PARTNERING WITH PURPOSE IN THE CAROLINAS | 1 

Partnering with Purpose in the Carolinas 

For the past decade, the Carolinas have confronted a significant rise in opioid misuse.1 The need 

for prevention and treatment services is especially acute for LGBTQ+ residents who are nearly 

twice as likely to misuse opioids than non-LGBTQ+ people.2,3

The Opioid Prevention and Treatment Task Force, known as 

OPT Out, is one regional initiative that is making a difference. 

By helping direct service providers make their programs and 

systems more inclusive, OPT Out increases access to services 

that support LGBTQ+ youth and young adults aged 14 to 25, 

as well as people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) who are at 

increased risk for substance use disorders (SUD). OPT Out is 

funded by a SAMHSA Partnerships for Success grant that was 

awarded to Carolinas CARE Partnership (CCP), a non-profit that 

serves the LGBTQ+ community, in 2020. 

Collaborating with organizations who serve LGBTQ+ youth 

and young adults and PLWHA—including many that do not specifically focus on substance 

misuse—has enabled OPT Out to reach a wide audience, which expands their impact. As of 

spring 2023, OPT Out had partnership agreements with more than 25 organizations across the 

Carolinas, including schools, hospitals, law enforcement, and providers serving the LGBTQ+ 

community. They also have more than 100 volunteer Task Force members that support ongoing 

initiatives and workgroups. 

“Partnerships are the cornerstone of our success,” says Leslie 

Dill, OPT Out program manager. “I don’t believe you can do 

prevention in a silo.” 

CCP staff and partners at a local Walmart event 

celebrating the launch of Walmart’s new initiative 

to increase access to HIV medications/services. 
 PARTNERING WITH PURPOSE IN THE CAROLINAS | 2 

TIPS FOR SUCCESS 

Start with Data 

Much of OPT Out’s impact comes through its workgroups, which focus the efforts of OPT Out’s 

task force members into specific areas of need. To identify workgroup priorities, Dill used a triedand-true method of prevention planning: she started with a needs assessment of community 

partners. 

“We asked, ‘What’s working well in your organization to 

support queer people and people living with HIV?’” she says, 

“We also asked what could be better. That's how the 

workgroups were established.”

One identified need was to help substance misuse prevention and treatment organizations 

design more inclusive intake and survey forms, in order to be more welcoming to all people. 

Another was to increase the quality and quantity of data about substance misuse among the 

populations that OPT Out is trying to serve. Workgroups were established to address both of 

those issues. 

When meeting with current and potential partners, Dill 

also stays data focused. She believes that making a 

data-based case for prevention can help cut through 

peoples’ different opinions on substance misuse. “The 

things I say are always data-driven,” she says. “It’s 

never my opinion. It’s always based on data.”

Find a Champion 

Dill has been able to extend the reach of OPT Out by 

enlisting champions within organizations where she 

previously lacked a foothold. 

For example, a personal connection put her in touch 

with a high-ranking administrator in a local school district who shared her interest in creating 

safer spaces for transgender youth. While the administrator’s school had done some work 

Leslie Dill presenting a Platinum Partner Award to Jorge 

Bedoya, Senior Master Sergeant of the Air National 

Guard and member of OPT Outs’s Task Force.
 PARTNERING WITH PURPOSE IN THE CAROLINAS | 3 

around inclusion—such as facilitating name and gender changes for transgender students in the 

school directory—the overall district had not yet followed suit. 

“Once I learned about him, I thought, ‘He’s the liaison—he is 

how we start partnering with the district,’” says Dill. 

Dill told the administrator about OPT Out’s Brave Space campaign, an educational program that 

aims to help professionals and organizations that serve LGBTQ+ youth be more welcoming and 

inclusive. In March 2023, the administrator started partnering with OPT Out to plan a Brave 

Space pilot. Later that year, OPT Out began rolling out Brave Space programming across the 

entire district. 

Identify an Area of Mutual Concern 

Dill knows that in order to improve SUD services for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults and 

PLWHA, she has to reach out to a wide range of service providers—including schools, churches, 

health systems, local non-profits, and treatment providers. Not all of these organizations have a 

specific champion that can be tapped; some don’t even have a mission that is in line with that of 

OPT Out. 

In these instances, she looks for an area of mutual interest or concern that can serve as the 

starting point for a conversation.

