymedicalsocietyalliance) and YouTube.
For counties looking for more information on the work the KCMSA is doing, email president@kcmsalliance.org, or visit our website at www.kcmsalliance.org.
From the GCMS Alliance website
CLUB SPANDEX - Sweat for a Cause
Updated: Jul 15, 2022
Runway Café Event Hangar
Members of the Greenville community came together to raise $20K in support of Jasmine Road, at this one-of-a-kind fundraising fitness and dance party, “Club Spandex - Sweat for a Cause.”
Jasmine Road’s mission has been to offer women who are trapped in a cycle of sexual exploitation and addiction; a path to freedom, a haven for healing, and the opportunity to flourish, leading to generational change and the betterment of our Greenville community.
The $20,000 donated from Club Spandex will be used to support the case management of survivors coming into Jasmine Road's two-year residential program with the expansion and opening of a second residential home. Jasmine Road provides case management for women survivors with an individualized care plan and free restoration services (mental/physical/dental healthcare, spiritual care, addiction recovery, continuing education opportunities, job training and employment, financial sustainability, and necessary life skills) providing a pathway for women to heal mind, body and spirit and reintegrate back into our community. JR’s holistic approach to programming, which relies on more than 50 community partners, combined with employment opportunities that teach residents transferable jobs and soft skills, significantly reduces the likelihood that women would return to life on the streets.
Greenville County Medical Society Alliance
Club Spandex
Greenville, South Carolina
2019
Club Spandex was an event supporting a new Alliance project, Jasmine Road, a local non-profit, residential treatment and rehabilitation facility for victims of sex trafficking, prostitution, addiction, and homelessness. The event began with an outdoor, dance-style fitness class in downtown Greenville, SC allowing for increased public awareness. Following the outdoor class, a ticketed reception followed in the adjacent Hyatt Regency Hotel. While a seemingly formal event, all guests instead were in “athletic attire” and enjoyed food, silent auctions, music, and a dance floor. Throughout the evening, speakers from Jasmine Road, including some of its first graduates, took the stage providing additional education about human trafficking and the issues surrounding it.
Jasmine Kitchen is part of the innovative Social Enterprise Program that supports the mission by providing jobs in a safe, nurturing, and supportive environment for the residents and graduates of the two-year residential program. Women may choose to work at the restaurant or be employed by making candles and jewelry to earn money, develop new skills, learn entrepreneurship, and build their resumes.
She also did additional research to discover what other states were doing to make naloxone more accessible and discovered a New York City initiative to stock bars and restaurants with overdose rescue kits. Now, the FWMS Alliance is working to create 300 similar kits for local businesses. In addition to naloxone, the kits will contain pamphlets explaining overdose symptoms, how to administer naloxone, and steps to follow until an ambulance arrives. The pamphlets will also have information about recovery resources in Fort Wayne and a QR code to scan for locations of naloxone boxes in Indiana.
Fort Wayne Medical Society Alliance
NARCAN Individual Pouches Community Harm Reduction
Fort Wayne, Indiana
2023
“NARCAN Individual Pouches Community Harm Reduction”, by The Fort Wayne Medical Society Alliance, in an effort to combat both fatal and non-fatal drug overdoses in Allen County, Indiana, partnered with the FW Police Department Narcotics Division to identify hot spots that needed Narcan boxes. The Alliance installs, monitors, and restocks 9 NARCAN boxes every week, which include 10-12 kits. The free kits contain a nasal Narcan dose, fentanyl testing strips, and information to get drug addiction help. The alliance installed the first and only NARCAN vending machine in their county.
Fort Wayne Medical Society Alliance project prevents overdose deaths
This past year, in an effort to combat both fatal and non-fatal drug overdoses in Allen County, the Alliance partnered with Capt. Kevin Hunter of the FWPD, Narcotics Division, to identify hot spots around Fort Wayne that needed Narcan boxes. Through grants obtained by Overdose Lifeline in Indianapolis, the Alliance ordered kits and refilled these boxes weekly. At that time, 9 boxes (10-12 kits per box) and one vending machine (350 kits) were around the city, they oversaw. The free kits contain a nasal Narcan dose, fentanyl testing strips, and information to get drug addiction help.
This year, (2024) 53 more had died and 48 other overdose deaths were pending confirmation, Fort Wayne Police Capt. Kevin Hunter told WANE-TV in late July.
“We all know about the opioid crisis,” said Tonya Hughes, FWMS Alliance President, married to ISMA member Randal Hughes, MD. “I thought the vending machines were such a unique idea that I wanted to get one here.”
The naloxone dispensers are an initiative of Gov. Eric Holcomb, funded by a 21st Century Cares Act grant administered by the state through Indianapolis-based Overdose Lifeline. By the time Hughes became president of the Fort Wayne group (which is part of the statewide ISMA Alliance), all available machines had been spoken for.
Hughes was undeterred. Through Overdose Lifeline’s executive director, Justin Phillips, she learned that naloxone boxes were available to be placed on building exteriors. The alliance had already installed four of the shoebox-sized containers in overdose “hot zones” identified with the help of Capt. Hunter, who oversaw the FWPD’s vice and narcotics bureau.
“My goal was to put in at least 30 of these Narcan boxes; the more we can get, the more lives we will save,” Hughes said.
The boxes were placed in high-traffic areas, including near food pantries and shelters.