County gets $1.76 million to create programs

Huntington County received good news on Thursday. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction announced the recipients of its Community Catalyst Grant.

Huntington County has been awarded $1.76 million to create two new alternative on-campus sentencing programs at the O’Donnell Center at Victory Noll: The Restorative Residential Work Release Program and the Transitional Housing Program. Both will be new expansions of the existing alternative sentencing initiatives provided by Community Corrections in collaboration with the Huntington County Drug Court. The goal is to provide quality-driven, credentialed mental health and substance use programs through a 24-hour per day, 365-day per year facility. Click here for a list of those earning grants.

“This is such a wonderful opportunity the county received to give the residential programming the necessary funding to assist in supporting staffing for two years while the county gets the program launched as well as the partnership with the Division of Mental Health to assist in combatting the mental and substance use challenges of those in the criminal justice system,” says Leslie Rentschler, Director of Huntington County Community Corrections.

Rentschler continued, “The Community Catalyst Grant aims to promote community-driven responses to mental health and substance abuse disorders through grant funding for innovative, collaborative and local responses. I am incredibly thankful for this funding and the opportunity it brings to provide meaningful care to the citizens of Huntington County.”