Background and Introduction
The School of Government partnered with Blue Cross NC to create the Opioid Response Project with hopes of assisting communities in North Carolina to create collaborative, longterm, comprehensive plans to reduce the effects of the opioid epidemic. A product of the Opioid Response Project, a community guide was created to provide insights from the ORP experience and to draw on expertise and resources to assist other communities that are interested in pursuing a similar process for addressing “wicked” problems using a collective impact model. While the ORP is used as an example throughout this guidebook, the process, resources, worksheets, and lessons provided in the following chapters could be used to address any number of complex, inter-jurisdictional problems. Please feel free to share this resource widely.