Upper Cumberland Awarded Grant to Address Substance Abuse
The Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency is happy to announce a new grant, the Rural Response to the Opioid Epidemic Demonstration Project, which is designed to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with opioid overdoses among individuals who come in contact with law enforcement or are involved in the criminal justice system in high-risk rural communities and regions.
The $635,000 grant will be received over a two-year period and is designed to address the substance abuse epidemic that has affected our fourteen-county region.
The grant funds will allow the agency to create a Hub that will connect all existing recovery providers into a continuum-of-care, addressing the full range of individual recovery. The system will compile real-time data, manage inter-agency communications and help eliminate gaps in the recovery process. The system should maximize all existing and future funding opportunities, provide
The grant will allow us to unite the work of recovery courts, hotlines, EMS, and hospitals in the region while providing treatment, housing, training and employment to the affected individual.
With today’s announcement, Upper Cumberland Development District and Human Resource Agency Executive Director, Mark Farley said “Today’s grant is not the silver bullet that is going to fix all the problems, but is it our way as regional organizations to say we are rolling up our sleeves to join the fight against substance abuse”.
Key to the success of this program is the strong alliance created between the UCHRA (Glen Sayes, program manager),UCDD (Mark Farley, Exec Director), 13th Judicial District (Judge Gary McKenzie), Power of Putnam (Bill Gibson, Exec Director) and Volunteer Behavioral Health Care Services (Kimberly Sowell, VP of Addiction and Co-Occurring Services.
About Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency
The Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency (UCHRA) was established by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1973 to be the delivery system for human resources in the fourteen counties of the region. The programs operated by UCHRA initially included job training and transportation. During ensuing years, the UCHRA has expanded to supply a wide range of services that use a combination of funds from federal, state and local organizations.
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