News
How the Opioid Crisis Response Program Helps Remove Barriers to Recovery
/ Fellows in Action
The opioid crisis is one of the most urgent public health challenges in the U.S., impacting more than 11 million Americans and nearly every community nationwide.
What is often overlooked are the legal needs that can stand in the way of recovery. Challenges such as barriers to employment, unstable housing, and loss of benefits make it harder for people to rebuild their lives. Left unaddressed, they can increase the risk of relapse and prevent long-term stability.
Recognizing the urgent legal needs tied to the opioid crisis, Equal Justice Works and the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) launched the Opioid Crisis Response Program in 2024. The goal of this program is simple: to embed lawyers in affected communities to provide holistic solutions to address the legal consequences of opioid addiction and overdose. Just this month, the program received an Honorable Mention in the General Excellence category of Fast Company’s 2026 World Changing Ideas Awards.
Addressing the opioid crisis requires a multidisciplinary response, and legal assistance is an essential part of that work. Through this partnership with Equal Justice Works, FORE is helping ensure that people and families affected by opioid use disorder can access the legal support they need to move toward recovery and long-term stability.Karen A. Scott /
MD, MPH, president of the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts
In the program’s first year, Fellows helped more than 1,000 family members by securing housing stability and clearing criminal records. Because having a criminal record is one of the strongest predictors of economic instability, Fellows dedicated about 81% of their time working to expunge such records. Fellows also trained health care providers on how to recognize legal issues and reached over 2,500 stakeholders through community education.
Along the way, Fellows built avenues of resiliency in communities through a community-centered approach that provided education and resources to partners and community members. The inaugural cohort of Fellows worked alongside social workers, clinicians, and nurses to address legal barriers, reducing the risk of relapses and fatal overdoses and establishing a strong foundation for long-term recovery.
Fellows take approaches that are informed by the needs of the communities they serve. One Fellow drives a Justice Bus to rural communities for intake, outreach, and education. Many Fellows are serving the communities they have grown up around or lived in and witnessed the need for their work.
Spectrum News Kentucky showed how the Justice Bus meets people where they are. Watch here.
My work has impacted the community that I have called home in Ohio. I have seen a vast increase in folks accessing these services—especially with us going into the community and being embedded in organizations that might not have known about legal services.
Lauren Williams /
Fellow in the Opioid Crisis Response Program
Across their approaches and backgrounds, every Fellow in the Opioid Crisis Response Program is raising awareness for why lawyers are needed in the path to recovery and what services are available along the way. They are building trauma-informed approaches for their clients and bridging gaps in the opioid response network of organizations within each community.
I think the biggest impact on the community from our work is the hope we have created. A lot of folks didn’t know that legal services could offer services to them, especially in early recovery.
Carrie Stambaugh /
Fellow in the Opioid Crisis Response Program
Learn more about the impact of the Opioid Crisis Response Program and hear directly from Fellows working on the front lines of recovery support in this short video.
