The Center for Drug-Free Living, Inc. Receives $3,743,300 in Federal Grant Funds to Combat Substance Abuse in Central Florida

The Center for Drug-Free Living, Inc. was awarded $3,343,000 in Federal grant funds to develop six new programs.

• Strengthening Access and Retention Orange County Outpatient Services - Awarded $200,000 per year for three (3) years.
• Central Florida Ecstasy TCE (TANC II) Seminole and Orange County - Awarded $343,000 for one (1) year.
• Pregnant and Post-Partum Women & Infants Program Orange County Women's Residential Program - Awarded $500,000 per year for three (3) years.
• The B.E.S.T. Adolescent Initiative Brevard County Outpatient Treatment Services - Awarded $250,000 per year for three (3) years.
• Food For Thought, Ivey Lane/Mercy Drive Village Houses® - Orange County Awarded $50,000 for One (1) year.
• Holden Heights Empowerment Project Orange County - Awarded $100,000 for one year

The Center for Drug-Free Living, Inc. is a not-for-profit community-based, substance abuse treatment and prevention agency serving the residents of Central Florida regardless of age, sex, race, creed or ability to pay. Serving the Central Florida community with quality human services for over 30 years, The Center For Drug-Free Living has developed a diverse regimen of treatment, intervention and prevention services to help its clients develop healthy and responsible lifestyles.

Federal Grant Summaries

The primary funding source for the grants were divisions within the Department of Health and Human Services; the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) of the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)and the Office of Community Services and Administration of Children and Families Compassion Capital Targeted Building Fund.

Strengthening Access and Retention: SAMHSA/CSAT

This project presents a unique opportunity for The Center to systematically analyze its existing outpatient care process in Orange County to identify and remove barriers to client access and retention. We will also be evaluating the effects of Motivational Enhancement Therapy upon client access and retention. Engaging clients, motivating them toward change and improving overall systems will improve treatment outcomes for persons engaged in both outpatient substance abuse treatment and CENTAUR (CENTral Florida AIDS Unified Resources) HIV/AIDS. This grant will also provide The Center with an opportunity to develop a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation "Path to Recovery" program and the National Learning Community, A Program located at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison which will direct the Process Improvement activities.

Central Florida Ecstasy TCE (TANC II): SAMHSA/CSAP

This project is designed to impact both the shared and the individual environments of youth and proposes a coordinated community-based approach to addressing the risks of ecstasy and other club drug use. The Center for Drug-Free Living proposes to develop a stronger prevention infrastructure through a community-based prevention education campaign and deliver a targeted prevention intervention through the expansion of the current TANC house project.

The Goals of the program are to develop a prevention infrastructure that increases access and availability to quality information with regard to ecstasy and Club drugs; increase accurate perception of harm associated with ecstasy and accurate use norms among targeted students, parents and community members and to determine the effectiveness of TANC program with the target population in preventing, delaying or reducing vulnerability to the use of ecstasy and club drugs. The TANC house project will provide an after school program and safe haven for youth in areas highest risk for exposure to ecstasy and club drugs.

In both Orange and Seminole counties, use rates of club drugs are higher than the State of Florida and national averages. In Seminole County use accelerates between sixth and eighth grade. Only .07% of sixth graders report the use of ecstasy; this figure increases to 11.5% of eighth graders. By twelfth grade, 15.2% of students report use. Efforts to halt the initiation of ecstasy by 12-14 year olds in Seminole county and Orlando are critical. This project will improve community engagement in ecstasy and club drug prevention and intervention efforts while building the protective factors in at risk, targeted communities.

Pregnant and Post-Partum Women & Infants Program: SAMHSA/CSAT

This program will expand the capacity of The Center's current Pregnant and Post Partum Women's and Infants program. The PPWI targeted capacity expansion provides for the addition of nine treatment slots dedicated for pregnant and post-partum women and infants. These additional treatment slots will provide an estimated twelve additional women and children per year in this scientifically sound, successful treatment model. PPWI provides safe, stable living arrangements with comprehensive individualized, highly professional, culturally appropriate and sensitive, women specific, on site services for substance abusing women and their infants/children.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Florida Dept. of Children and Families estimate that an infant born with drug exposure can cost a minimum of $750,000 up to the age of 18 in health care, developmental delays and other related issues. To that end, this program has saved the State of Florida in excess of $222 million. Since October 1993, 337 women have successfully treated, and 306 babies have been born drug-free and of normal birth weight.

The BEST Adolescent Initiative: Brevard Outpatient Treatment: SAMHSA/CSAT

In an effort to address the alcohol and drug abuse treatment needs of adolescents in the Central Florida - Brevard County area, The Center For Drug - Free Living, Inc. received funds to increase access to outpatient treatment through the expansion and enhancement of an existing outpatient treatment program. The B.E.S.T. (Brevard – Enhanced & Strengthened Treatment) Adolescent Initiative will add capacity to serve sixty (60) adolescents per year, (one-hundred eighty (180) over the life of the grant), targeting those who may be involved in the Juvenile Justice or Child Welfare systems or who face disciplinary action at school. Additionally, this expansion will improve the effectiveness of alcohol and drug abuse treatment through the adoption of Motivational Enhancement Therapy/Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - 5 sessions (MET/CBT 5).

