Friday, October 12, 2007
Iowa Receives Federal Grant For Family Drug Courts
(Des Moines) A new federal grant will help fund three new family drug courts and expand two existing family drug courts in Iowa. Family drug courts emphasize treatment for drug addicted parents so they have a better chance of keeping their families together. Administration for Children, Youth and Families Commissioner Joan Ohl presented the grant award to Chief Justice Marsha Ternus in September.
Governor Culver offered his congratulations. “This grant will help many of Iowa’s children, by addressing their parents’ underlying addictions. The costs associated with substance abuse are high and our children often pay the highest price. I commend the work being done in the Iowa Judicial system to address this problem and build stronger families.”
The grant will fund judge-led collaboratives that are centered on family drug courts. The program will focus on the welfare of children with parents who have substance abuse problems, specifically, methamphetamine addiction.
Family drug courts offer a comprehensive approach to treating substance-abusing parents, while maintaining the goal of reuniting the family. The project will ensure that the children have immediate access to the appropriate services necessary to build stronger family units while the parents are in family drug court and the parents continue to receive support and monitoring after the treatment is complete.
The Judicial Branch will work with the Iowa Department of Human Services, the Iowa Department of Public Health, and the Office of Drug Control Policy to implement the program in seven Iowa counties. The grant will fund Parents and Children Together (PACT): A Family Drug Court Initiative in Wapello, Polk, Linn, Scott and the Sioux Tri-County area- Woodbury, Cherokee and Ida counties.
A grant was also presented to Upper Des Moines Opportunity, Inc., a regional partnership formed by nine rural northwest Iowa counties.
Each grant recipient will receive $500,000 a year for five years. The grants were awarded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau and is entitled: Targeted Grant to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for Children Affected by Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse.