BELLEFONTE — In an effort to help fight the growing opioid epidemic in Centre County, local leaders are looking to apply for a federal grant to add or expand current programming.
Director of Criminal Justice Programming Keri Miller discussed the grant submission with the county commissioners at the March 5 board meeting. The maximum allowed for the grant from the federal Commission on Crime and Delinquency for Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Programs fund would be $150,000. Miller said the county is working with the Centre County Hope Initiative to best determine how to potentially use the grant money if it is received. March 18 is the deadline to submit the application.
“Eight projects are expected to be funded. These are federal funds not state funds, and funds can be used to support new projects or expand existing projects, but not for continuations. So we have some ideas with the efforts of the HOPE Initiative and our strategic plan and we are going to submit an application to further those goals,” said Miller.
Commissioner Steven Dershem who is a chair member of the HOPE Initiative said education and treatment are two areas where the money could be spent.
“We are trying to find a warm handoff program that works so that when someone is in crisis we can encourage them to get to a treatment program. That is one of the things we hear in Centre County that we sort of lack right now that we could put some energy into. That’s my hope of what this would benefit,” said Dershem.
Commissioner Mark Higgins said that while efforts have been made to get people to treatment sooner, there is still work to be done to get people in crisis to treatment the “day of or the day after” an incident.
“The reality is that you can kind of bring the horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. So you can get people to the program, but you can’t force them into the program. And giving them the gentle nudge that sometimes they need is what we are trying to do and giving them the incentives to get them involved. It is not a perfect program, but I think we can make some progress and hopefully make a difference in some lives,” said Dershem.
Board Chairman Michael Pipe said the fact the county is far ahead of other counties with programs like the HOPE Initiative puts them in a good spot to get the competitive grant. The commissioners agreed to add the grant submission to next week’s consent agenda.
