The Dubois County Community Foundation has been awarded a Large-Scale Community Leadership Grant of $4.4 million through the seventh phase of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT VII) initiative.
The grant will support efforts to significantly improve access to services that address mental health and substance abuse disorders in Dubois County and the surrounding region.
Backed by its strategic plan, the foundation began research in 2018 to better understand the root cause issues affecting the community, how nonprofit organizations are addressing them, and the overall impact of its grantmaking. They launched a community coalition in March comprised of approximately 40 community members and stakeholders across sectors to focus on implementing evidence-based, sustainable strategies that address this issue. The work of the community coalition helped inform a strong proposal requesting $4.4 million that was developed by Community Foundation staff, with input from community partners, and submitted in August. Notification of full funding was received on December 1.
Like many communities across the state, Dubois County is significantly impacted by substance abuse and unaddressed mental health issues often exacerbated by a shortage of resources. The demand for services to address basic needs continues to rise despite a strong local economy. The presence of an unaddressed behavioral health issue impacts the ability to maintain employment and housing, increases risk of criminogenic behavior and weakens the family structure.
“The lack of access to mental health services and substance abuse treatment in the county and surrounding region is an urgent and critical need,” said Clayton Boyles, executive director of the Community Foundation. “Through this large-scale funding opportunity, we’ve been given the opportunity to drastically change the trajectory of many lives in our region. Lilly Endowment’s partnership through this grant will be a catalyst to moving forward a holistic plan built by our community to address this complex issue.”
The scope of this initiative includes strategies that are diverse and broad, including but not limited to evidence-based, cognitive behavior programs for substance abuse treatment, residential treatment facilities, recovery housing, workforce attraction and retention of mental health professionals as well as public education and prevention efforts.
Earlier this fall, the foundation approached the City of Jasper with a plan to create the county’s first women’s recovery home in a city-owned property. This is one of the projects included in the Lilly Grant. Here are more details on that project.
“We listened to our community and what surfaced was the prevalence of behavioral health issues and the shortage of resources,” Boyles said. “The lack of access to mental health services and substance abuse treatment in our county has a significant ripple effect on our families, employers, public systems, nonprofit resources and overall quality of life in our community.”
The grant includes the following community partners and funding recipients to work on eleven projects.
Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center will receive funding to assist in recruiting and retaining mental health professionals as well as make improvements to the Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit facilities.
LifeSpring Health Systems to recruit and retain mental health professionals as well as start-up two residential treatment facilities (one for men and one for women), create an evidence-based substance abuse prevention/intervention program for high-risk youth and the women’s recovery home start-up costs.
Dubois County CARES will receive funding to help in prevention and education efforts on parent and youth substance abuse as well as creating a part-time Youth Coalition Development Coordinator position.
Dubois County Community Corrections will receive grant funding to expand its MRT program as well as help fund case manager and program facilitator positions.
Next Step Recovery Home’s will receive funds to help efforts to create a men’s recovery home.
“The 11 grants Lilly Endowment is funding through the highly-competitive component of GIFT VII hold great promise of helping community foundations strengthen the leadership roles they play in improving the quality of life for their communities’ residents” said Ronni Kloth, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for community development. “We are truly impressed by the collaborative projects these community foundations have developed to address the compelling needs they have prioritized and look forward to seeing the impact of their efforts in the years to come.”
The Community Foundation will be awarded the full grant payout in 2020. Disbursements to community partners will begin in 2021 and continue through 2025.
Dubois County Community Foundation is one of 11 community foundations in Indiana to receive a Large-Scale Leadership Grant as part of a competitive component of the GIFT VII initiative. Through GIFT VII, Lilly Endowment encouraged Indiana’s community foundations to deepen their understanding of the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing their local communities, prioritize them and develop plans to address the challenges and opportunities. Source:duboiscountyfreepress.com
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