WASHINGTON, DC — The Eastern Panhandle Stands to gain part of a 1.8 Million dollar allotment to the Northern District of West Virginia from the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP). The Department on Tuesday announced grant awards totaling more than $300 million nationwide to help combat America’s substance use crisis, which has worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. In the Northern District of West Virginia, more than $1.8 million was awarded.
US Attorney Bill Ihlenfeld’s office announced Berkeley County has been awarded $900,000 to support the Berkeley County Day Report Center. The Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Site-Based Program (COSSAP) will provide an opportunity for Berkeley County to support those most vulnerable in the community to the opioid crisis – the children. Working in partnership with Berkeley County Schools, and the Martinsburg Initiative the program, hosted by the Berkeley Recovery Resource Center, will provide Peer Recovery services to address treatment and intervention needs primarily for students and secondarily, their family members, strengthen social services where children have been impacted by drug addition to connect them to community services, and provide sustaining funds to Project AWARE, an ongoing initiative of the Berkeley County School system whose overarching goal is to improve the mental health and wellbeing of all school-aged children. The long-term goal of the community is to curtail opioid use, supporting all citizens to lead productive, healthy lives.
Morgan County was awarded $702,864 for the Morgan County Partnership. The MCP will use funding to create an initiative to improve outcomes for opioid and substance use affected youth and families in a rural West Virginia. MCP will coordinate a multi-sector collaboration among child welfare agencies, school-based mental health providers, criminal justice systems, behavioral health providers, and other community-based organizations to provide parent education, and school-based substance use prevention programming and therapeutic supports. MCP will partner with Court Appointed Special Advocates of the Eastern Panhandle and Shenandoah Valley Health Care System’s Family Resource Center to provide youth mentorship supports to justice-involved abused and neglected opioid affected youth in the foster care system, with the overarching goal to promote public safety and provide evidence-based interventions.