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Collaboration for Iowa Families

Award Information

Award #
2014-DC-BX-K006
Location
Congressional District
Status
Closed
Funding First Awarded
2014
Total funding (to date)
$826,699

Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2014, $509,112)

OJJDP is seeking to infuse effective family drug court practices established at the local level and institutionalize them in the larger state-level child welfare, substance abuse treatment, and court systems. The purpose of this state systems reform effort is to expand the scale of family drug courts (i.e., penetration rate of the larger child welfare and substance abuse treatment systems) and scope (i.e., range of comprehensive services for families) to serve all families in the child welfare system affected by parental substance use disorders more effectively and improve child, parent, and family outcomes.

The State of Iowa is uniquely poised to move family drug treatment courts and its essential components statewide. The Supreme Court has endorsed the planning process and the legislature has asked the court to lead the effort. This grant will provide the time and technical assistance to develop a collaborative approach for the court and its partners to spread the family treatment court model in all appropriate courts and to bring to scale the most effective concepts of treating families to all child welfare courts. This grant will also assist the Court, Iowa Department of Human Services, Iowa Department of Public Health, and the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy to implement system-wide reform of working together more collaboratively to better serve children and their parents affected by substance use issues and substance use disorders. Under supervision of the Iowa Children's Justice State Council (ICJ), an ICJ Family Treatment Court Task Force will develop an implementation plan that will result in statewide system reform. Led by a seasoned partnership of state level leaders of State Court Administration, Iowa Department of Human Services, Iowa Department of Public Health and Office of Drug Control Policy, the task force of child welfare partners will address three objectives. The objectives are: (1) establish a funding and sustainability plan to support current family treatment courts and provide for expansion statewide for further family treatment courts; (2) identify and institutionalize key elements of family treatment court practices leading to statewide system reform; and (3) address the system deficit of assessing and preventing prenatal and perinatal substance exposure in children.

CA/NCF

Date Created: September 29, 2014