County Opioid Committee Selects 4 Areas For Grant Application
County Opioid Committee Selects 4 Areas For Grant Application
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
County Opioid Committee Selects 4 Areas For Grant ApplicationA short, tight deadline to apply for the State of Indiana Opioid Settlement Match Grant has the county’s opioid committee hustling to fill out the application.
During a meeting Thursday afternoon, the committee figured out four areas to apply for grant money toward and the amounts they plan to seek.
The county already has received a total of $266,561.25 from the national opioid settlement, which will be used as the county’s matching portion toward the grant, if the county is awarded it, and will seek the grant to double that amount. With the combined approximate $530,000, the committee would like $45,000 to go toward additional mental health counseling in the jail; $45,000 toward Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI); $240,000 toward CARES (Community Assistance, Resources and Emergency Services) counselors in the county, outside of the city of Warsaw; and $200,000 toward Fellowship Missions’ need for more space.
The Kosciusko County Commissioners will be asked to approve the plan at their Tuesday meeting.
The grant application must be submitted by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday to the Family & Social Services Administration, Division of Mental Health and Addiction. The request for funding was only released Jan. 31, with respondents to be notified May 1 if they’ve received any money. The projects are to start July 1 and end June 30, 2025.
Beginning the committee meeting Thursday, County Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell said, “So today’s meeting, our goal is to address the details for trying to file for this grant. We would like to say this was a sprint - this is not a sprint, this is a run for your life because we’ve only got until Tuesday.”
Even if the county doesn’t get any money back, she said, “we have at least increased the awareness, not among you providers, but among the county of where we need to head and what else needs to be done. So, at this point, that would be our goal: to move forward, hopefully we’ll get some money, but if we don’t get money, then we need to have a backup plan, which obviously that comes next.”
Their first objective Thursday was to identify what they wanted to include in the grant.
Mitchell said at the last committee meeting, held Feb. 16, they heard about how juveniles need to be a big part of what they’re trying to get turned around. She also said about everyone at the last meeting supported the JCAP (Jail Chemical Addiction Program) in the county jail, and the sheriff’s department had indicated that more mental health counseling would be “most beneficial” for the jail.
Councilwoman Kathleen Groninger agreed with Mitchell, giving support to JDAI and anything they could do to help prevent youth from winding up in the justice system to begin with. She said more mental health counseling is needed in the total jail, not just for JCAP.
“I believe he said that it was $15,000 a year for one employee or two every other week, so to increase that to once a week would be an additional $15,000,” Groninger said.
She talked about the Fellowship Missions homeless shelter doing a lot to help people with addiction, how the state is pushing for collaborations, and Fellowship Missions is collaborating with the Fort Wayne homeless shelter. Groninger said Fellowship Missions is looking for additional space for counseling and other work.
“We need to look at how we can prevent them from getting in the system to begin with, and then once they’re in the system, what can we do that would be the most effective use of our funds to help them. And then how can we help them in the re-entry back,” Groninger said.
Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory EMS Chief Chris Fancil was in the meeting representing CARES. Groninger said CARES was a very worthy program as well, but it’s “pretty limited to Warsaw.”
Mitchell had a suggestion and asked Fancil, with the small towns in the county also having a chunk of money, if the small towns were willing to funnel some of that money into what’s already been started with CARES to buy some Narcan, would that be a help to him? Fancil said first responders get the Narcan from WWFT for free anyway as it’s provided through a grant from the Indiana State Department of Health. Mitchell then asked about the outlying units forming something like CARES to help their communities when the need is there.
“From the beginning, when we formed the CARES group and started doing what we do, the idea was, we included (former sheriff) Kyle (Dukes) in those original meetings. And when he couldn’t come, Travis (Marsh) would come. We talked about either the county having a parallel program, or just expanding the program that would encompass all of it. And, really, in a perfect world, we would find a way to make it a countywide program, but not reinvent the wheel to do it,” Fancil stated.
He said it took a long time to build the program. In an utopian setting, there would be a program funded by the county and the city and there wouldn’t be any barriers except the county lines.
“Because I think this is a universal problem. This isn’t a Wayne Township problem. This is now a national problem. But if we could find a way to make that work, at some point, I think that would be smoother than having two parallels that were tripping over each other and rebuilding things. And from a grant perspective, it would be so much easier to pursue grant opportunities and funding opportunities if we approached from a countywide standpoint than if we did from Syracuse, Warsaw, North Webster, whatever,” Fancil said.
Live Well Kosciusko President and CEO Lisa Harman said, “I think there are people who never actually make it into the criminal justice system who are functional but who are dealing with mental health issues and need help. I feel like that program kind of helps those individuals.”
Fancil said the CARES program started out with a mental health focus to help take some of the weight off law enforcement’s shoulders. “But what I’ve learned, and I’ve been around for a while, but what I had to learn with this new function is that mental health and substance abuse are really the same discussions,” he said.
Later, Groninger said she gets into the jail on the jail ministry team. “Almost all of those people have mental health issues as well as substance abuse. It’s sad. It’s really sad,” she said.
“And that’s what I mean - it takes a village to really try to address this,” Fancil agreed.
Mitchell said the good news about the grant is that it doesn’t say they have to have everything nailed down when the application is sent to them. “They realize it’s a work in progress,” she said.
Groninger said every program represented at the first committee meeting were all worthy, but some projects already seemed to have grant funding.
The committee came up with four areas for the grant first - juveniles, homeless, jail and CARES. After identifying those, the committee had to figure out how many dollars to apply for. The $45,000 for mental health counseling for the jail was based on tripling what is currently spent. The $240,000 for CARES was based on three counselors (salary plus benefits) to work outside the city. The $200,000 for the shelter was providing them a substantial amount for their space needs, while the $45,000 for JDAI was an estimate but Mitchell planned to talk to the women in charge of that program before confirming the dollar amount.
After the committee approved a motion for the plan, Mitchell said she would work on the grant application on Saturday. The committee will meet at 1 p.m. Monday to review the grant application.
