By Jeane Bock, coordinator, LaPorte County Drug Free Partnership
Thank you, LaPorte County judges! Because our judges have been so diligent in collecting drug offense related fines, The Drug Free Partnership is awarding more than $100,000 in grants this year.
Jeane Bock
How does this work? Funding is obtained through court-imposed fines from convicted alcohol and drug-related offenders. By state law, it is placed into the Community Drug Free Fund. Seventy-five percent of these funds are annually awarded through a grant process to community organizations and individuals involved in designing and implementing projects and services addressing the actions recommended in the Drug Free Partnership’s County Plan. The Partnership attacks this complicated issue via a three-pronged approach: prevention and education, treatment, and justice.
Nineteen LaPorte County programs are being funded, including seven new projects. One of these is Superior Court 1’s re-entry program, focusing on providing needed services to offenders, at a grant amount of $5,150. Other first-time projects include New Prairie Middle School’s mentoring program for $5,927; Minority Health Coalition, $3,316 for an Alcohol Risk Reduction Education Series Training for minority youth; and Swanson Center’s Summer Youth Program, $8,000.
Michigan City Commission on the Status of African American Males after-school program will receive $4,875, while Swanson Center’s Intensive Outpatient Program will utilize $9,500 to subsidize treatment for court referred and community clients who cannot afford services. In the county jail, the Moral Reconations Therapy Program is receiving $5,760 for programming for incarcerated women.
Continuation funding will support:
– Justice grants: Teen Court, LaPorte; $7,580; Teen Court, Michigan City, $8,490; LaPorte Metro Operations Drug Task Force: $7,000; Michigan City Narcotics Task Force $10,000 for surveillance equipment; Michigan City Police Dept., $1,552 for continuing drug education.
– Prevention grants: TRIAD prescription pill drops, $1,000; LaPorte Community Schools Project Ed, $4,000; Boys and Girls Club programming, $7,500.
– Treatment grants: PACT Bradley Center, $127 for educational materials; Open Door Adolescent Treatment Center at Michigan City High School, $8,250; County Jail Substance Abuse Treatment, $5,000; YANA Service Club, $930.
Subsequent columns will focus on some of these programs so you can hear firsthand what is going on in our county, the problems we see, the stories we hear, and what is being done to address them.
THE LAPORTE COUNTY DRUG FREE PARTNERSHIP, formed in 1989, is one of the 15 counties in the Northwest Region of the Governor’s Commission for a Drug Free Indiana. Members include concerned citizens and representatives from any county organizations interested in helping to solve problems caused by substance abuse/addiction in LaPorte County.
