Voinovich School, PIRE Collaboration featured in Rural Monitor

The Rural Monitor, Rural Health Information Hub’s online publication, featured an article highlighting the partnership between the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) and Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. 

Dr. Holly Raffle, professor at the Voinovich School, has been actively involved in this partnership and worked to secure the HRSA Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) planning grant. PIRE also received the grant and the two organizations put their funds together to collectively serve Ashtabula, Fairfield, Sandusky, Seneca, and Washington counties. 

As an extension of their 10-year partnership, the Voinovich School-PIRE team will continue to serve the five communities through the RCORP implementation grant both parties recently received. The collaboration will be formalized to assist with the workplan that includes prevention, treatment, recovery, and sustainability.

The grant enables OHIO and PIRE to support the communities in a variety of ways including training and leadership development, technical assistance, financial resources, a website with a host of resources, and more. 

“I am proud to be part of an organization that is committed seeking an innovative solution set as well as serving the citizenry alongside leaders from Ohio’s rural and Appalachian communities,” Raffle said. 

To learn more about the partnership and their work, read the full article at ruralhealthinfo.org