West Virginia University has been selected to guide data-driven allocation of nearly $750 million in opioid settlement funds—roughly three-quarters of the state’s total $1 billion settlement award. The university’s Health Affairs Institute will lead the “West Virginia Wayfinder,” a comprehensive initiative announced on March 27, 2026, designed to map the state’s opioid prevention and treatment landscape, identify service gaps, and ensure settlement dollars reach communities where they’re needed most. This represents one of the most structured, evidence-based approaches to opioid settlement spending in the country, moving beyond ad-hoc allocations to create a statewide strategy grounded in data and measurable outcomes.
The West Virginia First Foundation, created in 2023 to distribute the state’s settlement funds, awarded WVU $1.5 million to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment survey. Rather than simply distributing money to existing programs, WVU will identify where current prevention and treatment services fall short, then help direct future grants to the highest-need areas. The Wayfinder program will produce an interactive, public-facing dashboard showing service gaps and funding priorities—a tool that has the potential to transform how West Virginia tackles its decades-long opioid crisis.
Table of Contents
- What Is the West Virginia Wayfinder Program and How Does WVU Fit In?
- The Data-Driven Approach: How WVU Will Identify Unmet Needs
- The Selection Process and Partnership Structure Behind the Program
- Creating the Public Dashboard and Service Landscape Mapping
- Health Return on Investment and Outcomes Evaluation
- What This Program Means for People in Recovery and Affected Communities
- West Virginia’s Broader Settlement Strategy and Future Outlook
What Is the West Virginia Wayfinder Program and How Does WVU Fit In?
The West Virginia Wayfinder is a statewide initiative led by WVU’s Health Affairs Institute, working alongside the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs and Data Driven WV. Under the leadership of Dr. Clay Marsh, WVU’s Chancellor for Health Sciences, the program will assess the current landscape of opioid-related prevention and treatment services across the entire state. This includes identifying what services already exist, where they’re located, what federal and state funding currently supports them, and which services are provided by private organizations.
The Wayfinder differs fundamentally from traditional grant-making because it starts with a comprehensive audit rather than reactive responses to funding applications. For example, rural counties in West Virginia may have been underserved because grant writers didn’t exist there, not because communities didn’t have needs. By mapping what actually exists versus what’s needed—comparing federal SAMHSA funding, state Medicaid coverage, and private nonprofit capacity—the Wayfinder creates a baseline. settlement funds can then fill genuine gaps rather than duplicating existing services or funding programs in areas that already have adequate coverage.
The Data-Driven Approach: How WVU Will Identify Unmet Needs
WVU will conduct a systematic needs assessment survey, funded by the $1.5 million grant from West Virginia First Foundation, to quantify the full continuum of opioid services across the state. This includes prevention education, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) availability, peer support recovery programs, and services for families affected by addiction. The survey will map existing resources from federal, state, and private sources—showing which counties have multiple treatment centers and which have none. Once the needs assessment is complete, WVU will develop the interactive Wayfinder dashboard, a public-facing tool that will show West Virginia policymakers, grant managers, and community leaders where needs are greatest.
For instance, if the survey reveals that a rural county has 800 residents needing treatment but zero MAT providers, that region would be flagged as a high-priority target for new opioid settlement funding. The dashboard will allow decision-makers to compare need against available services in real time, preventing the common problem where settlement dollars get deployed to areas that already have adequate capacity. However, the Wayfinder’s effectiveness depends on survey response rates and data quality. If treatment providers don’t respond to the assessment, or if the survey doesn’t capture informal recovery support networks and peer-led programs, the resulting data will be incomplete. WVU will need to build trust with providers and communities to ensure honest, comprehensive reporting.
The Selection Process and Partnership Structure Behind the Program
The West Virginia First Foundation selected WVU through a rigorous review process at its quarterly board meeting earlier this year. The Foundation—created in 2023 specifically to manage the state’s opioid settlement distribution—recognized that WVU possessed both the technical expertise in data analysis and the institutional credibility needed to conduct a statewide assessment without bias toward any particular region, provider network, or political interest. WVU’s partnership structure is critical to the program’s success. The Health Affairs Institute brings clinical and public health expertise, while the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs contributes policy analysis capability.
