BOSTON — The Social Innovation Forum (SIF) has selected the Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) to participate in SIF’s 2020 “Social Innovator Accelerator,” a 24-month capacity-building program that helps nonprofit organizations gain visibility, expand their networks, and accelerate their impact.
As a 2020 Social Innovator, P.A.A.R.I. will receive access to more than $150,000 of cash and in-kind services, including training, coaching, and consulting, from SIF and its partners. SIF selected P.A.A.R.I. from a pool of 134 applicants based on its unique approach to combating the opioid epidemic both locally and nationwide.
“These eight organizations represent some of the most innovative approaches to addressing our community’s most challenging social issues,” said Susan Musinsky, Executive Director of the Social Innovation Forum. “We look forward to working closely with them over the next 24 months, providing these nonprofits with the support and access to resources they need to take their work to the next level.”
“Being selected as a member of the 2020 Social Innovator Cohort means a great deal, and the critical capacity building support will help P.A.A.R.I. grow and strengthen our impact in Greater Boston and beyond,” said P.A.A.R.I. Executive Director Allie Hunter, who will be the organization’s Lead Innovator in the 2020 Social Innovator Accelerator. “I am grateful to the Social Innovation Forum and Boston Open Impact and look forward to working with them to enhance our efforts to support law enforcement agencies working to prevent overdose deaths and create pathways to treatment and recovery. I am honored to be counted among this prestigious cohort and to kick the project off at today’s Social Innovators’ Orientation Session in Boston.”
In addition to P.A.A.R.I., the list of organizations selected for the 2020 Social Innovator cohort includes Adaptive Sports New England, Boston HERC (Higher Education Resource Center), Elevated Thought, OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center, The 1647, Inc., Vital Village Network, and WHALE (Waterfront Historic Area League).
The Social Innovator Accelerator is generously supported by the Barr Foundation, The Boston Foundation, Boston Open Impact, The Charlotte Foundation, Edith M. Ashley Fund at the Boston Foundation, The Devonshire Foundation, Inspire Boston Funder Collaborative, JAKET Foundation, MassMutual Foundation, Schrafft Charitable Trust, and Wellington Management Foundation.
About the Social Innovator Accelerator
The Social Innovator Accelerator provides small- to mid-sized nonprofit organizations with intensive training and resources over a two-year period, including consulting, coaching, and connections to SIF’s network. On average, nonprofit organizations in the SIF portfolio more than double their revenue within four years after engaging with SIF, growth significantly higher than state and national rates. For more information, visit www.socialinnovationforum.org.
About P.A.A.R.I.
The Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help law enforcement agencies nationwide create non-arrest pathways to treatment and recovery. Founded alongside the groundbreaking Gloucester MA Police Department Angel Initiative in June 2015, P.A.A.R.I. has been a driving force behind this rapidly expanding community policing movement. We provide technical assistance, coaching, grants, and other capacity-building resources to more than 500 police departments in 35 states. We currently work with more than 130 law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts alone. P.A.A.R.I. and our law enforcement partners are working towards a collective vision where non-arrest diversion programs become a standard policing practice across the country, thereby reducing overdose deaths, expanding access to treatment, improving public safety, reducing crime, diverting people away from the criminal justice system, and increasing trust between law enforcement and their communities. Our programs and partners have saved thousands of lives, changed police culture, reshaped the national conversation about the opioid epidemic and have placed over 24,000 people into treatment since its founding in June 2015. Learn more at paariusa.org.
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