P.A.A.R.I. Executive Director Allie Hunter and Tri-County Community Partnership President Annette Kahrs are pleased to announce that Tri-County Community Partnership, in coordination with the State University of New York at Albany (UAlbany), was recently awarded grant funding to evaluate their Hope Not Handcuffs – Hudson Valley (HNH-HV) drug dependency reduction program.
The Tri-County Community Partnership and UAlbany received $288,000 from the Center for Drug Policy and Prevention to work with Associate Professor Dr. Tomoko Udo and to evaluate HNH-HV, a local affiliate of Michigan-based Hope Not Handcuffs that aims to connect persons seeking help to address substance use disorder (SUD) through treatment. The funding is being provided by the Washington/Baltimore HIDTA, the University of Baltimore and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Combating Opioid Overdose through Community-Level Intervention (COOCLI) grant program.
The federal grant will enable Udo and Tri-County Community Partnership to learn more about HNH-HV’s comprehensive and coordinated response. The evaluation of HNH-HV will examine short-term outcomes of the program and the factors associated with successful implementation. The program currently encourages persons who use drugs to enter a local police station or through an appropriate law enforcement referral to be connected with a community volunteer who can provide a substance use treatment option. Using the funding from this grant, HNH-HV will also start offering a peer recovery coach to support sustained recovery after the participant returns to the community from a treatment facility.
“HNH-HV takes an evidence-based, community approach to battling addiction and reduces mortality from drug overdose,” said Udo. “Rather than arresting those struggling with SUD, the program brings law enforcement into the solution to end overdose and addiction in our communities. Better understanding how HNH-HV meets community needs will enable us to tailor our response to get more persons into treatment.”
Kahrs, Program Director of HNH-HV, agrees that this funding is supporting work that has the ability to make a significant impact.
“We are excited to expand and offer new recovery support to participants enrolled in the program in hopes to better affect long term outcomes,” Kahrs said. “This diversion effort in collaboration with our law enforcement partners helps to create a community system of care.”
Over the last several years, Udo and the team at Tri-County Community Partnership have worked closely with 30 of P.A.A.R.I.’s affiliated law enforcement agencies and followed P.A.A.R.I.‘s walk in or self-referral model to help those seeking treatment for substance use disorder.
“Through this program, those suffering from substance use disorder will be able to better access the support and treatment they need as they begin their recovery journey,” Executive Director Hunter said. “We are incredibly grateful for the Tri-County Community Partnership team and Dr. Udo for their work to ensure this vital program continues to help those in need and congratulate them on receiving this well-deserved funding.”
The HNH-HV program is one of eight recipients nationally of grants focused on reducing overdose deaths through the COOCLI program. P.A.A.R.I. recently announced that it has also received funding through the Washington/Baltimore HIDTA and University of Baltimore COOCLI grant program for its One2One Engagement to Recovery program, in partnership with Brandeis University.
About P.A.A.R.I.
The Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help law enforcement agencies nationwide create non-arrest pathways to treatment and recovery. Founded alongside the groundbreaking Gloucester, Mass. Police Department Angel Initiative in June 2015, P.A.A.R.I. has been a driving force behind this rapidly expanding community policing movement. We provide technical assistance, coaching, grants, and other capacity-building resources to nearly 600 police departments in 35 states. P.A.A.R.I. and our law enforcement partners are working towards a collective vision where non-arrest diversion programs become a standard policing practice across the country, thereby reducing overdose deaths, expanding access to treatment, improving public safety, reducing crime, diverting people away from the criminal justice system, and increasing trust between law enforcement and their communities. Our programs and partners have saved thousands of lives, changed police culture, reshaped the national conversation about the opioid epidemic and have placed over 26,000 people into treatment since its founding in June 2015. Learn more at paariusa.org.
About the Tri-County Community Partnership
The Tri-County Partnerships is a non-profit organization started in October 2016 that raises awareness of the risks of alcohol and drug use through prevention, youth prevention, family support and drug dependency reduction programs. The organization and its partners work in around the area where the Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties intersect, including the towns of Crawford, Shawangunk, Wallkill, Mamakating and Montgomery. The Hope Not Handcuffs program operates in the Orange, Rockland, Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester counties. Learn more at tricountycommunitypartnership.org.
