Area benefits from recovery grant

The state will divide $4.6 million in services among Mahoning, Cuyahoga, Stark and Summit counties.

STAFF REPORT

COLUMBUS — Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services has expanded the service area of its three-year federal “Access to Recovery” grant to include Mahoning County.

Mahoning joins Cuyahoga, Stark and Summit counties in a program that assists substance-abusing Ohioans who are attempting to re-enter their communities after a criminal conviction or incarceration.

The four counties participating in the grant were selected for their high numbers of returning offenders and their proximity to one another, officials say.

Mahoning County, for instance, has about 300 people annually returning to the county from prison, causing the county’s Adult Parole Authority to handle a large caseload of paroled felons, said Eric Wandersleven, communications manager for ODADAS.

The $13.9 million grant, which was awarded to the state agency last October by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, provides adult clients with a wide range of addiction treatment and recovery support services, such as temporary housing, job training, health-care/child-care services and transportation assistance.

With this grant, clients will be able to choose from among a variety of standard, faith-based and community-based recovery services providers, some of which had not been available in Mahoning before.

ODADAS began implementing the grant in February.

Wandersleven said he believes the program will be operational within a couple of months. Those offered the services will be selected by workers from the county Adult Probation Department, he added.

“ATR has successfully touched the lives of more than 780 Ohioans within their communities during the course of the past several months,” said Angela Cornelius Dawson, the ODADAS director. “And now, with the addition of Mahoning County, we will benefit many more,” she said.

ODADAS will divide its nearly $4.6 million-a-year allotment among the four counties.

To qualify for the program, clients returning from prison must be at least 18, have been diagnosed with a substance abuse disorder, and have a family income at or below 200 percent of the poverty level (about $40,000 for a family of four).

For more information on the grant, visit: http://www.atr.samhsa.gov/ or the ATR link on the ODADAS Web site: www.ada.ohio.gov.