Get Funding to Expand Youth Substance Abuse Treatment

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), and the U. S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJ), is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2009 Grants to Expand Substance Abuse Treatment Capacity for Juvenile Drug Courts. The purpose of this program is to enhance the capacity of existing juvenile drug courts to serve substance-abusing juvenile offenders through the integration and implementation of the Juvenile Drug Court: Strategies in Practice, and the Reclaiming Futures program models.

The juvenile drug court is a special court docket approach that builds community partnerships and enhances the capacity of the partners to assist in rehabilitating nonviolent substance-abusing youth through an innovative, integrated approach that reflects the community’s norms, values, resources, and needs. (For more information on the key elements of a juvenile drug court, see Appendix I.) The Juvenile Drug Courts: Strategies in Practice model has been used to implement and operate Juvenile Drug Courts. The RWJ Reclaiming Futures model has been effective in combining community system reforms, substance abuse treatment improvement and community engagement to help youth break the cycle of drugs and crime. SAMHSA/CSAT funds will be used to fund the screening, assessment, and treatment components of the Reclaiming Futures model.

(For more information on The Six Stages of the Reclaiming Futures model, see Appendix J.) The integration and implementation of the Juvenile Drug Courts: Strategies in Practice, and Reclaiming Futures program models will enhance the capacity of communities to provide intervention, treatment, and structure to young people whose lives have begun a downward spiral of substance abuse and delinquent activity. Under this program, grantees will receive two separate awards: OJJDP will fund the juvenile drug court component and CSAT will fund the substance abuse treatment component. Please note that OJJDP will make a one-time award, up to $425,000 (match is required), per grantee for the entire four year grant period, while CSAT will make annual awards, up to $200,000, per grantee for each year of the four year grant period. Therefore, grantees must have a system in place to track substance abuse treatment and juvenile drug court grant fund expenditures separately.

Grantees will also be required to submit separate documentation to OJJDP for their Grants Management System and adhere to their statutory requirements for juvenile drug courts. For more information on OJJDP’s statutory requirements for juvenile drug courts, go to http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/funding/FundingDetail.asp?fi=118. Juvenile Drug Courts is one of SAMHSA’s services grant programs. SAMHSA’s services grants are designed to address gaps in substance abuse treatment services and/or to increase the ability of States, units of local government, American Indian/Alaska Native Tribes and tribal organizations, and community- and faith-based organizations to help specific populations or geographic areas with serious, emerging substance abuse problems.

SAMHSA intends that its services grants result in the delivery of services as soon as possible after award. Service delivery should begin by the 4th month of the project at the latest. Juvenile Drug Court grants are authorized under Sections 501 (d)(18) and 509 of the Public Health Service Act, as amended, and 42 U.S.C. Section 3797a.

This announcement addresses Healthy People 2010 focus area 26 (Substance Abuse).