1.01Introduction and Program Description
The Department of Health, Division of Public Health, is requesting proposals from eligible applicants to provide Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP) services for the State of Alaska in FY2026 through September 30, 2027 (FY28). Program Services are authorized under 7 AAC 78 Grant Programs. These services are funded and supported through the federal BJA Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Site-Based Program, and thus are subject to the associated federal requirements in addition to State of Alaska requirements (Assistance Listing Number: 16.838 Grants.gov Opportunity Number: O-BJA-2024-172128). State of Alaska statutes and regulations are accessible at the Department of Law Document Library or through the contact person identified on the cover page of this Request for Proposals (RFP).
The State of Alaska has secured a total of $1,732,388 in Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, Substance Use funding. The Division of Public Health (DPH) will use the funds to establish Alaska’s COSSUP Grant Program and expects to award one (1) grantee per each of the following seven (7) Tribal Health Regions: Anchorage/Mat-Su, Arctic Slope, Bristol Bay, Copper River/Prince William Sound, Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak Area, and Northwest Arctic. The total funding available for each Tribal Health Region is $247,484. These monies aim to reduce the relational impact between the use of illicit opioids, stimulants and other substances (including alcohol) with the carceral system. Please note, this funding is not allowed to backfill existing efforts or fund efforts that can be supported by other means. Funding may support pilot initiatives and/or complement existing efforts.
The cornerstone of COSSUP is its emphasis on partnership and collaboration across the sectors including but not limited to public health, behavioral health, and public safety. Effective community responses leverage the combined expertise of multiple disciplines and rely upon unified and coordinated strategies. COSSUP funding is designed to be flexible, allowing each community to address its unique needs and respond to emerging threats that may be local or regional in nature.
1.02Program Goals and Anticipated Outcomes
The primary goal of the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program is to develop, implement, and/or expand comprehensive and collaborative efforts across the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) that specifically address the relationships between opioids, stimulants, and other substances (including alcohol) with the carceral system. These efforts will initiate and/or further develop collaborations across multiple sectors including but not limited to public health, behavioral health, and public safety to identify opportunities for intervention and diversion from incarceration. Selected grantees will implement activities specifically aimed at supporting Alaskans disproportionately impacted by the relationships between substance use and the legal system, including Alaska Native/American Indian communities, people with disabilities, criminal justice-involved, homeless and unstably housed people.
Anticipated outcomes will reduce and improve interactions between individuals, families and communities harmed by substance use and criminal justice systems. These activities will safely divert people with substance use disorders, behavioral health needs and disabilities into cost-efficient and effective community-based programs and services that result in preventing and reducing interactions with the carceral system.
This includes but is not limited to, reducing the number of overdose deaths and lessening the impacts on families and communities by supporting comprehensive and collaborative initiatives, including participating in and as appropriate, implementing future recommendations produced by the Overdose Fatality Review.
Projects must meet or exceed the anticipated minimum outcomes described in this RFP.
1.03Program Services/Activities
Grantees selected will provide services/activities that meet a minimum of one of the following objectives:
1. Linkage to care:
Actively connect individuals with SUD pretrial through post incarceration to culturally appropriate treatment services and supports system: bridge the gap between identification of a SUD and engagement in treatment; involving more than just providing information about treatment options; and actively encouraging individuals to seek help and communities to develop support structures and strategies that provide diversion to the carceral system and improve conditions for re-entry to the community.
Examples include but are not limited to:
- Expanding opportunities for participating in diversionary and alternative to incarceration programs (subsidizing program fees) that aim to minimize contact with the criminal legal system and shift those involved away from arrest, prosecution, and incarceration.
- Screening individuals for SUD upon prison entry to provide necessary treatment and connecting them to care prior to release. Facilitating “warm hand offs” with access and direct introductions to evidence-based therapies, medication-assisted treatment (MAT), Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT), contingency management, motivational interviewing and recovery supports.
- Engage peer support/recovery specialists to provide mentorship, planning, and motivation before and after release.
- Provide access to information in accessible ways to ensure understanding.
- Provide access to traditional remedies for MAT and other comorbidities alongside conventional treatments
- Engage family members in decision-making whenever possible to respect cultural values
- Establish partnerships between correctional facilities and community providers to ensure uninterrupted access to MAT, therapy, and recovery services post-release.
- Use telehealth and mobile health services to expand virtual and mobile clinics for those in rural or underserved areas.
2. Housing
Safe and stable housing plays a crucial role in preventing engagement with the justice system. It helps people avoid contact with the legal system, stops the cycle of trauma associated with displacement and instability, and fosters safety for individuals, families, and communities. Ensure access to housing to reduce the chance of arrest or jail, violence, and helps individuals successfully re-enter their communities post release.
Examples include but not limited to:
- Provide access to non-judgmental homes including sober spaces and/or harm reduction practices.
- Pilot innovative housing options i.e. designed by formerly incarcerated persons.
- Provide emergency & short-term housing assistance: hotel vouchers, transitional shelters, or rental assistance for those at risk of homelessness upon release.
- Offer secular, inclusive housing options and recovery support services, including access to physical and behavioral health care benefits, counseling services, employment services, education services, transportation vouchers and peer support services for those re-entering the community from jails or secure residential treatment facilities.
- Develop community-based plans that offer constructive solutions to homelessness to replace criminalization that takes away resources and put financial and criminal record barriers in the way for many unhoused persons and disproportionately affects Black, Alaska Native/American Indian, and other people of color, and persons with disabilities (including SUD).
3. Community Connections
Misuse of opioids, stimulants and other substances often lead to isolation and other health issues preventing connections to community resources. Engage with local social, organizational, environmental and other resources to positively impact the health of individuals, families and communities and prevent additional engagement with the carceral system.
Examples include but not limited to:
- Provide supportive pretrial services offering individuals alternatives to bail. Services implemented by trained case managers ensuring returning to court and focusing on strengths-based counseling and addressing underlying circumstances, like needs for food, housing, treatment, and employment
- Pilot pre-arrest diversion programs, also known as Police Deflection, the practice of law enforcement connecting individuals to substance use disorder and/or mental health treatment as an alternative to arrest.
- Support strategies for independence: assist with ID restoration, access to electronic communication, mailboxes to receive communication strategies and legal advice
- Enhance pre-release services: develop plans for post release including clothing and family connections
- Engage Navigators to connect reentrants to Medicaid enrollment, probation compliance, and child reunification efforts.
- Link individuals to job readiness programs, apprenticeships, and employment opportunities that accommodate those in recovery.
- Connect individuals to workforce development programs, apprenticeships, and trade schools to enhance employment opportunities.
- Partner with employers willing to hire justice-involved individuals and provide job coaching.
- Offer GED preparation courses, college enrollment, behavioral health & counseling Services.
- Develop & support social & physical environmental accommodations for individuals impacted by prenatal alcohol exposure and other disabilities who are greatly impacted by the carceral system.
- Offer family & community Reintegration Services: family counseling, parenting classes, and reunification programs to rebuild relationships.
- Promote entrepreneurship among formerly incarcerated people, offer micro small business loans.
Applicants will upload a timeline for the initiation of services and project activities.
EXPECTED PROJECT DATES: NOVEMBER 1, 2025-SEPTEMBER 30,2027
Applicant proposals must describe the ways in which the project aligns with program intent. The submitted project proposal will identify agency resources available to the project; describe project activities; and clearly state the project’s anticipated goals, outputs, and outcomes.
This funding cannot be used to backfill existing efforts. Applicants should explain how their project will be sustainable past the end of the grant or how their grant activities will impact and inform program efforts after the grant ends.
Applicants agree to comply with the following additional program requirements and service standards. Grantees will be expected to:
- Participate in monthly statewide grantee collaboration calls
- Participate in annual grantee meetings (in person or online)
- Participate in the OFR when it overlaps in grantee catchment area
- Within the first six months, develop both a sustainability and an evaluation plan for state grant program coordinator approval
1.04Program Evaluation Requirements and Reporting
Results Based Budgeting Framework
Results based budgeting provides a framework in which allocated resources support, and are justified by, a set of outputs and expected results. Within this framework, actual performance and achieved outcomes are measured by objective performance measures.
