FORT WAYNE, Ind. (ADAMS) – On Monday, Mayor Sharon Tucker announced that the City of Fort Wayne’s Opioid Settlement Fund Mini Grant Program has awarded $10,000 grants to four community organizations working to address opioid use disorder and substance use disorder.
The awards, totaling $40,000, represent the first cohort of mini grant recipients. This effort is a targeted initiative designed to expand the reach of opioid settlement resources to emerging, community-rooted organizations and innovative pilot projects.
The City released the following;
Allen County recorded 58 overdose deaths and 583 emergency department visits due to drug overdoses in 2024. The mini grants are designed to channel opioid settlement dollars into trusted community hands in the form of organizations that are already meeting people where they are and filling gaps that larger systems cannot always reach.
2026 Mini Grant Recipients:
Action Over Silence – Veteran Peer Support & Harm Reduction
Action Over Silence will use its grant to expand veteran-to-veteran peer support and harm reduction services for service members, veterans, and their families across Fort Wayne.
Forgotten Stones – Behavioral Health Integration for Individuals Transitioning from Homelessness
Forgotten Stones operates Fort Wayne’s only emergency day shelter serving adults experiencing homelessness who have some income but do not qualify for traditional housing programs. With this grant, Forgotten Stones will launch a behavioral health integration pilot, embedding licensed counseling, psychiatric telehealth consultation, and clinical assessment capabilities directly into its housing stabilization program.
The Language Access Lab – Opioid Service Language Access Pilot
Allen County is home to thousands of households with limited English proficiency, yet local recovery and harm reduction services have lacked the language proficiency to effectively serve them. The Language Access Lab will expand the reach of Fort Wayne’s recovery ecosystem to residents who speak Spanish, Burmese, and other languages in communities that have historically been excluded from life-saving services.
The Lighthouse Thrift Store – Workforce Development Through Recovery-Integrated Thrift Store Operations
The Lighthouse Thrift Store will use its grant to expand workforce development opportunities for program participants through hands-on employment training in its thrift store operations.
In addition, the City has awarded nearly $1.5 million spread across 24 organizations through opioid settlement funding. Those announcements were made in November 2025 and March 2026.
The City’s opioid settlement payments are scheduled to run through 2038. In 2025, Mayor Tucker created the National Opioid Settlement Committee. The purpose of the committee is to recommend usage of the funds, convene individuals and groups to explore causes and responses to priority issues related to opioid and substance use, and educate the community about opioid and substance use.
Since Mayor Tucker took office, she has emphasized the importance of programs that are people-focused and needed in the community. The efforts, such as the National Opioid Settlement Committee, are designed to enhance the quality of life in Fort Wayne.
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