Summit County officials are considering using $45 million of the county's opioid litigation settlement to establish a new endowment fund for health and safety projects.
The investment, called the Summit Health and Safety Innovation Fund, would support innovative approaches to health and safety, County Executive Ilene Shapiro said at a Summit County Council committee meeting Monday.
“What we really want to do is have that money in perpetuity, to throw off annually, so that it can continue to make a difference in public health and safety in our community,” Shapiro said. “It's gonna help folks that we don't even know we're helping now, in future years, looking at innovative ideas and being able to help craft the future. None of us know what that's going to be like 10, 15, 30 years from now."
Shapiro discussed the proposal in the committee meeting Monday afternoon alongside officials from the Akron Community Foundation, a public charity non-profit. The endowment would be classified as a supporting organization of the Akron Community Foundation but operate separately with its own board, Shapiro said.
“In my mind, this is a community legacy that we are all a part of creating. [It is] taking this money and putting it into a structure,” Shapiro said. “Now, this comes out of the county's hands, and it goes into an organization that is a supporting organization at the Akron Community Foundation.”
In 2019, Summit and Cuyahoga counties received a combined $260 million in a settlement against opioid manufacturers and distributors.
Officials in both counties have already used some of the funds for various programs, including UniteUs, software that allows nonprofits, health providers and other stakeholders in Summit County to securely deliver and pay for services, Shapiro said.
Cuyahoga used the bulk of its funds to build the Cuyahoga County Diversion Center, a treatment center for individuals with substance use disorders, according to Johns Hopkins University.
But brick-and-mortar investments like this have not resulted in long-term solutions, Summit County Health Commissioner Donna Skoda told council members.
Instead of a new building, Summit officials plan to support ideas, research and prevention in the years to come, Skoda said.
“I think that the [county executive] is wise beyond her years to believe that ... in the future, we're going to have more problems," Skoda said. "I can tell you right now — it changes every day. We can't keep up... There’s no safe [street] drug anymore, and we don’t even know what's coming around the corner yet."
The fund may be used for seed funding for prevention and treatment programs, as well as to attract more funding for projects in the future, officials said.
The fund would be a separate, tax-exempt organization part of Akron Community Foundation, officials said. The fund will have 13 boards of directors, seven of which will be appointed by the Akron Community Foundation and the remaining six will be picked by county council.
Summit County Council’s rules committee opted to table the resolution and come back to it at the council’s next meeting on Monday, Oct. 7.
While several council members said they support the idea, some members raised questions about overhead costs and making sure any programming supported by the proposed endowment would be based on best practices and data.