Projects are required to align with program objectives expressing Department priorities and core services. Projects will use performance measures to evaluate progress toward meaningful outcomes, and to initiate data collection and reporting consistent with Department priorities.
The Department Priorities, Core Services, Objectives, and Performance Measures of Effectiveness and Efficiency for this program are:
Priority 1. Health and Wellness Across the Life Span
- 1.1.1. Protect and promote the health of Alaskans
- 1.1.2. Improve the health status of Alaskans
- 1.1.3. Decrease unintentional injuries
- 1.1.4. Decrease substance abuse and dependency
The applicant's proposed evaluation plan will incorporate the performance measures of effectiveness and efficiency identified above. Applicants can propose additional performance measures for evaluating the project’s progress in achieving results supportive of program goals and outcomes.
Grant Reporting
Required reporting will include:
- Cumulative Fiscal Reports recording overall grant and match expenditures by budget line; and
- Program Reports in the format prescribed by the program
1.05Target Population and Service Area
Applicants must clearly describe the population targeted by the project, including the area or communities that will be served. Proposals will be evaluated for compatibility with the program’s intended target population identified in this solicitation.
Target Population: The target population for the solicited services is Alaskans disproportionately impacted by substance use and the legal system, including Alaska Native/American Indian communities, people with disabilities, criminal justice-involved, homeless and unstably housed people.
Service Areas and Communities: The service areas and communities requested for the services are the following tribal health regions:
- Anchorage/Mat-Su
- Arctic Slope
- Bristol Bay
- Copper River/Prince William Sound
- Kenai Peninsula
- Kodiak Area
- Northwest Arctic
1.06Program Funding
The State of Alaska has secured a total of $1,732,288 in Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, Substance Use funding. The State expects to award one (1) grantee per the identified seven (7) Tribal Health Regions. The total funding available for each Tribal Health Region is $247,484 and will be distributed over the course of three State fiscal years:
- FY2026: 11/01/2025 through 06/30/2026
- FY2027: 07/01/2026 through 06/30/2027
- FY2028: 07/01/2027 through 09/30/2027
Available funding for FY2026 is $86,080 per Tribal Health Region for a total of $602,560. Applicants must submit a budget for the first state fiscal year not to exceed $86,080.
Proposed Budget: The applicant must submit a budget proposal for the first fiscal year of the project. The proposed budget detail and narrative will support the program's results-based service delivery and staffing requirements stated in this RFP.
No more than 30 percent of total grant funds may be used for housing and no grant funds may be used for construction costs.
The proposed budget will be fully compliant with the limitations described in this RFP, and those detailed in 7 AAC 78.160 (Costs). Regulations are provided under the GEMS Documents tab.
Resources specific to budgeting are also available under the GEMS Documents tab. The Department's Grant Budget Preparation Guidelines provide information and guidance about budget lines, cost detail groupings, and narrative requirements. Grantee User Manual Part I provides detailed instructions for entering a budget proposal in the chapter "Responding to a Solicitation."
Other Agency Funding: Prior to submitting a proposal, applicants are required to list all other agency funding received and applied for. This task must be completed by an Agency Power User in the Other Funding section of the Agency Administration tab. This is part of the pre-award risk assessment required under Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200.
Indirect Costs: If the proposed budget includes indirect costs, 7 AAC 78.160(p) requires a copy of the agency's current federally approved Indirect Cost Rate Agreement. The agreement is to be uploaded in the Agency Administration tab. Lapsed agreements can be used if uploaded with the negotiating federal agency's written approval to continue using the rate until a new agreement is negotiated. If an agency has never entered into a federally approved Indirect Cost Rate Agreement or no longer has a federally approved agreement in place, the recently updated Federal Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200 now allows that agency to budget the 15% De Minimis.
Payment for Services/Grant Income: If applicable to the services proposed in response to this solicitation, awarded grantees will have a Medicaid Provider Number or apply to obtain one, and will make reasonable effort to bill all eligible services to Medicaid and any other available sources of payment before seeking grant support for delivery of the proposed services. Department funds are the payer of last resort.
In the applicant’s proposed budget, anticipated receipts and expenditures for all grant income must be evident in the budget detail and narrative. Fiscal reports for awarded income generating projects will include the receipts and expenditure of all grant income.