WASHINGTON, D.C.- U.S. Congressman Dan Boren announced today the award of a five-year, $500,000 grant to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families. The grant will be used to address the needs of families and children affected by methamphetamine and other substance abuse.
“I continue to be impressed with the efforts made by the Choctaw Nation -- not only for its tribal members, but for all the residents within the counties that make up the Choctaw Nation,” Boren said. “I have always made the fight against this drug a major priority by passing anti-meth legislation, and by continuing to work for grant funding. I will continue these efforts, and I know the tribe will, too.”
The Choctaw Nation will being acting as primary on behalf of a regional partnership under a DHHS grant program titled, Targeted Grant to Increase the Well-Being of, and to Improve the Permanency Outcomes for, Children Affected by Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse. Other partners include Latimer and Pittsburg County Department of Human Services, local school districts, and the Latimer and Pittsburg Health Coalitions.
“This grant is the seed money to help us begin providing critical support in these two counties within the Nation. We will work hard to help the families heal and mend the broken hearts and lives of children,” said Chief Gregory E. Pyle.
Children exposed to abuse, neglect, and parental substance abuse are 12 times more likely to attempt suicide, 10 times more likely to use drugs, and are often deprived of food, clothing, and housing when their addicted parents are unable to provide for the family’s financial stability according to the Adverse Childhood Experience Study, a collaborative effort between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente’s Department of Preventive Medicine.
The Southeastern Oklahoma partnership, entitled Project Serving Our At Risk (SOAR), will provide evidence-based, culturally-sensitive activities designed to increase the well-being and safety of children who are at risk of being removed from the home or who are already in out-of-home foster care placement as a result of a parent's or caretaker's methamphetamine or other substance abuse.
“Methamphetamine addiction is destroying homes and abandoning children by the thousands. Generally, children of meth addicts are found in unbelievable conditions – filthy, hungry, and abused. Not only are they traumatized, but over 35% of the children removed from abusive homes test positive for drug exposure,” stated Mickey Peercy, Executive Director of Health Service for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Project SOAR will provide a minimum of 300 children and their families, over the course of 5 years, with individual and family counseling, support services, and drug prevention education with the goal of fewer children needing to be removed to out-of-home placement.
The Choctaw Nation has found that child welfare cases whose parents have substance abuse problems are more likely than other children to be placed in foster care rather than be served while remaining at home. Once in foster care, these children tend to remain in care for longer periods of time than other children.
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