Mecklenburg County’s Investment in Employment-Related Services
Mecklenburg County has committed $525,000 of its share of opioid settlement funds to employment-related services programs for people in treatment or recovery, as well as people engaged in substance use. The Principles Team and National Association of Counties spoke with Marcus Boyd and Tyler Green, who manage Mecklenburg County’s Opioid Settlement Program, to learn more about the County’s decision to invest in employment services, as well as the County’s overall processes related to their opioid settlement fund related work. The Q&A below is a condensation of this discussion.
Q: Can you share a little bit more about Mecklenburg County’s decision to select employment-related services as a distinct funding priority under the County’s Wave One Spending Plan (2023-2025)?
Marcus Boyd: Exhibit A of North Carolina’s opioid settlement Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the state and local governments outlines thirteen high-impact opioid abatement strategies local governments can fund. We felt we had a crisis on our hands with the opioid epidemic. The strategies outlined by the state in Exhibit A, which include employment-related services, really helped us streamline our funding priorities and create a crisis response that could serve as a starting point for our settlement-funded work. We also know employment is a key factor that supports stability for people in recovery.
Q: Can you share a little bit more about the specific employment-related services programs the County currently funds?
Marcus Boyd: The person who initially oversaw Mecklenburg County’s opioid settlement fund work was adamant about supporting a group of employment support programs that can fit the different needs of our community members. We were intentional about funding three programs that fill different roles:
- National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA) provides direct training. They have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) program, an auto mechanic program, and an HVAC-R installation and service program. The NCIA program targets individuals at the re-entry stage. The end outcome is more than just a job. Participants completing the program have an opportunity to go from training directly into a close to six-figure career.
- Charlotte Area Fund provides linkages to training opportunities and the types of wraparound supports that help people stay engaged in training.
- Hope Haven is unique in that they are a residential recovery-based program. The program’s residents have access to employment services as part of their stay there.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to share about the County’s overall process for making opioid settlement funding decisions?
Marcus Boyd: It is critical for us to have a transparent, community-driven process. We held listening sessions to gather input from the general public, including people with lived experience and service providers. We used input from these sessions to inform the Exhibit A strategies selected for our first funding period and held follow-up sessions where community members reviewed and scored proposals from the agencies under consideration for funding.
Tyler Green: We are supposed to hold community listening sessions annually, but we have held them on a more ongoing basis. We want to maintain an approach that is responsive to our community members’ evolving experiences and needs. Community members can also respond to our live survey at any time to provide feedback or recommendations regarding the County’s opioid settlement work.
Q: What are you most proud of or excited about with these investments in employment-related services?
Marcus Boyd: With all of our opioid abatement work, we strive to build complementary networks and systems across the entire continuum of care. We want to make it easy for individuals to access appropriate programs at each step of their recovery journey. I’m excited about how we are starting to build out this type of network with employment-related services. If someone has been getting recovery and employment-related services at Hope Haven and is at the point where they are ready to live more independently, there are other recovery and employment programs Hope Haven can connect them with to continue their progress.
Q: Mecklenburg County has a unique public-facing dashboard that includes performance metrics for employment-related services funded with opioid settlement money (as well as its other opioid settlement funded programs). What was the process for selecting these metrics and does the County utilize or plan to utilize any other approaches to monitor the impact of these programs?
Marcus Boyd: The metrics on the dashboard are custom measures we developed with each vendor as part of the initial contracting process. However, we found it was time consuming to align these custom measures with what the state requires local governments to submit for its annual opioid settlement impact survey. To address this, we developed common measures sets that we collect from each vendor funded under a specific strategy [e.g., employment-related services vendors, recovery housing support vendors, etc.] that are aligned with the state impact survey. We still allow programs to keep their custom measures though. We think this gives us the best of both worlds. The common set of measures across each employment-related service vendor gives insight into how this strategy works as a whole. The custom measures allow us to dig deeper and assess the unique factors of each program. Our dashboard is being rebuilt, so the public will be able to see both levels of measures.
Additionally, we are working with UNC Charlotte’s Criminal Justice team to conduct a formal evaluation of our settlement funded programs. This includes looking at program performance compared to national and state-level benchmarks, conducting a capacity needs assessment to identify opportunities to scale programs, and modeling program costs. Mecklenburg County is one of the fastest growing regions in the country. We want to make sure that our programs are effective, at scale, and have capacity to support the growing population.
Q: How does your work in Mecklenburg County align with the Principles for the Use of Funds from the Opioid Litigation?
Marcus Boyd: Job training can lead to retention in the workforce and reduce recidivism. People are more likely to stay in jobs when they feel confident about the work they do. Local evidence was also a critical factor in selecting the specific employment services vendors we funded (Principles 1 and 2). These organizations had strong track records with engagement and outcomes in our community. With Principle 3, there is an opportunity to consider investing in early employment training for youth and adolescents as forms of youth prevention. We want to engage youth at risk for substance use as early as possible and ensure they are connected to services that can promote healthy lives. The community engagement and evaluation processes described earlier demonstrate our commitment to transparency (Principle 5). Equitable access to care is also a key focus for us (Principle 4). While Charlotte is the County’s urban core, we have six additional municipalities. Anyone who wakes up in the morning ready to change should have equal access to these services—regardless of where they live.
Tyler Green: To Marcus’s point, our programs do a fantastic job of keeping a racial equity lens (Principle 4) and serving those within our high-risk populations and zip codes as identified by our epidemiology team. Building on what Marcus said about Principle 3, the early intervention programs currently funded primarily focus on ages 8 to 11. One priority with our next funding period is expanding these programs to include those younger than 8 and older than 11. I think the Principles will shine even brighter in our work as we complete our first formal evaluation. Aligning spending with program performance is a top priority. It’s one thing to put these programs out there, but are they performing successfully? Are they working? Are they meeting the needs of the people who need them most?
For more, see the following related resources: