In 2023, Guilford County signed on to the NC Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) as a part of the NC Opioid Settlements to access opioid settlement funds. As a result of the settlement, Guilford County will receive $40,750,701 over an 18-year period from 2022 to 2038 to support evidence-based strategies to address the opioid epidemic. (North Carolina Opioid Settlements, 2024. Please note: the amounts listed here could change in the future if more opioid-related litigation occurs).

As a part of this MOA, Guilford County engaged in collaborative strategic planning and the creation of an official plan of specific strategies to which the county will dedicate opioid dollars (Guilford County, 2024). Click here to see the proposed plan.

To date, allocated funds have supported the following strategies: 

Community engagement and education: GCDHHS’s Drug and Injury Prevention program:

• Hosted the Guilford Overdose Prevention and Education Collective (GOPEC). 
• Provided community education and outreach about substance use and overdose.
• Shared information about local resources and helped make those connections.
• Assisted in strategic planning efforts for opioid settlement funds.
• Distributed overdose prevention supplies such as Naloxone and test strips for xylazine and fentanyl. 
• Hired a full time Drug and Injury Prevention Health Educator, Gloria Brown, in early 2025 to provide community education about harm reduction, overdose prevention and resources available for behavioral health and substance use disorders.

Harm Reduction: Partnered with organizations like Guilford County Solution to the Opioid Problem (GCSTOP) to initiate and expand programs that prevent overdose death and reduce the spread of communicable diseases such as Hepatitis C and HIV. Programs include: 

• A Syringe Service program which distributes naloxone and sterile use supplies to people who use drugs (PWUD).
• A justice-involved program that provides support and resource connections to people being released from the local jails.
• A Post Overdose Response Team which reaches out to people 24-48 hours after an overdose to offer support and resources.
• A low barrier clinic which provides Suboxone (a medication to treat opioid use disorder) free of cost to patients.

Residential treatment: Provided funds to:

• Relocate and expand the current Daymark residential drug treatment facility to a site on Lee’s Chapel Road in Greensboro.
• Renovate the old vacated Daymark site to be a residential treatment facility focusing on pregnant and parenting women. Women with children under the age of 12 will be able to obtain in-patient drug treatment while their children live with them on site.

Click here for more information on the Guilford County Settlement updates and tracking.

In 2025, allocated opioid settlement funds supported the following strategies: 

 Community engagement and education: Below is a summary of GCDHHS’s Drug and Injury Prevention program successes in 2025:

• Full time Drug and Injury Prevention (DIP) Health Educator, Gloria Brown, joined in early 2025 to provide community education about harm reduction, overdose prevention and resources available for behavioral health and substance use disorders.
• Guilford County launched:
  • The Opioid Recovery and Response webpage to inform community members on the impact of opioids on the community, community resources, and how opioid settlement funds are being utilized to address community needs.
  • The Opioid Project Dashboard also provides more detail on funded projects around collaborative strategic planning, prevention, harm reduction and evidence-based addiction treatment. 
• On June 30, 2025, the Drug and Injury Prevention program hosted the third Annual Stakeholder meeting to highlight current efforts and focus areas for fiscal year 2026 and gather input from community members and partners.

• During fiscal year 2024-2025, DIP conducted five public Naloxone trainings open to everyone in Guilford County and 15 free naloxone usage trainings with Guilford County partners to assist in saving lives by reversing opioid overdoses. Partners included: High Point University, NCA&T, UNC Greensboro, Guilford College, Greensboro College, Triad Health Project, Guilford County Offices, NC Community and Justice, DIP Harm Reduction Hangout, Senior Resources of Guilford, and DayMark Treatment Center.
• DIP staff also provided community education and outreach about substance use and overdose in other settings, participating in a wide range of community events sponsored by community partners.
• Guilford County Public Health also partnered with:
  • The City of Greensboro’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) team to host Black Balloon Day on March 6, 2025, to raise overdose death awareness and International Harm Reduction Day on May 7, 2025, to reduce the negative consequences of drug use.
  • The City of Greensboro Community Safety Department to observe International Overdose Awareness Day on August 28, 2025.

Harm Reduction:   

• Maintained partnership with Guilford County Solution to the Opioid Problem (GCSTOP) to continue to support:
  • A Syringe Service program which distributes naloxone and sterile use supplies to people who use drugs (PWUD).
  • A justice-involved program that provides support and resource connections to people being released from the local jails.
  • A Post Overdose Response Team which reaches out to people 24-48 hours after an overdose to offer support and resources.
  • A low barrier clinic which provides Suboxone (a medication to treat opioid use disorder) free of cost to patients.
• Formed a new partnership with the North Carolina Survivor's Union that offers a Community Health Hub and low barrier buprenorphine clinic.
• In fiscal year 2024-2025, the DIP program distributed:
  • More than 2400 Intramuscular Naloxone units and over 1400 Nasal units to community partners and during community Outreach and events.
  • ​More than 1100 units of Naloxone through vending machines (Over 380 Intramuscular units​ and over 750 Nasal units).

Note: Each unit includes two doses of Naloxone.

Residential treatment: Efforts continue to support:

• The Lees Chapel residential recovery renovation is nearing completion and will become the Reverend Prince Edward Graves Recovery and Treatment Center in Greensboro. On February 12, 2026, Guilford County joined community partners for a ribbon cutting to celebrate this important step in expanding local support for those living with substance use disorder and other behavioral health needs. This facility will be operated by Daymark Recovery services to provide short- and long-term treatment options and other support services.

• The former Daymark facility will become the Women with Children Recovery Center | Guilford County, a 28-bed residential treatment facility focusing on pregnant women and mothers with substance use challenges, along with their children. This Family Focused Recovery Program is a partnership between Guilford County and Volunteers of America Chesapeake & Carolinas.