The Blaine County Drug Coalition achieved national recognition last week when it was awarded the $125,000 Drug-Free Communities Grant.
The grant continues a trend of awards. The coalition recently received $10,000 from St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center, funding for building community awareness and supporting the coalition's efforts to ensure that local businesses do not sell alcohol to minors.
The Drug-Free Communities Grant is a dollar-for-dollar match, which means the coalition will need to independently raise $125,000 to receive the maximum amount. Over the course of five years, it can receive a total of $625,000 in federal funding.
The grant provides funding for administrative support, which will allow the coalition to use donor money for programming while still hiring three new staff people.
"With this grant and the one from St. Luke's Wood River, we're going to go from one person to four within 45 days," Executive Director Terry Basolo said.
Basolo is currently the coalition's single staff person. The grant will enable the coalition to hire a full-time project coordinator as well as two part-time staffers. The remainder of the money will go toward individual projects, Basolo said.
This is the second year the coalition has applied for the grant. Basolo attributed its success this year to its strategic planning.
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"One of the things they look for is a community coalition that doesn't over-promise and under-produce," Basolo said. "You've got to be realistic."
Basolo said the grant application is "comprehensive" and "challenging," with a focus on how organizations have assessed risk factors in the community and what plans they have to deal with them.
The organization in question must be dedicated to effecting community-wide change. The coalition was only one of 169 organizations nationwide to be selected for funding.
The Blaine County Commissioners voted earlier this week to fund the coalition for fiscal year 2011, trimming other outside funding to allow for $5,000 to the coalition. According to Leslie Londos, deputy county clerk, this is the first year the coalition has received county funds.
"This is a community-wide problem, and it was great that the county was willing to step up and set an example," Basolo said.
The Blaine County Community Drug Coalition is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing drug and alcohol abuse in Blaine County. The coalition was founded in 2006, and has since helped to launch drug use prevention programs and mentoring programs such as Big Brother Big Sisters.
Katherine Wutz: kwutz@mtexpress.com
