Program Highlight: OASEE

The Opioid Abatement Strategies Effectiveness Evaluator (OASEE) program supports the measurement of statewide outcomes for each opioid abatement strategy (OAS). The program is run by a Regional Care Coordination Agency (RCCA) subrecipient, Education Development Center (EDC).

Year 1 Achievements

• In the first year of the OASEE program, EDC launched the OASEE Data Portal, which presents data dashboards based on evaluation data collected monthly from RCCA subrecipients.
• Equity and learning were built into the evaluation infrastructure—including a collaborative and participatory study design, integration of social determinants of health, and flexible TA that supports each subrecipient at their level of readiness.

Lessons Learned

The EDC team shared the following about what they learned the first year of the OASEE program:

• “Onboarding subrecipients to evaluation activities requires more time than anticipated due to the diversity in program structures and readiness levels.”
• “We needed to devote more time to listening, learning, adapting, and responding.”
• “We learned about the shared and unique challenges that subrecipients face, as well as about strategies agencies use to overcome or mitigate these challenges.”
• “[There is] a real desire among subrecipients to connect and learn from each other about data collection processes, resources utilized for data management, and how to overcome challenges together.””

Bringing Collaborators Together

This summer, EDC hosted regional evaluation workshops, bringing RCCA subrecipients together in person and virtually to share their experiences. For the EDC team as well as subrecipients, these workshops fostered trusting relationships that influence their collaborative data collection efforts.

“Building trust and meeting people where they are at framed how many subrecipient organization staff preferred to define success in nonclinical terms—as an improvement in individuals’ quality of life and their commitment to keep showing up,” said EDC’s [Name, Title?].

Altogether, the workshops represented opportunities to establish a collaborative foundation for OASEE activities, as well as meaningful moments to listen and learn early insights on what works and why. The EDC team is excited to continue this critical work in the new fiscal year.

Looking Ahead

In the 2025–2026 fiscal year, EDC plans to expand participatory research led by OASEE Community Ambassadors. Their aim is to better understand factors that drive OAS effectiveness, such as relationship building and the inclusion of people with lived experience throughout OAS implementation.

To respond to RCCA subrecipients’ desire to connect with peers, EDC will develop a Community of Practice series to build subrecipient evaluation capacity and foster shared learning.