YOUNGSTOWN — Linda Spies’ son was 16 when she discovered he was using opiates.

She had welcomed her brother-in-law, who was dying of cancer, to stay with them so he would be in a comfortable, loving environment with family around him when he passed.

However, she had no idea how it would affect her son.

The boy began sneaking his uncle’s highly-potent pain medications to cope with the trauma.

“I was going to find a program somewhere,” she said. “Because I just knew I could ‘fix him,'” Spies said.

Throughout her son’s ordeal with opioid addiction, Spies’ whole family suffered, she said. They took him through rehabilitation facilities across the Valley and across the country. When he landed in the intensive care unit after an overdose, she said she knew she and her family had done absolutely everything they could for him.

“I told him, ‘If you don’t want to live, just say so. It’s OK. I’ll be OK,'” she said.

He did want to live, and he is alive and well today, with a child of his own.

“He’s still one day at a time,” she said.

Spies knows that is how addiction recovery goes, but that doesn’t mean the help should not be available for those who, like her son, survive and want to live a healthy life.

Spies shared her story Monday at a forum hosted by the OneOhio Foundation, at Direction Home of Northeast Ohio, on Meridian Road in Youngstown.

The nonprofit foundation is charged with managing Ohio’s share of the multibillion dollar settlements reached with the pharmaceutical industry over its role in the opioid epidemic.

OneOhio will open its grant application portal April 2, giving agencies across the state access to $51 million for opioid recovery, treatment and prevention programs.

On Monday, Executive Director Alicia Nelson visited the Mahoning Valley to discuss the funding opportunities for Region 7, which consists of Mahoning and Trumbull counties. Several local organizations already have some idea of how and where the region should spend its $2.8 million.

Duane Piccirilli, Region 7 board president and executive director of the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board, said the regional and statewide meetings have begun with a personal story like Spies’ for a few years now.

He said the meetings could get political and bureaucratic, with so much money involved and so many egos in the room.

“Once we started with a personal story, it all changed, because we remembered why we were really there,” he said.

The devastation felt by addicts, their families, local communities, and even the regional and state economy, are still part of the opiate epidemic saga.

“Even though it’s not in the news as much anymore, everyone here knows we’re still in it,” Nelson said. “We want to end the opioid epidemic, which means many things, but that really includes preventing it from recurring.”

April Caraway, executive director of Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board, said Region 7 officials have developed strategies in anticipation of the funding and will be ready when the application period opens.

The OneOhio Foundation identified 10 opioid epidemic abatement strategy “buckets.” Mahoning and Trumbull counties have focused on recovery support and prevention.

“Those two buckets are very broad,” Caraway said. “But it’s like someone said here tonight, the United States leads the world in opioid addiction. So we have to focus on prevention because we’ve got to stop this next generation from using.”

Nelson said that while the OneOhio approval committees will favor applications that focus on recovery support and prevention, the Foundation also included an “other” bucket.

“We want to see all applications in case there’s a new idea we need to take a look at. We don’t know what we don’t know,” she said.

Piccirilli said the funds from OneOhio grants will not be routed through county recovery offices like his, but will be distributed directly to successful grant applicants. However, he said the MHRB wants to partner with area organizations on grants or provide additional funding to programs funded by the OneOhio Foundation.

Those partnerships could include helping the Mahoning County jail fund its medication-assisted treatment program.

“The Mahoning County jail is the first to receive an arrestee with an opiate problem,” said Chief Deputy Sheriff William Cappabianca. “We just started an MAT program but it’s expensive for the taxpayers and we want to do something to try to offset that cost.”

Cappabianca said the program is for arrestees already in MAT. He said it helps keep them on course with their recovery and prevents them from becoming problem inmates.

“The Mahoning County jail is the largest provider of mental health and opiate recovery services in the county,” Cappabianca said.

Piccirilli said the MHRB knows it and wants to provide the right support.

“Our board wants to work very closely with the jail,” he said. “They know they cannot arrest their way out of this problem, and they need to partner with agencies that can provide them with great resources.”

JoAnn Stock, executive director for Leadership Mahoning Valley and the Center for Nonprofit Excellence at the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, said that her agency has plans for OneOhio funds as well.

Stock said the chamber’s more than 3,000 members continually have discussed the problems employers have with retention and hiring because of the opioid crisis. Helping businesses with prevention and treatment will go a long way toward solving those challenges.

“Through the Regional Chamber Foundation, we want to be able to connect them with service providers,” she said. “So they know what resources are available in the community and what they can do to help their employees.”

Any group that wants to apply for a OneOhio grant must first register on the portal at https://www.oneohio foundation.com/grants before April 2. The deadline for applications is May 3. Details about applying are available on the website.