(TOLEDO, Ohio) -- Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced today that he is awarding the Lucas County Sheriff's Office with a $150,000 grant to expand its Drug Abuse Response Team (D.A.R.T.).
The grant funding, which comes from lawsuit settlement funds, will be used to increase the number of full-time D.A.R.T. deputies from five to seven in an effort to enable them to help more people struggling with addiction.
The team, which was created by Sheriff John Tharp last year, is currently made up of five full-time and four part-time peace officers from the Lucas County Sheriff's Office, Toledo Police Department, and Oregon Police Department. Those working as part of D.A.R.T. respond to hospitals to work with people who have overdosed and their families in an effort to guide them to resources for housing and long-term recovery.
“Law enforcement alone can't arrest its way out of the heroin problem, but it's also true that those dependent on drugs can't fight their addiction alone either," said Attorney General DeWine. "By increasing the number of full-time deputies working as part of Sheriff Tharp's team, it will enable them to help more people struggling with addiction get on the road to recovery."
"I applaud all of the efforts Attorney General DeWine has made to help us assist addicts in the Lucas County area," said Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp. "The overall assistance of the Attorney General and the Lucas County Commissioners has played a tremendous role in allowing us to be aggressive in doing all we can to help those suffering from addiction."
The $150,000 grant is in addition to a $650,000 grant Attorney General DeWine awarded Lucas County last year to develop a holistic pilot program that utilizes partnerships and resources throughout the area to assist those suffering from an addiction to heroin.
"There is a great need to expand drug treatment and mental health services in our criminal justice system," said Lucas County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak. "These grants from Attorney General DeWine are helping us provide critical services to some of the most vulnerable citizens in our community."
Specifically, the $650,000 grant was earmarked to pay for two victim advocate positions in the office of Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates to provide assistance to survivors immediately after a heroin overdose and for major renovations to the Zepf Center recovery housing facility on Collingwood Boulevard in Toledo. Capital improvements paid for with the grant funds will allow the Zepf Center to expand the number of residents they can house from 32 to 70.
"I have never seen a program produce successful outcomes in such a short period of time," said Zepf Center CEO Jennifer Moses. "Access to housing is limited for individuals with addiction, so they often return to the same environment and cycle in and out of treatment. Recovery housing provides individuals a sober, safe, and supportive place to live, offering them hope and the opportunity to beat their addition."
Additional funds provided as part of the $650,000 grant are being used to fund a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) student with the University of Toledo to study and evaluate the effectiveness of the program for its potential use as a model for recovery in other communities across the state.
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