We came from different places but obviously had the same ideas.”

ORAC Chair Dr. Seema Maddali

For more information on ORAC and Dakota County’s opioid crisis response, visit https://www.co.dakota.mn.us/Government/CAC/Opioid

Dakota County’s Opioid Response Action Committee (ORAC) met on Tuesday, Jan. 7 for the first meeting of the year in order to continue working to create a strategic action plan for the next two years.
ORAC was created using funds from opioid settlement funds in order to bring together community members, medical professionals, city and county officials, and first responders to provide recommendations to the County Board of Commissioners on the use of opioid settlement funds on “external projects and initiatives,” according to ORAC’s website.
At the January meeting, Dakota County Communications Coordinator Matt Giljahn and Communities for a lifetime Initiative Supervisor Jess Luce continued administering the Top Facilitation Method as the group worked to create its strategic plan.
Written ideas for committee actions that were submitted by members at the December meeting were brought out in tranches and taped to the wall at the front of the room. The ideas were then grouped into overarching categories for the committee ranging from Naloxone Distribution, Prevention in Schools, and Media/Messaging. As more batches of ideas came out, new categories were created and existing categories shifted to better encompass each idea.
“What we’ve done is take all your ideas that you’ve liked the most and placed them into categories,” said Giljahn, after each idea was grouped beneath a header.
Some categories were obvious: adolescent treatment and services stands out with action items easily placed within it. Others, like reducing the stigma of opioid use or providing safe third spaces for those in recovery were more ambiguous as to how to move forward with them and what fell into it.
The group ended with nearly a dozen categories to encompass its ideas, many of which were duplicates or overlapping.
“We came from different places but obviously had the same ideas,” said ORAC Chair Dr. Seema Maddali.
The next steps are to condense and properly name these categories in order to better select goals that the committee can work towards. This work is planned for the group’s February meeting. According to Giljahn, the goal would be to find 3-4 final categories that would form the basis for the committee’s strategic plan. That condensation would involve picking and choosing which goals on which to focus, and in part, trimming ideas that either are beyond the scope of the committee or would be difficult to act upon.
“At the end of the day, we have to do this work, so what do we want to commit to doing,” said Dakota County Director of Public Health Coral Ripplinger.
When it came to trimming down on categories and thereby focusing on what the committee will be spending its time on over the next two years, the group turned to its bylaws and purpose statement. According to ORAC’s bylaws, its purpose is four-fold:
• Provide information to the public on the impacts of opioids in Dakota County
• Develop and recommend bi-annual work plans for the Advisory Committee to the County Board
• Support the development of a comprehensive and effective countywide response to the opioid crisis
• Provide recommendations to the County Board on the use of Opioid Settlement Funds for community designated projects and initiatives in accordance with the Amended Minnesota Opioids State-Subdivision Memorandum Of Agreement.
Informing these goals are the Johns Hopkins Principles for the Use of Funds from the Opioid Litigation, a set of five rules from Johns Hopkins that dictates how states and organizations within them should spend funds from opioid settlements. More than half of all states, including Minnesota in 2021, have adopted these principles. They are:
1. Spend money to save lives
2. Use evidence to guide spending
3. Invest in youth prevention
4. Focus on racial equity
5. Develop a fair and transparent process for deciding where to spend the money
These two sets of goals provide context for the goals ORAC chooses and how it goes about achieving them. As to what exactly they will be, that remains to be chosen at later meetings.
Despite this planning, ORAC funds are already making their way into the Dakota County community. On Tuesday, Jan. 14, the County Board of Commissioners will vote on ORAC’s recommendation to spend $390,000 for five proposals: Lionheart Wellness & Recovery, Gateway Recovery Center, Wayside Recovery Center, Thrive! Family Recovery Services and MN Recovery Connection. This will occur after The Journal’s press time.
For more information on ORAC and Dakota County’s opioid crisis response, visit https://www.co.dakota.mn.us/Government/CAC/Opioid