NVRH Awarded Grant for $1.2 million

ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. (August 9, 2023) – Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital (NVRH) is excited to announce that it has been awarded the Prevention Lead Organization grant from the Vermont Department of Health, Division of Substance Use Programs, in the amount of $1.2 million dollars. The grant will be for a period of two years.

Thanks to this grant, NVRH will lead a regional effort to increase the prevention capacity of the St. Johnsbury, Newport and Morrisville Health Districts.

“We are really excited to work with Morrisville, given their history in the field of prevention,” NVRH CEO Shawn Tester said. “We are looking forward to continuing our collaboration with community partners and doing our part to build a community that thrives.”

NVRH is one of four Prevention Lead Organizations throughout the state of Vermont. Using the Strategic Prevention Framework and the Vermont Prevention Model as the foundation of their work, the hospital’s dedicated prevention professionals lead the region in its efforts to address substance misuse among all ages.

“We have enjoyed a strong partnership with Umbrella and, over the past three years, we’ve been expanding our work beyond the hospital service area to include the Newport Health District,” NVRH Substance Misuse Prevention Director Carolyn Towne said. “We look forward to adding Healthy Lamoille Valley and the Lamoille Valley Family Center as partners to form a Regional Coordination team to include the Morrisville Health District.”

The Morrisville Health District, Newport Health District and the St. Johnsbury Health District will be represented in a new Region 3 Advisory Committee. This committee will guide the regional work that will include decisions about competitive and noncompetitive subawards based on a needs assessment conducted within the first few months of the grant.

“These four strong prevention entities and a regional approach will allow us to build an expanded substance misuse prevention system in Vermont that honors and respects regional strengths and differences,” Vermont Department of Health’s Director of Prevention Services Traci Sawyers said. “This substance misuse prevention system includes all substances and age groups, and optimizes and enhances health and wellbeing in Vermont.”