Bringing People to the Table: Community Voices and Policy Choices to Improve Substance Use Systems

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On October 21, 2026, AIR will host a webinar highlighting how the Measurements for Accountability to All People in Policy Solutions (MAAPPS) initiative uses community engagement to strengthen policy decisions, inform investment priorities, reinforce accountability, and improve how impact is measured in substance use disorder (SUD) systems. 

Across the country, states, local governments, and partners are grappling with how to ensure that opioid settlement funds and SUD policies reflect real community needs—and that investments, including opioid settlement funds, lead to meaningful outcomes. Yet too often, the people most affected are not meaningfully engaged in how priorities are set, how success is defined, or how progress is measured.

Through environmental scans, stakeholder engagement, and community-informed measure development, MAAPPS helps states identify priorities, refine outcome measures, and develop recommendations that better align investments with community needs and experiences.
 

Why Participate

This moment presents an opportunity to move beyond gathering input and instead meaningfully center community voices in both policy development and accountability efforts.

Participants will hear from state leaders and community partners about:

• What meaningful engagement looks like in practice;
• How community input can shape priorities, measures, and recommendations;
• How these approaches have been applied in Oregon and Maryland; and
• How these engagement approaches can be adapted in other contexts.

The webinar will also cover:

• Why community engagement leads to more effective SUD policy and opioid settlement investment decisions that better reflect community needs.
   
• How engaging communities strengthens measurement, accountability, and shared goals for substance use initiatives by helping define and track outcomes that matter most to impacted communities.
   
• Practical examples from Oregon and Maryland on integrating community voices to shape policy, priorities, and decision-making and inform outcome measures and recommendations.
   
• Strategies for incorporating lived experience into both policy design and how impact is measured, ensuring community priorities help guide investments and action in ways that can be adapted across states, local governments, and community settings.