Virginia State Opioid Response Evaluation, Strategic Planning, and Technical Assistance
Project Objectives
- Design and implement a comprehensive evaluation to measure the impact of Virginia’s (State Opioid Response (SOR)-funded strategies across the continuum of care.
- Provide targeted technical assistance and training to build data collection capacity among SOR sub-recipients.
- Track and synthesize data from multiple sources to inform DBHDS' strategy and continuous improvement.
- Elevate peer recovery services and community innovations by assessing effectiveness and identifying opportunities for scale.
subrecipient organizations included in the evaluation
GPRA surveys processed and analyzed
Project Description
Since 2019, Omni has partnered with Virginia’s DBHDS to serve as the research and evaluation lead for the SOR grant—transforming federal funding into a strategic initiative with lasting impact. From the beginning, Omni collaborated with DBHDS to shape a shared vision for SOR that prioritized outcomes over compliance, aiming to reflect the real effects of prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery efforts across Virginia. Guided by this vision, Omni developed a Strategic Evaluation Plan with clear metrics, real-time tracking tools, and infrastructure to evaluate the reach and impact of SOR-funded strategies statewide.
At the core of this work is a comprehensive, multi-source evaluation framework, encompassing over a dozen data streams that capture the breadth of services delivered—fromcoalition development and community awareness campaigns to jail-basedtreatment, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), Naloxone training anddistribution, and collegiate and peer recovery support programs. Omni designed systems to monitor statewide trends like overdose rates and Naloxone administration, while collecting detailed site-level data to assess program performance.
To meet federal GPRA requirements and support continuous quality improvement, Omni:
- built and maintains a centralized GPRA platform,
- provides tailored technical assistance, and
- supports sub-recipients withhands-on training, tools, and ongoing coaching.
These efforts have contributed to Virginia's GPRA follow-up rates consistently exceeding national averages.
Beyond data infrastructure, Omni has played a pivotal role in fostering a culture of learning and accountability among grantees. This has included regular engagement with providers to troubleshoot challenges, interpret data, and apply findings to improve services. Omni’s technical assistance team is trusted for its responsiveness, clarity, and capacity to translate evaluation into action. Findings are routinely synthesized into actionable insights and shared via reports, one-pagers, dashboards, and presentations that guide DBHDS’ programmatic decisions and strategic planning.
In partnership with DBHDS, Omni has helped reimagine what a federal grant can achieve—positioning Virginia as a leader in addressing opioid and stimulant use through data-driven innovation.
The reason we invest in Omni’s evaluation and capacity building is because it’s extremely valuable to see what’s working, what’s not working, and to look quarter-by-quarter at the results of our efforts. It helps us to be much better stewards of the funding that we’re working with.
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