Racial Equity Impact Analysis (REIA)
The Racial Equity Impact Analysis helps the City consider racial equity outcomes when shaping policies, practices, programs and budgets.
Minnesota Department of Health grant to reduce opioid use and misuse among children and youth - REIA
Section 1: Background
| Public Safety | No |
| Housing | No |
| Economic Development | No |
| Public Services | No |
| Environmental Justice | No |
| Built Environment & Transportation | No |
| Public Health | Yes |
| Arts & Culture | No |
| Workforce | No |
| Spending | No |
| Data | No |
| Community Engagement | Yes |
To reduce deaths related to Opioid use by young people incuding BIPOC youth.
Noya Woodrich
Section 2: Data
The target populations for this grant include Somali, African American and American Indian youth that reside in South and North Minneapolis.
Groups targeted through this project will be the Native American, African American and Somali populations in Minneapolis. In 2018, the crude mortality rate from opioid poisoning among American Indians was more than 6 times higher than their white counterparts; and the African American community had a rate 2 times higher than their white counterparts. Generally, everyone in the City of Minneapolis will benefit from the work. Direct impact will be local with some impacts being felt at a more regional level.
The Opioid Epidemic is disproportionately impacting the City of Minneapolis. In 2018, there were 343 opioid-related overdose deaths in Minnesota; 17.4% of those (60 deaths) were in Minneapolis, which represents only 7.6% of the state population. The cost to respond and react to this epidemic impacts the entire City enterprise as well as many of our community and governmental partners.
Death as a result of opioid overdose for Natives is 80.7 per 100,000 and 20.2 per 100,000 for the African American Community. Though data is not finalized for 2020 we know that overdoses generally and overdose deaths specifically increased in 2020. This is an increase after having a 1-year decrease in overdose death in 2018. Most deaths continue to involve a synthetic additive. A decreasing number of overdoses and deaths is attributed to straight heroin. Emergency rooms saw substantial increases in the number of overdoses between 2018 and 2019 – most of these visits being attributed to those under age 34 and those that identify as male.
We see this becoming an increasingly larger problem among our youth. In particular, our 8th and 9th graders are seeing steady increases in use of prescription drugs without a prescription. This is especially true in our Somali community, who continues to report significant concern for their youth.
The Opioid Epidemic is disproportionately impacting the City of Minneapolis. In 2018, there were 343 opioid-related overdose deaths in Minnesota; 17.4% of those (60 deaths) were in Minneapolis, which represents only 7.6% of the state population. The cost to respond and react to this epidemic impacts the entire City enterprise as well as many of our community and governmental partners.
Death as a result of opioid overdose for Natives is 80.7 per 100,000 and 20.2 per 100,000 for the African American Community. Though data is not finalized for 2020 we know that overdoses generally and overdose deaths specifically increased in 2020. This is an increase after having a 1-year decrease in overdose death in 2018. Most deaths continue to involve a synthetic additive. A decreasing number of overdoses and deaths is attributed to straight heroin. Emergency rooms saw substantial increases in the number of overdoses between 2018 and 2019 – most of these visits being attributed to those under age 34 and those that identify as male.
We see this becoming an increasingly larger problem among our youth. In particular, our 8th and 9th graders are seeing steady increases in use of prescription drugs without a prescription. This is especially true in our Somali community, who continues to report significant concern for their youth.
There is insufficient data on how the opioid epidemic impacts the Somali community. Those that track data need to separate Somali from the African American category.
Section 3: Community Engagement
| Inform | No |
| Consult | No |
| Involve | No |
| Collaborate | Yes |
| Empower | No |
In the recommendations that came from the Mayor’s Multi-Jurisdictional Task Force on Opioids (2019) there are two recommendations specific to prevention services for youth:
1. Create a youth education campaign focused on increasing awareness of drug trends and parental communication and intervention techniques.
2. Increase funding for peer-to-peer youth prevention that is culturally focused for Minneapolis cultural communities that are disproportionately affected by opioid overdose.
What we propose here will help the City of Minneapolis to implement these recommendations in the Somali, African American and American Indian communities. A partnership for the delivery of services in this program was intentionally established with an organization that specifically serves the Somali community, Metro Youth Diversion. They have experience serving youth, the segment of the Somali community most hard and directly hit by the opioid epidemic. If we receive the grant, we will implement a request for proposal process through which we will choose 2-3 other organizations to implement prevention efforts in other communities in Minneapolis with a focus on the African American and American Indian communities. We have many relationships established in these communities for other purposes and will lean on those relationships to have a pool of applicants from which to choose. We will seek organizations that are culturally specific, have experience working with youth and implementing successful prevention programming.
The Minneapolis Health Department (MDH) has an already established partnership with Metro Youth Diversion (MYD) on this project. The Minneapolis Health Department will play a coordination role and Metro Youth Diversion will implement the prevention model in their community.
1. Create a youth education campaign focused on increasing awareness of drug trends and parental communication and intervention techniques.
2. Increase funding for peer-to-peer youth prevention that is culturally focused for Minneapolis cultural communities that are disproportionately affected by opioid overdose.
What we propose here will help the City of Minneapolis to implement these recommendations in the Somali, African American and American Indian communities. A partnership for the delivery of services in this program was intentionally established with an organization that specifically serves the Somali community, Metro Youth Diversion. They have experience serving youth, the segment of the Somali community most hard and directly hit by the opioid epidemic. If we receive the grant, we will implement a request for proposal process through which we will choose 2-3 other organizations to implement prevention efforts in other communities in Minneapolis with a focus on the African American and American Indian communities. We have many relationships established in these communities for other purposes and will lean on those relationships to have a pool of applicants from which to choose. We will seek organizations that are culturally specific, have experience working with youth and implementing successful prevention programming.
The Minneapolis Health Department (MDH) has an already established partnership with Metro Youth Diversion (MYD) on this project. The Minneapolis Health Department will play a coordination role and Metro Youth Diversion will implement the prevention model in their community.
Section 4: Analysis
This grant will directly fund efforts geared towards the three communities in Minneapolis that are most disproportionately experiencing the opioid epidemic. This will in turn decrease the disparities and achieve equity goals.
Section 5: Evaluation
Goal: Reduce opioid abuse and misuse among children and youth 12-19 years old within communities of color
Objectives: 100 youth will participate in prevention programming per year
50 parents/guardians will participate in programming to support their children
500 community members will receive information about supporting youth in the community
Those impacted will actually inform us of progress on goals. We will regularly combine results from all partners and report back out to them the collective impact (bi-annually)