The Central Florida - Brevard County area, once a quite community known only for its attractions, beaches and tourists, has become one of the major hubs for illegal drug use and trafficking in the Nation. As a result, adolescent drug overdoses, juvenile crime, HIV/AIDS cases and, drug related arrests are at alarmingly high rates. Because of the tremendous level of need and shortage of adolescent treatment programming, The Center For Drug - Free Living, Inc., is proposing The B.E.S.T. Adolescent Initiative in order to expand and enhance services for adolescents with substance use disorders.

The B.E.S.T. Adolescent Initiative has three (3) goals. (1) Enhance Brevard County adolescent outpatient treatment services through the adoption of Motivational Enhancement Therapy/Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - 5 sessions (MET/CBT 5); (2) Increase the number of adolescents in Brevard County with substance use disorders who access and complete outpatient treatment through the expansion of much needed, cost effective, treatment services that serve an additional sixty (60) adolescents per year; and (3) Provide a full continuum of treatment and ancillary services to promote the health, physical, social and cognitive development of adolescents.

Food For Thought: DHHS/OCS/ACF: Compassion Capital Fund Capacity Building Program

Food for Thought program will expand the current capacity of the Ivey Lane/Mercy Drive Corridor Village Houses to provide services to children and their families. The key improvement is the enhancement of the Village House programming efforts targeting entire families through the inclusion of the Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and Communities program. This funding provides the Village House with the staff to offer (2) ten week family strengthening sessions, held over the dinner hour, as well as to support evaluation of the program.

The Village House Program®, based on the premise that it takes a village to raise a child, is a program in which neighborhood residents volunteer their homes as safe havens and activity centers, particularly during those critical, often unsupervised, after-school hours between 3-6 PM. Village Houses have been operating in the Ivey Lane/Mercy Drive Corridor since l997, when The Center, in response to residents' pleas for a safe haven program began partnering with area home owners to develop these safe havens. There are now 18 houses operating in the Ivey Lane/Mercy Drive area. The village House is celebrated as a model program and has received numerous awards including recognition by the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association and the Florida Department of Children and Families as a Best Practice in Prevention.

Now in response to parents' requests for more involvement and support, Food for Thought, will be piloted as a way to strengthen families and provide a social support system for families living in the Ivey Lane/Mercy Drive Corridor.

Holden Heights Empowerment Project: SAMHSA/CSAP

The Holden Heights Empowerment Project (HHEP) is a collaborative among The Center and grassroots community organizations to provide substance abuse and HIV prevention programming for populations who are disproportionately impacted by the AIDS epidemic. An application of social norms using Club Hero, a CSAP promising prevention model, the project enables individuals, families, and communities to strengthen their relationships of support and their protection against substance abuse and HIV/AIDS. It is anticipated that this project will result in the development of an effective prevention model for nationwide replication among other community-based agencies.

The program targets the Holden Heights area of Orlando, Orange County, Florida, a community determined to thwart the economic and social forces that have contributed to the deterioration of urban neighborhoods nationwide. The project will complement existing neighborhood improvement initiatives, providing a much-needed component to improve family functioning and mitigate the risks of deviant behavior among the community's youth.

The project will serve a minimum of 50 children, ages 6 to 17, and their parents each year for a total projected participation of 250 youth and their families. Youth will receive training in life skills such as ATOD education, HIV/AIDS education, conflict resolution, peer relations, community service, and goal setting. Parents will participate in community service projects with their children and serve as targets of a social norms campaign to enhance awareness of parental roles in appropriate youth development and behavior. Both parents and youth may participate in experiential education and individual family life skills training.

The project's goals are to increase enhance self-efficacy among youth, increase attachment to community and school, reduce the incidence and severity of substance use among youth, and improve parental competence. It is further expected that program participants will gain a greater understanding of factors contributing to drug use, develop strategies for protecting against adverse influences, and commit to sustaining positive familial and community relationships.

THE CENTER FOR DRUG - FREE LIVING, INC.

MISSION STATEMENT

THE CENTER FOR DRUG-FREE LIVING IS COMMITTED TO PROVIDING INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY THE SKILLS TO ACHIEVE AND MAINTAIN HEALTHY RESPONSIBLE LIFESTYLES. WE WILL DEVELOP AND OFFER THE HIGHEST QUALITY PREVENTION, INTERVENTION AND TREATMENT SERVICES AT THE MOST REASONABLE COST BY DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE MOST APPROPRIATE PARTNERS. WE WILL PRESERVE AND RESPECT THE DIGNITY OF THE PEOPLE WE SERVE AND THOSE WITH WHOM WE WORK.

WE VALUE:

THE ABILITY OF EACH INDIVIDUAL TO IMPROVE; THE NEEDS OF THE WHOLE PERSON; AND, THE NEED FOR RESPECT AND DIGNITY OF EACH INDIVIDUAL.

WE BELIEVE:

THE CENTER SHOULD BE FLEXIBLE AND DYNAMIC; THE CENTER SHOULD PROVIDE THE HIGHEST QUALITY CARE AT THE MOST REASONABLE COST; THE STAFF AND SERVICES SHOULD REFLECT THE MAKE-UP OF THE COMMUNITY; THE CENTER SHOULD MAXIMIZE RESOURCES BY DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS WITHIN THE COMMUNITY; AND, THE CENTER SHOULD ASSUME A LEADERSHIP ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF SCIENCE-BASED PROGRAMS.