Press Release |
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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 | Contact: 202–395–6618 |
COMMUNITY ANTI-DRUG COALITIONS AWARDED $72 MILLION BY WHITE HOUSE DRUG CZAR
176 Communities Will Receive $17.1 Million in New Grants
(Washington, D.C.)—John Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), today awarded $17.1 million in new Drug-Free Communities matching grants to 176 communities across the country. An additional $54 million will support the continuation of grant awards to 540 existing community coalition projects operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The goal of the 716 local coalitions is to work together to prevent and reduce drug, alcohol, and tobacco abuse among youth. Coalitions are comprised of diverse groups of people, including community leaders, parents, youth, teachers, religious and fraternal organizations, health care and business professionals, law enforcement, and the media.
In addition, 24 new grants totaling $1.7 million were awarded through the Drug Free Communities Support Mentoring Program. These grants go to existing Drug-Free Communities grantees to facilitate the development of more self-supporting community anti-drug coalitions. An additional $929,470 has been awarded to support 13 continuation grants under the Mentoring Program.
Director Walters said "Youth drug use has declined by 17 percent over the last three years. The tireless work of community anti-drug coalitions across the nation is an integral part of our prevention efforts and our recent success reducing youth substance abuse. The 176 coalitions receiving new grants this year will help ensure that even more community organizations join the effort to keep our children healthy and drug-free."
"We are pleased to be working with ONDCP to administer the Drug-Free Communities Program," said Charles Curie, Administrator, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. "Some of the most important work to reduce drug use comes from our Nation's grass-roots community coalitions. These coalitions, teamed up with our Strategic Prevention Framework Grants to the states, create a powerful force that can continue to drive down the numbers of young people using illicit drugs."
The Drug-Free Communities Program provides grants of up to $500,000 over five years to community organizations that serve as catalysts for citizen participation in local drug prevention efforts. The 176 new grantees were selected from 411 applicants through a competitive peer review process. To qualify for matching grants, all awardees must have at least a six-month history of working together on substance abuse reduction initiatives, have representation from twelve specific sectors of the community, develop a long-term plan to reduce substance abuse, and participate in a national evaluation of the Drug-Free Communities Program.
Created under the Drug-Free Communities Act of 1997, the Drug-Free Communities Program has earned strong bipartisan support from Congress and is one of President Bush's major funding priorities. In December of 2001, Congress passed and the President signed into law a five-year extension of the Drug-Free Communities Act, authorizing $399 million in funds through FY 2007.
Since 1997, eight competitions have awarded $320 million in grants to more than 1,000 community anti-drug coalitions. ONDCP administers the Drug-Free Communities Program in conjunction with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov and http://www.ondcp.gov/dfc/
