Chautauqua CARES (Comprehensive Addiction Response and Evaluation System)

This proposal envisions the creation of the Chautauqua Comprehensive Addiction Response and Evaluation System (Chautauqua CARES), a county-wide, multi-sector network of law enforcement, behavioral health, and other community agencies collaborating to increase the accessibility, timeliness, and effectiveness of help for individuals with substance use disorders and their families.  The initiatives of Chautauqua CARES will work to more fully incorporate law enforcement and behavioral healthcare’s roles in helping individuals and families struggling with addiction throughout Chautauqua County, a rural county located in southwest New York State.  The project will have particular impact upon residents of the county’s 13 high-poverty census tracts, 9 of which are concentrated in the county’s two urban areas. 

Grant funding will support the creation of a more comprehensive response to the opioid, stimulant, and other drug crisis in Chautauqua County, including especially the development of a law enforcement diversion program for nonviolent drug offenders and support of an expanded treatment program within the county jail.  Chautauqua CARES will also collaborate to increase public awareness and foster a culture of prevention and recovery throughout Chautauqua County.  Chautauqua CARES will support law enforcement’s involvement in prevention efforts through coordinated school-based and other outreach activities.  And the project will prioritize ongoing evaluation through data collection and analysis.

Consistent with the allowable uses of this grant opportunity, implementation of the proposed project will address six priority areas:

1. Expand points of contact

2. Establish integrated assessment processes

3. Expedite access to services

4. Enhance recovery support resources

5. Engage the community through outreach

6. Evaluate program results

Deliverables for the proposal include the development and implementation of an effective law enforcement diversion program within all police agencies in the county, development and implementation of a re-entry program for released inmates, and quarterly reports measuring numbers and outcomes of participants benefiting from the proposal activities, including the jail-based treatment program.  Central to the goals of Chautauqua CARES will be increasing the number of Chautauqua County residents receiving services for substance use disorder and reducing the numbers of fatal overdoses in the county.

Chautauqua CARES will be accountable to the county’s Behavioral Health and Law Enforcement Collaborative Committee which meets monthly.  Day-to-day operation will be overseen by the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department through a program coordinator working in collaboration with partnering agencies.