Data Driven WV, a nonprofit focused on data-informed governance, contributes dashboard development and technical infrastructure. This multi-institutional partnership means the Wayfinder isn’t built by a single organization with a vested interest in particular outcomes—it’s developed through collaboration between academic researchers, policy analysts, and data specialists. This structure also creates some built-in accountability. A university-led program is subject to research ethics requirements and institutional review. If the resulting dashboard and recommendations appear biased or flawed, that credibility is on the line—creating incentive to do rigorous, honest work.
Creating the Public Dashboard and Service Landscape Mapping
The Wayfinder’s output will be an interactive, public-facing dashboard showing the statewide distribution of opioid prevention and treatment services and where funding gaps exist. This is not a hidden report filed away in a foundation office—it’s a tool designed for transparency. Grant managers, community health leaders, nonprofit executives, and even residents will be able to access data about what services exist in their regions and where needs outpace supply. For example, suppose the dashboard reveals that Boone County has identified 1,200 residents needing treatment but only one MAT clinic operating at 60% capacity, while neighboring counties have no clinics.
Fund managers can then prioritize grants supporting MAT expansion in Boone County, knowing there’s documented unmet demand. The dashboard also functions as a service directory—if a person is seeking treatment, they can see what’s available locally rather than making phone calls to find resources. Creating and maintaining this dashboard requires ongoing data updates, not just a one-time survey. WVU will need to establish mechanisms for providers to update their capacity and wait times, and for regions to report changes in need. A dashboard that’s accurate for 2026 could become outdated by 2027 if the program doesn’t build in continuous data refresh processes.
Health Return on Investment and Outcomes Evaluation
Beyond mapping services, the Wayfinder will establish “Health Return on Investment” (HROI) definitions and frameworks for evaluating whether opioid settlement spending actually reduces addiction, overdose deaths, and associated harms. This moves the conversation from “how much money was spent” to “what health results were achieved.” For instance, instead of tracking only that $50 million was distributed to treatment programs, the framework would ask whether participating individuals achieved sustained recovery, whether community overdose death rates declined, and whether treatment capacity increased. Defining and measuring HROI isn’t straightforward. Recovery looks different for different people—it might mean sustained abstinence, stable medication-assisted treatment, returning to employment, family reunification, or a combination of these.
WVU will need to develop metrics that capture meaningful outcomes while remaining practical for providers to collect and report. This could involve benchmarking against research literature on evidence-based treatment outcomes. However, there’s a tension between rigorous outcomes measurement and program flexibility. If evaluation requires each program to track dozens of data points, some smaller nonprofits may lack the administrative capacity to participate. WVU will need to balance comprehensive evaluation with reasonable reporting burdens on providers.
What This Program Means for People in Recovery and Affected Communities
For individuals and families seeking opioid treatment and support, the Wayfinder’s primary value is transparency and coordinated resource allocation. Rather than settlement money flowing to programs with the best grant writers or the most political connections, it should increasingly flow to communities with the greatest unmet need. This doesn’t guarantee better services immediately, but it provides a framework for more equitable distribution over time.
Community-based organizations and treatment providers also benefit from the data infrastructure. A peer recovery program in Logan County can see, through the dashboard, whether the county is meeting its prevention education goals and where gaps remain. This information helps them identify collaboration opportunities and understand where to expand services.
West Virginia’s Broader Settlement Strategy and Future Outlook
The West Virginia Wayfinder sits within a larger context. The state received approximately $1 billion in total opioid settlement funding from the multistate litigation against pharmaceutical companies and distributors. By allocating nearly $750 million through a data-driven process, West Virginia is taking a measured, strategic approach rather than distributing funds quickly without clear priorities.
This approach will take time—the initial needs assessment and dashboard development could take several months—but the resulting allocation strategy should be more effective and harder to challenge as politically biased or inequitable. Looking forward, the Wayfinder model could serve as a template for how other states approach large settlement distributions. Rather than treating settlement money as a one-time windfall to spend before political priorities shift, the framework allows for strategic, evidence-based allocation over the life of the settlement. If the program demonstrates that data-driven deployment of settlement funds improves outcomes—reducing overdose deaths, increasing treatment access, and strengthening recovery support—it may influence how future settlement distributions are managed nationally.