LISTEN Community Services Receives $150,000 Grant

LISTEN Community Services will launch New Hampshire’s first Situation Table and expand community-based support for people affected by opioid use disorder after receiving a $150,000 Opioid Abatement Community Grant.

The award provides $75,000 annually over two years through the Opioid Abatement Community Grants Program, administered by Granite United Way in partnership with the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation on behalf of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services and the Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission.

This year, the organization served 9,050 neighbors across New Hampshire and Vermont, as rising costs left more people facing hardship. More than 2,600 people turned to LISTEN for the first time for help. Across its food, housing, financial assistance, and service coordination programs, the organization continues to see that opioid use disorder is often accompanied by other challenges that make recovery and long-term stability more difficult.

“This grant gives us the opportunity to strengthen how our community responds to opioid use disorder and the interconnected challenges that often accompany it,” said Kristi Lenart-Rikert, executive director of LISTEN Community Services. “By expanding community-based support and helping people access services earlier, we can build a more coordinated system that improves outcomes for individuals, families, and the Upper Valley as a whole.”

The grant builds on several years of expanded harm reduction and outreach efforts at LISTEN, including the organization’s Community Health Worker and growing partnerships with healthcare providers, municipalities, and nonprofit organizations throughout the Upper Valley.

This year, LISTEN expanded its community-based outreach by adding a Community Case Manager. Over the next two years, the organization will launch New Hampshire’s first Situation Table to coordinate responses among community partners, provide specialized training for its Service Coordination team, and explore installation of a publicly accessible harm reduction vending machine in Lebanon to expand access to free health and safety supplies.

The Situation Table will become a cornerstone of this collaborative effort, providing a structured process for healthcare providers, law enforcement, schools, municipalities, and community organizations to identify and respond to individuals and families facing urgent, interconnected challenges before situations escalate into crisis. The evidence-informed model has been successfully implemented in communities across Canada and several U.S. states and will make its New Hampshire debut through LISTEN’s initiative.