MARSHALL COUNTY, W.Va. (WTRF) - West Virginia has one of the highest opioid overdose rates per capita in the country.

Marshall County Commissioners are supporting a project spearheaded by CASA for Children in the amount of $500,000 that will help assist children affected by the opioid crisis and their families.

All citizens of Marshall County, urban and rural, can receive resources from the Marshall County Partners in Prevention Opioid Grant Project.

CASA's Executive Director, Susan Harrison, says funds for this project will help them hire a case manager to help families learn the variety of available resources.

"This project will take what we're already doing and expand that so that we are having a larger reach as well as working to address those at-risk families who might not come to the attention of Child Protective Services but give them a different avenue for accessing help. So, we'll have a case manager who's looking at those families and hooking them into the services that already exist and then working to fill gaps where services are needed."

Harrison says Partners in Prevention is a network of agencies that collaborate together, and this project will help provide more details on the resources out there.

"We all work together and there are services that exist within our community. But a lot of times, you know, families need access to those services. They need to know who to call, to ask how they get on and get enrolled in a program, or they might need to know what's really available to them."

Marshall County Administrator, Betsy Frohnapfel, says they contacted Harrison to see if she could create a project aimed at helping children affected by the opioid crisis. Frohnapfel says commission was impressed with the proposal.

"Their goal from the very beginning was to find a group who could help serve the needs of those who are most affected by the opioid crisis. And we believe that as children. And just because this kind of commission funds this project does not mean it is for the rural areas of the county; it is for everyone."

$100,000 will be distributed to CASA each January for the next five years.