When talking to a program that serves PLWHA but has no background in substance misuse 

prevention, for example, Dill may share some information about why this population is at 

elevated risk for misuse, and why partnering with OPT Out can help the program better serve 

their audience. Or, when talking to a faith-based organization that might be hesitant to engage in 

conversations about LGBTQ+ youth, she may focus on the community harm that is done when all 

people do not get the prevention and treatment services they need. 

“If I can get to them by framing the issue within their context 

and just not focusing on the parts that they have a really hard 

time with, then that’s what I do,” she says. 
 PARTNERING WITH PURPOSE IN THE CAROLINAS | 4 

Don’t Compete—Collaborate 

Dill admits that collaboration isn’t always easy. When CCP first received funding for OPT Out, she 

reached out to a substance misuse task force in a neighboring county. Would they consider 

partnering on prevention programming? 

They declined, saying that OPT Out would just duplicate existing efforts to deliver prevention in 

their county. Undeterred, Dill shared the ways OPT Out was unique—and how a partnership 

could improve health outcomes for more people. As a sign of her commitment to the issues, she 

also offered to serve on the neighboring county’s task force. 

They gradually came to see that Dill wanted to be a collaborator on improving access to 

substance misuse, not a competitor for substance misuse funding. A working relationship 

followed. Today, the two task forces have a constructive relationship and regularly partner. 

Embrace a Range of Partnership Models 

Dill is eager for partners who want to commit any amount of time or energy to the work. She 

recognizes that while some people may have multiple hours every week, others may only be able 

to participate on an occasional basis. That’s fine with her. 

She recalls talking to a colleague from a neighboring county 

who was planning on stepping away from substance misuse 

prevention work. He told Dill that even though he was leaving 

his position, he still wanted to contribute to what she was 

doing in the region. How could he help? 

“I told him, ‘If I have a specific ask and I call you, just tell me 

that you'll answer my call and help guide me in the right 

direction,’” she recalls.

Likewise, she acknowledges that some potential advocates can’t publicly support OPT Out 

because of their professional affiliations. Dill makes room for them on the task forces, too. 

“Just because a person cannot attend your scheduled task 

force meeting does not mean that they are not a supporter of 

your task force,” she says. 

Leslie Dill with Omega Phi Beta partners at 

their PRISM (People’s Recovery Initiative for 

Solutions & More) event in September 2022.
 PARTNERING WITH PURPOSE IN THE CAROLINAS | 5 

Prepare for Sustainability 

With staff turnover so high in the non-profit and social services sectors, membership on the OPT 

Out Task Forces is constantly changing. To ensure some level of consistency, Dill asks all new task 

force members who she should contact in the event they ever leave their current role at their 

organization. That helps her continue organizational partnerships even if her personal 

connections move into other positions. 

“I've used that information several times in 

terms of sustaining relationships,” she 

says. 

She has also had to think about her own 

sustainability and workload. Burnout is 

real, she says, especially when you are 

constantly having to push for programs 

and services that not everybody in the 

community agrees with. 

Recently, Dill hit a wall. She had just done an in-person presentation for 50 social workers and 

wasn’t sure if she could do any more presentations for a while. She was exhausted.

But her program manager, Ashley Osborne, stepped up. Osborne had been watching Dill present 

for months and knew the content well. Plus, she could add her own spin. 

“I said, ‘Yes, please,’” recalls Dill. “I always want to be the conductor of everything. But once you 

get to that point where you're exhausted and burnt out, you have to trust your colleagues to 

take over. Because if you don't take care of yourself, you won’t be able to continue doing this 

important work.”

Ashley Osborne and Leslie Dill at OPT Out’s 2023 event, “Always Here: A 

Catawba Perspective on Being Queer, Being Well, and Being Here.”
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REFERENCES 

1 North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. (Undated). Opioid and Substance Use Action 

Plan Data Dashboard. https://www.ncdhhs.gov/opioid-and-substance-use-action-plan-data-dashboard

2 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2023). 2021 National Survey on Drug Use 

and Health: Among the Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual (LGB) Population Aged 18 or Older. 

https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt41854/NSDUH%20highlighted%20populati

on%20slides/For%20NSDUH%20highlighted%20population%20slides/2021NSDUHPopulationSlidesLGB0

50323.pdf

3 National Institute on Drug Abuse. (Undated). Substance Use and SUDs in LGBTQ* Populations. 

https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/substance-use-suds-in-lgbtq-populations 

SPTAC@edc.org | samhsa.gov/SPTAC