Our Work

Our Programs

Rayce Rudeen Foundation WSU College of Nursing Endowment for Student Research

RRF endowed a substantial gift to the WSU College of Nursing to establish the permanent “Rayce Rudeen Fund for Addressing Substance Misuse and Addiction”. It targets WSU College of Nursing students, supporting their research projects on substance misuse, addiction, and behavioral health issues related to drug use. Providing this endowment aids in removing the stigma surrounding addiction as well as provide research back to the Foundation to help focus future programs and efforts.”

Eastern Washington University (EWU) Rayce Rudeen Music Mentorship Program

The Foundation has collaborated with Eastern Washington’s school of music to develop the RRF Music Mentorship Program. The program fosters healthy, interactive music and mentoring opportunities for area middle school students attending underserved schools and districts by providing early musical engagement, skill development, mentor-provided musical training, and performance in a year-end recital. The program attempts to break the cycle of low-income ‘survival’ to ‘striving’ for a better future by inviting students to visit the EWU Campus, exposing a mindset that college is attainable.

Addiction Help Finder

Nobody should have to fight addiction alone. To support those struggling with drug use and their families, we are building a central online hub to find and access prevention, treatment, recovery, and family support resources in the Spokane area.

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S.A.F.E. (Spokane Alliance for Fentanyl Education)

The Rayce Rudeen Foundation has partnered with the DEA’s Operation Engage, an ongoing project uniting community leaders to increase awareness about fentanyl and provide education to all demographic groups in our community.

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NARCAN® Training

In partnership with the WSU College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals Sciences, we offer training for Washington nurses to administer NARCAN®, the nasal spray version of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, in the event of an overdose. Along with this training, the Rayce Rudeen Foundation provides NARCAN® training kits for each nurse to take back to their school. In 2021, we added a new element to this training: a protocol session focused on procedures for the school to follow—as well as follow-up resources to connect students’ families with addiction counseling and treatment.

Through our free Narcan Training, you’ll learn about the current trends of the opioid epidemic, recognize an opioid overdose, understand how Narcan works in the body, and how to administer it. In 2024, we introduced the inclusion of one OneBox Narcan kit per organization that participates in our training.

To learn more about our free Narcan/Naloxone training, please email us at [email protected].

Community Conversations

We are leading our community toward a united and compassionate response to the epidemic of addiction. By hosting roundtable discussions, community events, and both unifying and educating community leaders and members, we are empowering our community to fight addiction—together.

Rayce Rudeen Foundation Race

When Kevin Rudeen lost his son to a fentanyl overdose, the racing community was there for him. A team owner of sprint cars for almost 30 years, Kevin founded an annual race to honor his son. The Rayce Rudeen Foundation Race engages the racing community nation-wide in empowering communities to fight addiction.

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Annual Holiday Concert

We carry forward Rayce Rudeen’s love of music with an annual holiday concert to rally the Spokane community around our vision for a healthy community, free from addiction. The Rayce Rudeen Foundation matches ticket sales to support organizations fighting addiction in our community.

2020: Millwood Impact. This donation allowed Millwood Impact to provide food to families in the Millwood community

2021: Compassionate Addiction Treatment

WSU College of Nursing Internships

Each semester, we work with WSU College of Nursing interns to conduct research in areas of addiction. In 2021, we worked with five interns who worked wholeheartedly in helping the Rayce Rudeen Foundation develop an asset map for our community. Their work and research with local agencies gave the Rayce Rudeen Foundation great insight into the gaps in our system. This work also helped us in the first steps of organizing the logistics of an asset map. To honor the interns’ work and their professor, the Rayce Rudeen Foundation donated $5,000 to the College of Nursing Dean’s Excellence Fund and created an endowment to support ongoing research into addiction.

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