CARES Community Meeting and Available Grants

Bloomington, Ind. - Monroe County CARES, Inc., the City of Bloomington Community and Family Resources Department, and the Monroe County Substance Abuse-Mental Health CHIP Team are co-sponsoring the 2018 CARES Community Meeting on Thursday, March 29 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. at Bloomington High School North (3901 N. Kinser Pike) in the Large Instruction Room.

A panel discussion featuring Becky Rose, Director of MCCSC Student Services, Sergeant Brandon Lopossa, Bloomington Police Department Detective Division, and Matthew Clay, Program Manager at Centerstone, will be followed by a Q&A session. The panelists will discuss “Trending Now: Drugs and Youth - What You Need to Know about Drug Trends with Youth in Our Community.” The discussion is free and open to the public, and Avers has donated pizza for the event.

Monroe County CARES Inc., a local coordinating council of the Governor's Commission for a Drug Free Indiana, is designed to coordinate, support, and promote local efforts to prevent and reduce harmful involvement with alcohol and other drugs. The Monroe County CARES Local Coordinating Council is an all-volunteer group of community members concerned with issues of substance abuse, including prevention, education, intervention, treatment, and justice.

The Coordinating Council provides grant funding, by which money allocated through DUI fines is then distributed to local agencies for use in prevention, treatment, and justice programs related to Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs. Contact Lisa Meuser, Monroe County CARES Coordinator, at llmeuser@me.com for a grant application.

All grant applicants must attend one of two technical assistance meetings. The first meeting is Thursday, March 29 from 5:00-5:45 pm at Bloomington High School North (3901 N Kinser Pike) in the Large Instruction Room, prior to the Community Meeting. The second meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 4, at Monroe County Community Corrections (405 West 7th Street, Suite 2) in the Downstairs Classroom, from 12:00-1:00 p.m. Grant applications are due Friday, April 13.    

The CARES Board will review and score the proposals. Subsequently, the Board’s recommendations will be presented to the Monroe County Commissioners and upon their approval, funding will distributed to the grantees in August. Any questions should be directed to Nancy Woolery at 812-349-3851 or Lisa Meuser at 812-327-3642.

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