News Release
January 17,
2013
Contact: Steve
Davis, Court Communications Officer, (515)725-8058
Iowa
Judicial Branch Receives Two Federal Grants
Des
Moines, January 17, 2013 —
The Iowa Judicial Branch, along with the Iowa Department of Human Services,
Iowa Department of Public Health, and the Governor's Office on Drug Control
Policy, recently received one of seventeen new federal Regional Partnership
Grants to address the safety and well-being of children whose parents have
substance-related disorders and are involved with the child welfare
system. The five-year grant is for $500,000 a year and will serve 350
families.
The grant
will fund the development of a pilot project in Wapello County that provides
individualized care plans for families based on specific needs identified
through trauma-informed assessments. The services will focus on the well-being
of the children and families. Children and parents will take two parenting
skills and family functioning classes and receive post recovery support
services. The Wapello County project partners are the Iowa Department of Human
Services, First Resources, and Four Oaks.
The grant
will also fund both multidisciplinary and profession-specific training. The
multidisciplinary training will prepare members of the child welfare and
substance abuse treatment fields for collaborative efforts. The
profession-specific trainings will target child welfare professionals,
substance abuse treatment professionals, and judicial and legal professionals.
All trainings will be statewide and continue after completion of the grant.
An evaluation
will be conducted by Drs. Jody Brook and Becci Akin from the University of
Kansas, School of Social Welfare in Lawrence, Kansas. The evaluation plan
incorporates a multi-method approach to collect data that will be used to
assess the extent to which the project is implemented as planned and objectives
are achieved.
The Iowa
Judicial Branch also received a two-year continuation of a Parents and Children
Together: A Family Drug Court Initiative (PACT) grant originally awarded in
November, 2007. The grant funds family treatment courts in six counties. The
continuation is for $500,000 a year for two years. The two-year
continuation grant will fund family treatment courts in Wapello, Polk, Linn,
Scott, and Woodbury counties, and the combined court in Cherokee and Ida
counties. Family treatment courts offer a comprehensive approach to treating
parents with substance-related disorders, while maintaining the goal of
reuniting the family.
PACT grant
activities will focus on continued implementation of the six family treatment
courts with ongoing training and information sharing between the sites and
state level partners. The grant also funds case planning that involves entire
families to promote family self-sufficiency, family treatment services,
increased family support, and additional children's services.
The original
PACT grant was for parents with younger children, from birth to five years old.
The continuation grant is for children from birth to 10 years old. The family
treatment courts plan to serve an additional 180 families over the next two
years. Iowa was one of only eight states to receive a continuation grant.
Through the
original five-year grant, the six family treatment courts served 399 families
comprising 481 parents or caregivers and 773 children. More than half the
children were in foster care or staying with other family members for safety
reasons prior to their parent or parents enrolling in treatment court. Of those
children, nearly 80 percent were reunited with their families when their parent
or parents completed treatment court. Estimates show that the family
treatment courts have generated more than $2 million dollars in cost avoidance
for the state in their first five years of operation.
Both of these
grants were awarded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services'
Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau entitled: "Targeted
Grant to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for
Children Affected by Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse."
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2013
Iowa
Supreme Court
1111
East Court Avenue
Des
Moines, IA 50319
515-281-3952
