July/August 2010Vol. 11, No. 6Report to Congress on Grants to Help Children Affected by Parental Substance Abuse
The Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-288) provided authorization and funding to implement the Targeted Grants to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for, Children Affected by Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse. In 2007, under this legislation, 53 organizations around the country were competitively awarded Regional Partnership Grants (RPGs) to implement interagency collaborations and provide integrated child welfare and substance abuse treatment services. As required by the legislation, the Children's Bureau recently completed the first Annual Report to Congress on the RPG program.
The report describes the activities and progress of the RPG program and the grantees from October 2006 through July 2008. During this time, significant accomplishments included:
- Releasing the Program Announcement and awarding funds to 53 grantees to carry out the purposes of the legislation through a broad range of program activities
- Establishing and strengthening interagency collaborative partnerships in all 53 sites to provide integrated child welfare and substance abuse treatment services
- Developing a set of 23 RPG performance data indicators representing four domain areas (children/youth, adult, family, and regional partnership/service capacity) that reflects the broad goals of the legislation and aligns with the diverse activities of the 53 RPGs
- Developing an RPG data collection and reporting system to assess the performance of the grant recipients
- Completing in-depth site visits with each of the 53 regional partnerships
- Implementing a national programmatic and evaluation technical assistance program to support the work of the 53 regional partnerships
- Enrolling more than 1,800 adults and children in RPG programs
The 53 grantees developed activities and services in five broad areas: systems collaboration and improvements, substance abuse treatment linkages and services, services for children and youth, support services for parents and families, and expanded capacity to provide treatment and services to families. After only 6 months into their grants, more than half the grantees were providing a broad array of services to children and adults. During this same time period, grantees provided trainings to more than 3,500 RPG staff.
The report documents the significant progress that grantees have made in achieving their first-year program and evaluation objectives. Future reports will focus on grantees' continued progress, drawing on data from the 23 performance indicators.
To read the full report, Targeted Grants to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for, Children Affected by Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse: First Annual Report to Congress, visit the Children's Bureau website:
www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/targeted_grants/targeted_grants.pdf (1.14 MB)
For additional information on this cluster of grants, please go the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare website at www.ncsacw.samhsa.gov. For questions, please contact the Federal Project Officer, Elaine Stedt, at elaine.stedt@acf.hhs.gov.
Related Item
Children's Bureau Express last wrote about the RPG program in "Regional Partnership Grants Strive to Improve the Lives of Children and Families Affected by Methamphetamine and Other Substance Abuse" (October 2008).
