Community Partnerships to Address the Opioid Crisis

OVC’s mission is to enhance the Nation’s capacity to assist crime victims and provide leadership in changing attitudes, policies, and practices to promote justice and healing for all victims of crime. OVC achieves this mission, in part, by administering discretionary award programs supported by the federal Crime Victims Fund to develop innovative training and technical assistance, and to provide direct services to improve the overall quality of victim assistance. The purpose of the FY 2018 Enhancing Community Responses to the Opioid Crisis: Serving Our Youngest Crime Victims is to address an urgent gap in crime victim services related to the opioid epidemic and to expand upon existing or establish new programs to provide services to children and youth who are victimized as a result of the opioid crisis. The overarching goal of this program is to support children and youth who are crime victims of the opioid crisis by providing direct services and support to these young victims at a community or jurisdictional level. With this award, Northeast Treatment Centers, Inc., (NET) will identify vulnerable families through an enhanced admission process and community outreach to provide evidence-based parenting education and Recovery Cafes; support treatment and recovery of parents and caregivers involved in the child welfare system; integrate our child welfare and addiction services through training and the addition of a Recovery Peer specialist; develop educational flyers to be distributed to schools and community organizations. The project will provide traditional and medication-assisted modalities through outpatient and residential settings. The project will identify parents or families not known to child welfare and also serve children and youth known to authorities. Community teams will integrate child welfare interventions with drug and alcohol treatment for caretakers.