Janice CasteelABOUT THE GRANTAmount: $800,000.Provider: Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration from a federal grant.Timeline: Jan. 1, 2011 through June 30, 2013.Source: City of Cleveland
CLEVELAND, Tenn. - A 16-week intervention program is available for people convicted of a crime that can be tied to drug or alcohol abuse.
People can be referred to the program, offered through the Behavior Research Institute in Cleveland, by family court, local probation officers and others.
It is funded through the Tennessee Targeted Community Crime Reduction grant that Cleveland and a few other cities were awarded months ago.
So far, though, participation has been low, officials said. But that's because the program is new and the community is still learning about it, Grant Evaluator David Watts told representatives from partnering agencies Tuesday.
"Anybody who can be put in the program will benefit from it and so will the community," Warren Moberg, project liaison to the agencies, told the group.
Referrals must be 18 or older, live in the grant's targeted area and have a criminal record that can be linked to addiction.
The grant "targets" police sectors 1 and 2 in Cleveland, basically the southern and southwestern parts of the city, by funding programs by law enforcement, schools, community groups and nonprofit agencies.
The intervention program is only one those programs.
"The city has migrated north and west, leaving sectors 1 and 2 in urban decay," according to the city's grant application.
"When the grant goes away, our problems will not likely go away," said City Manager Janice Casteel, who directs the program. "So we have to be thinking about sustainability."