Northwest Florida opioid recovery program uncertain about future funding

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — For hundreds of people in Northwest Florida battling addiction, the “CORE” program has become their saving grace.

It stands for Coordinated Opioid Recovery, and the group has helped people at their lowest to get clean. The program is now facing uncertainty in its funding.

CORE runs on opioid abatement settlement funds meant to remediate the harm caused by the opioid crisis. But there’s no telling if they’ll continue to get that money.

Offentsive co-founder Rudy Koper was addicted to drugs.

“I was laying on the ground beside myself. I was shooting fentanyl,” Koper said. “My legs were rotting off. I had no more drugs. I had no money. I had no phone.”

Homeless, hopeless, and knocking on death’s door, Koper made the most difficult decision of his life: to get clean. He says the CORE program in Northwest Florida helps addicts do just that.

“I have seen them save countless lives right in front of my face, and people be able to get their life back due to the CORE program,” said Koper. “I mean, they should literally have a set of wings on their back.”

Hundreds of individuals struggling with substance abuse have successfully gone through CORE. The program provides them with medication-assisted treatment, psychiatric services, primary care and more for as long as they need.

It’s all done under one roof at Community Health Northwest Florida.

“In 2022, in Escambia County, we had 42 overdose deaths due to opiates per 100,000 residents,” said Walter Arrington, director of grants and development at Community Health Northwest Florida. “…And year to date in ’26, it’s four.”

Arrington says the CORE program’s success is tangible. And if it goes away, he believes people will die. He says CORE received $500,000 in federal opioid abatement funding in their first year.

That was reduced to $250,000 their second year and $130,000 this year. The program is supposed to keep getting $130,000 in funding each year for the next 15-18 years.

But there’s no guarantee they’ll actually get that money.

“I just heard recently that we were the No. 1 county in Florida for the highest overdoses as far as counties in the whole state of Florida,” Koper said. “Well, I heard that recently now we’re No. 2. Well, I firmly believe there were No. 2 because of CORE. Hands down, I’d put everything on it.”

WEAR: If CORE were to go away hypothetically. okay, what would happen to this community?Koper: We’d be back at No. 1 of the most overdoses. Half the people I’m probably working on right now or I see daily might not be here.

Arrington says CORE can also apply to tap into Escambia County’s opioid abatement settlement funds. But there’s no guarantee they’ll get that money, either. They hope they can keep getting funding to keep saving lives.