BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – (WIVT/WBGH) The Center for Disease Control is bolstering Broome County’s efforts to prevent drug overdoses with a $4.5 million grant.

The grant, awarded to the county’s Health Department, comes as a part of the CDC’s Overdose Data to Action program. The program not only helps facilitate harm reduction, but assists with collecting better, more comprehensive data on overdoses.

Broome County is one of 40 recipients of the grant from across the country, and the only non-New York City jurisdiction to be awarded in New York State.

Overdose Prevention Coordinator Marissa Knapp says the grant was made possible with the over 200 letters of support her team secured.

“We can’t take credit for the boots on the ground work here,” Knapp says. “That goes out to all of our partners in the community who’s working with the population. So we were able to get letters of support from law enforcement, from our hospital systems, from our faith-based communities, from our elected officials, from our universities and schools, and then also from the population of person who uses drugs.”

Knapp says the grant, combined with the settlement funds received earlier this year, have increased the funding for overdose prevention 11 times over. The health department reports there have been 45 overdose deaths this year, ten less than what is was during August of last year.