Federal grant will help treat substance abuse

Ministers will participate in the substance-abuse prevention program.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Members of the local substance-abuse treatment and prevention community came to celebrate the acquisition of a $500,000 federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services grant.
The announcement was made at a breakfast meeting Monday in the Lifelines office here.
Ken Lloyd, president and CEO of Community Solutions of Warren, said one step of the grant acquisition process was to identify which danger area in the community represented the greatest threat to area teens: substance abuse, violence, pregnancy, mental illness, delinquency or academic failure.
The choice was substance abuse.
"For someone who has worked in the field for two years, it was kind of like, 'duh,'" Lloyd said of the choice. His company will provide programming with the grant funds.
One of the newest components of the programming from the grant is the partnership between substance-abuse professionals and the religious community.
Ministers join in
He said several local ministers have participated in a Trumbull County-wide Red Ribbon panel that has had activities for two years, such as a 5K race and walk, collection drive for charities and public service and poster contests.
Through that process, the ministers have asked how they can help their young people who come to them with substance-abuse problems. The programs resulting from the SAMHSA grant will answer those questions and provide greater participation by the religious community, he said.
Carey Anderson-Keller, coordinator of the Trumbull County Alcohol and Drug-Free Coalition, which will administer the grant, said one of the parts of the programming will be the broad approach to be used.
The approach has been used since last spring in Southington, which serves as a model of the program to be carried out over the next five years.
"Just one thing isn't going to change everything. If we all work together, it will make a difference," she said, explaining that parents, businesses, churches and substance-abuse professionals all become involved.
The Alcohol and Drug-Free Coalition secured $100,000 per year for the next five years from the Office of National Drug Control Policy and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It received approval in September.
In addition to Southington, substance-abuse programming already has started in Newton Falls and anti-bullying programming in the Bloomfield-Mespo school system.
Anderson-Keller said there is a possibility the grant could be continued 10 more years after the current one runs out.
runyan@vindy.com