Circuit Court Drug Program Gives Yearly Report

July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.

By Barry Andrew-

I want to first thank the United Way Board of Directors for its support of Drug Court from the very humble beginning of this program.
Without United Way we would not be where we are at today.
In 2014 the Drug Court Program received 18 referrals and we currently have 10 participants in the program. We have received a tremendous amount of support from our community.
The program received financial support from United Way, KCODE and K21. Both KCODE and K21 required their grant money be spent by the end of 2014, so United Way was gracious enough to allow us to use their grant money in 2015. We are very grateful for that.
Our first year has been an amazing year. I could take up a lot of real estate over the next few pages with all that we have experienced, but I will stick to the highlights.
One of the biggest highlights that we had is we have administered hundreds and hundreds of drug screens this past year and we had only one person test positive, this is unbelievable stat.
We are so proud of our participants. On the weekends the participants come to the jail if they have a drug screen that day. It has been really neat to see how the jail staff supports not only the program, but the participants as well, and to hear the jailers tell the participants "well done" or "keep up the great work"
We had 8 participants for the first time in a long time who were able to celebrate their first Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year clean and sober.
When the participants were asked what they like most about this past holiday season, a few of them responded by saying they were excited that they would remember this holiday season. It has been a long time since they celebrated clean and sober.
All of our participants are working full time jobs. We have 8 participants who are in Phase 2 of our program and 2 of them who are in Phase 1 of our program. One of our participants who just recently graduated into Phase 2 had one of our county Drug Task Force officers attended his graduation ceremony and take a picture with him. This officer had arrested this participant in the past and now he is celebrating his graduation into Phase 2.
We have one participant who had not had a valid driver's license since 1995. With the help of his Drug Court case manager, he was able to pay off all his fines and fees. Then he sat and took his driver's test and now has a valid driver's license.
Each one of our participants is enrolled in treatment at Bowen Center and is progressing well through their programs.
We have two participants who are working toward getting their GEDs. It's been amazing to see the participants and how they and their families are getting along better and their family lives improving.
Our program is so grateful to United Way, with the purchase of our data base for the Drug Court Program in the 41 quarter of2013. This data base allows us to track each participant and keep all our vital statics that is required by the State of Indiana.
Our program looks forward to 2015 and using United Way grant money to continue to supplement the cost in the areas of treatment and drug screens. It is very rare that a brand new program participant has a job when accepted into our program. Having the grant money available to help cover the first few weeks of drug screens or even treatment costs goes a long
way in showing the participant that we are also investing into their lives in a small financial way.
Our program is grateful for the partnership and the investment that United Way provided. We look forward to an exciting and productive 2015 in the Drug Court Program. We are excited because in 2015 we will have our first Drug Court participant not only move to Phase 3 of our program, but also graduate our program. 2015 will be a very exciting year for our Program and we are excited to have United Way as a partner.[[In-content Ad]]

I want to first thank the United Way Board of Directors for its support of Drug Court from the very humble beginning of this program.
Without United Way we would not be where we are at today.
In 2014 the Drug Court Program received 18 referrals and we currently have 10 participants in the program. We have received a tremendous amount of support from our community.
The program received financial support from United Way, KCODE and K21. Both KCODE and K21 required their grant money be spent by the end of 2014, so United Way was gracious enough to allow us to use their grant money in 2015. We are very grateful for that.
Our first year has been an amazing year. I could take up a lot of real estate over the next few pages with all that we have experienced, but I will stick to the highlights.
One of the biggest highlights that we had is we have administered hundreds and hundreds of drug screens this past year and we had only one person test positive, this is unbelievable stat.
We are so proud of our participants. On the weekends the participants come to the jail if they have a drug screen that day. It has been really neat to see how the jail staff supports not only the program, but the participants as well, and to hear the jailers tell the participants "well done" or "keep up the great work"
We had 8 participants for the first time in a long time who were able to celebrate their first Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year clean and sober.
When the participants were asked what they like most about this past holiday season, a few of them responded by saying they were excited that they would remember this holiday season. It has been a long time since they celebrated clean and sober.
All of our participants are working full time jobs. We have 8 participants who are in Phase 2 of our program and 2 of them who are in Phase 1 of our program. One of our participants who just recently graduated into Phase 2 had one of our county Drug Task Force officers attended his graduation ceremony and take a picture with him. This officer had arrested this participant in the past and now he is celebrating his graduation into Phase 2.
We have one participant who had not had a valid driver's license since 1995. With the help of his Drug Court case manager, he was able to pay off all his fines and fees. Then he sat and took his driver's test and now has a valid driver's license.
Each one of our participants is enrolled in treatment at Bowen Center and is progressing well through their programs.
We have two participants who are working toward getting their GEDs. It's been amazing to see the participants and how they and their families are getting along better and their family lives improving.
Our program is so grateful to United Way, with the purchase of our data base for the Drug Court Program in the 41 quarter of2013. This data base allows us to track each participant and keep all our vital statics that is required by the State of Indiana.
Our program looks forward to 2015 and using United Way grant money to continue to supplement the cost in the areas of treatment and drug screens. It is very rare that a brand new program participant has a job when accepted into our program. Having the grant money available to help cover the first few weeks of drug screens or even treatment costs goes a long
way in showing the participant that we are also investing into their lives in a small financial way.
Our program is grateful for the partnership and the investment that United Way provided. We look forward to an exciting and productive 2015 in the Drug Court Program. We are excited because in 2015 we will have our first Drug Court participant not only move to Phase 3 of our program, but also graduate our program. 2015 will be a very exciting year for our Program and we are excited to have United Way as a partner.[[In-content Ad]]
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