Amid a nationwide epidemic, Summit County remains deeply impacted by one of the most pressing public health and safety challenges of our time. With an average of more than two overdoses per day, our community continues to reel from a crisis fueled by prescription opioids and compounded by newer, more complex threats.
Yet even in the face of these grim realities, there is hope. Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro recently announced the creation of the Summit Health and Safety Innovation Fund, a separate, tax-exempt, charitable organization of Akron Community Foundation known as a supporting organization. The fund, which is expected to be fully established by the end of 2025, will receive an initial contribution of $45 million of the county's opioid litigation settlement funds for the purpose of benefiting the long-term health and safety of Summit County residents.
The creation of a supporting organization will enable the Summit Health and Safety Innovation Fund to have maximum community impact: The fund will be permanently endowed and invested according to an investment policy that may mirror Akron Community Foundation's, but it will exist as its own Ohio nonprofit corporation. The fund will also have its own governing board of directors charged with management of the organization and grantmaking, among other responsibilities.
By housing this fund at Akron Community Foundation, the county can ensure that settlement dollars stay local, support innovation, and adapt to the evolving health and safety challenges facing Summit County for generations to come. Once in operation, the supporting organization will likely generate more than $1 million in new funding for nonprofits in the community each year.
