The Four County ADAMhs Board learned that it has been awarded two grants totaling some $211,000 at its October 8 meeting.
The largest grant totals $180,000 and is spread over two years. It was awarded by the OneOhio Recovery Foundation, which is responsible for awarding some of the funds that Ohio received as a result of an opioid settlement agreement with several pharmaceutical companies.
The Four County board will use the grant to contract with Harbor of Toledo to provide supported employment services for individuals with substance use issues so they can gain and maintain jobs.
The other grant totals $31,000 from the Safer Communities grant. It is designed to assure that all Ohio counties have a behavioral health disaster preparedness plan in place. For the last two years, Four County and other northwest Ohio ADAMhs boards have worked together to develop behavioral health mass disaster response plans.
This year’s grant will fund trainings for two programs that will increase the number of persons who are trained in CISM (critical incident stress management) and the number of behavioral health professionals trained in EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing).
Both of these programs are effective when persons have experienced any type of traumatic event.
Board CEO Tonie Long reported that the board has received funding for two more programs: $60,000 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and $16,608 from the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health.
The SAMHSA funds will again be used by the Patrick Henry school system to support mental health awareness training, vaping prevention strategies, trauma informed care and parent sessions on various topics.
The $16,608 from the state will be used by the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio to provide inmates with alcohol and other drug education programs as well as medical supervision to assist inmates experiencing withdrawal and subsequent treatment.
The board approved $45,000 in local funding for Recovery Services of Northwest Ohio and OhioGuidestone to provide transitional housing for individuals in recovery. Board CEO Tonie Long explained that the local funding should be sufficient until additional state funds for the transitional housing are expected next April.
Five contracts related to youth substance use prevention were also approved by the board.
Specifically, the Defiance County sheriff’s office will receive $7,500 for DARE programming in county school systems as well as summer DARE camps and lock-ins.
The Fulton County prosecutor’s office will receive $6,500 to support school-based DARE programming and the village of Fayette will receive $1,000 to provide school-based substance abuse programming in the Fayette school district.
A $4,000 contract with the city of Napoleon was approved to fund a school-based substance abuse awareness and education program in the Napoleon City Schools that will be administered by the Napoleon police department.
And, the Williams County juvenile court was awarded $5,000 to support the STARS camp (Students Taking Accountability and Responsibility for Success).
During her CEO report to the board, Long said that she intends to sign an agreement with a Columbus area law firm to advise the board on legal issues — primarily contracts. The firm Fishel Downey Albrecht & Riepenhoff of New Albany provides similar services for several other ADAMhs Boards along with Defiance County, and the cities of Bryan, Napoleon and Defiance.
She added a number of mini-billboards and yard signs, along with ads, have been placed promoting the board’s seven-tenths mill, 5-year renewal levy that voters in Defiance, Fulton, Henry and Williams counties will decide next month.
The issue is a pure renewal levy (not a new tax) that will generate some $2.93 million a year for a variety of behavioral health treatment and prevention services. It was first approved by voters in 1982.
— Press Release
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