City of Duluth Police Department Substance Use Response Team

The City of Duluth Police Department’s Lake Superior Drug and Violent Crime Task Force (LSDVCTF) is seeking funding in the amount of $899,982 to improve, expand, and evolve our COSSAP-funded Substance Use Diversion and Response Team.

Based on the feedback from mentoring sites, community partners, and yearly evaluations from our research partner, we are proposing a program model that would expand upon the services we are currently providing, allow for the program to assist more individuals regardless of drug of choice, shorten times between overdose events and contact from our team allowing for quicker access to treatment. The Substance Use Diversion and Response Team works within the entire LSDVCTF region which includes St. Louis, Carlton, and Lake Counties in Minnesota, as well as the city of Superior in Wisconsin. This entire region has a total population of 288,732.

Priority considerations addressed in the application include services and referrals in designated Qualified Opportunity Zones (see Appendix B). Approximately 25% of the Task Force are of operations is within the designated zones. 
 
With the addition of these funds, we will hire an additional 1.5 peer recovery specialist. This addition lower the caseloads of existing staff and increase capacities for the program as a whole. An analyst who will get peer recovery specialists contact information of potential clients. The analyst will also work to assist the program in managing and collecting up-to-date data.

The team will work collaboratively with St. Louis County Public Health and Human Services, St. Louis County Drug Court, the Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment, and SOAR Career Solutions. Dr. Jeff Maahs from the University of Minnesota Duluth will serve as our independent researcher.

Deliverables include the production of our annual program evaluation.