NYU Langone Health’s Sunset Park Health Council received a $600,000 grant this month to expand anti-overdose educational programs in Brooklyn.
The Blue Shield Foundation and Anthem Blue Cross awarded the grant to fund NYU Langone’s Prevention Education Partnership, a program in which health care providers come to schools and teach tactics in preventing and responding to substance abuse. Over the next three years, the fund will help sustain the program, which has partnered with over 400 public schools in the city and trained more than 500 people to become PEP instructors since 2015.
“All of us at the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone are thrilled to receive this grant and expand the overdose prevention efforts to make a greater impact for the youth in the Sunset Park community,” said Diana Lee, assistant medical director at the Family Health Centers’ Addiction Medicine Program, in a press release. “This funding allows us to address the critical need for opioid education and overdose preparedness in schools and prioritize the safety of our nation’s youth in moments of crisis.”
NYU Langone will use the money to expand schools’ substance abuse education programs, training for health care staff, and emergency response plans that address opioid, fentanyl and drug use crises.
The grant comes amid a national opioid crisis, with opioid-related deaths in New York City having increased by 44% from 2020 to 2022. Young adult drug prevention programs have been proven widely effective in reducing drug abuse.
The Sunset Park location is one of several of Langone’s Family Health Centers, which administer health care for a discounted rate to individuals with little or no access to adequate health insurance. Last December, New York State Senator Iwen Chu allotted NYU Langone’s Sunset Park Family Health Center a $50,000 grant to provide “farmer-produced goods” to food insecure communities in Brooklyn.
Contact Addison Alvarado at [email protected]