Eugene addiction treatment center wins $2.6 million grant to boost family services

Addiction treatment provider Willamette Family recently received a competitive federal grant to strengthen its services for mothers.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration granted the Eugene-based treatment center a $2.6 million grant to further its work serving pregnant and postpartum women and their children in Lane County. It’s one of just 10 organizations in the country to receive such a grant this year.

The grant will provide the nonprofit $525,000 a year for the next five years. The money will go straight to the organization’s existing residential treatment services for mothers and children and allow the organization to follow up with families when they exit the residential program.

Colleen Smith, senior director of community relations at Willamette Family, said postpartum mothers in Willamette Family’s residential treatment facilities often are recovering from opioid and stimulant abuse as well as mental health challenges and housing instability. They receive medical and mental health treatment along with peer support, childcare services, parenting classes and help finding housing.

“Having a baby is supposed to be the most happiest, glorious time of your life,” Smith said. “They’re not feeling happy and glorious. They’re feeling like everything in their life has just crumbled.”

According to a press release, Willamette Family estimates the grant will serve 67 women and 70 children annually, for a total of 685 mothers and children over five years. Last year, Willamette Family served 837 total families, Smith said.

Nonprofit organizations like Willamette Family that provide health and social services to the most vulnerable have faced large cuts to federal grant funding in the past two years.

Services that are not mental or physical healthcare are not covered by health insurance, and Willamette Family therefore must fund its programs through grants and fundraising.

Smith said funding challenges have made it more difficult to keep clients in residential care for long periods of time. While its Families in Recovery program, a residential treatment center for women and their young children, used to last 90 to 120 days, now it lasts 60 to 90 days.

Aside from recent challenges, receiving a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is rare for Willamette Family. The last one it received was in 2003 for a teen program that it no longer offers. Its first such grant established the residential family treatment services in the 1990s that the 2026 grant will now build on.

“That is amazing, and we’re nowhere near having enough resources in our community and in the state of Oregon,” Smith said. “I think we can get there, but we still need to keep pushing and keep working and keep striving for that — specifically for substance use addiction disorders.”