City of Mobile proclaims Project Persevere Day as The Helios Alliance Reports 117,444 Services Delivered in First Year of Opioid Abatement Program

Sixteen organizations delivered 117,444 services at $143.81 per person — among the most efficient deployments of opioid settlement funds nationally — as a public awareness campaign prepares to launch

Mobile, ALABAMA, Aug. 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Mobile City Council on Tuesday recognized the organizations behind the city’s first full year of opioid abatement programming, as Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis proclaimed Aug. 11, 2026, Project Persevere Day in the city of Mobile.

Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis with representatives of the 16 organizations recognized as Project Persevere Day partners, Mobile City Council, Aug. 11, 2026.

From June 1, 2025, through May 31, 2026, the 16 award recipients — selected through an open, competitive process administered by The Helios Alliance — delivered 117,444 services to 13,388 Mobile residents across the full continuum of care: prevention, treatment, survival programs, and coordination and communication. The cost per individual served was $143.81, making this among the most efficient and effective deployments of opioid settlement funds nationally.

In early 2025, the City Council unanimously approved $2,201,643 for 16 applications representing 18 organizations, each recommended by an independent evaluation team of Mobile community members with expertise spanning medicine, law, public safety, community development and lived experience. Helios conducted six monitoring and reporting periods over the award year and convened the recipients for regular in-person meetings.

“The recipients were not funded as isolated programs — they were selected to build a continuum, interconnected investments across the full arc of the opioid crisis,” said Caroline Etherton, chair of The Helios Alliance. “What Mobile built this year — a continuum of care that spans from a baby born healthier because her mother had prenatal support, to a teenager in a school hallway trained to help a peer in crisis, to a man who walked our streets in addiction walking into a college classroom — is both exceptional and replicable. The model is documented. The data are real. The relationships are built.”

What emerged over the course of the year was an ecosystem of care that no single organization could have built alone. Award recipients shared innovations, cross-referred participants and built working relationships that extended far beyond the formal requirements of the grant process. A transportation model piloted by one recipient was adopted by others. Prevention programming expanded into new venues because organizations were in the room together. A participant referred by one program found housing through another. Together, this collaborative footprint spanned more than 60 local organizations.

“We’re pleased to partner with Helios Alliance to provide funding for these sixteen organizations that helped thousands of Mobilians overcome addiction in many different ways through Project Persevere,” said mayor Spiro Cheriogotis. “Partnerships are an incredibly important part of so much of what we do, and to see the good this collaboration has done should be inspiring to all Mobilians.”

In addition to direct services, 1,921 Mobile residents took part in community research and focus groups during the award period. That research, which found that about 80 percent of Mobile residents support opioid solutions but only about half can identify where to find help, has informed the messaging and targeting of a paid media campaign.

The city’s opioid abatement initiative is called Project Persevere, a name chosen with intention. For a person in crisis, it is both an instruction and an affirmation. For a caregiver, it is recognition of labor that too often goes unseen. For the broader community, it is a reframing of the opioid crisis: not as a failure to be hidden, but as a challenge the city is working to solve together.

The Project Persevere website, www.projectpersevere.com, lists free, locally available treatment, prevention and crisis resources. A paid media campaign will launch later this month directing residents to the site.

“This past year has been one of the most supported years we have ever felt as a community of people with like goals to help people find recovery,” said Valarie McKinley, executive director of Home of Grace for Women.

 

Award recipients recognized

Into Light Project, Goldfinch Health, Mobile Metro Treatment Center, Mobile Community Corrections Program, Wellborn Strategies and Yosemite Consulting, Home of Grace for Women, Lifelines Counseling Services, Mobile County Veterans Treatment Court, USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital, Franklin Primary Health Center, Waterfront Rescue Mission, Mobile Area Interfaith Conference, Mobile United, Door to Serenity, Boys & Girls Clubs of South Alabama, and The Lovelady Center

 

About The Helios Alliance

The Helios Alliance is a national leader in data-driven opioid abatement strategy, working with communities to design competitive, independently reviewed and rigorously monitored processes for investing opioid settlement funds. For more information, visit theheliosalliance.com.

Mobile Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis presents the Project Persevere Day proclamation to Caroline Etherton, chair of The Helios Alliance, at Mobile City Council, Aug. 11, 2026.

Press Inquiries

Stacy Wellborn
stacy [at] stacywellborn.com
2515332361
https://www.theheliosalliance.com/
1100 Dauphin St, Suite E - Container Yard

A video accompanying this announcement is available here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z4d7Z4FauzQ