Peer Recovery Support Services for Diversion Specialty Courts: Utilizing Peer Recovery Coaches and Support to Aid in Program Retention and Aid in Successful Completion and Community Stability

Dallas County is seeking $648,160.00 over two years in BJA funding to enhance court services for the diversion/pre-plea specialty courts to introduce Peer Support Services, expanded transitional housing, and access to training for peer support staff. Dallas County is applying for funding Category 2, Enhancement (C-BJA-2022-00018-PROD).

This grant will serve Dallas County’s pre-adjudication specialty courts, which includes the following: 1) Dallas County’s DIVERT Drug Court; 2) Dallas County’s AIM Court, which targets youthful offenders; and 3) Dallas County Mental Health Diversion Court (Misdemeanor Mental Health Jail Diversion track, and SET Felony track).

This grant proposal is seeking a total amount of ­­­$648,160.00 over two years to fund full-time peer support specialists to work with participants identified for a pre-pleas diversion specialty court. Peers are persons with lived experience and trained to assist others in initiating and maintaining long-term recovery. Funding is also being requested to expand access to support transitional housing for court participants, and training to ensure continued compliance with best practices. Dallas County pre-adjudicated specialty courts serve a combined capacity of 290 individuals. The grant aims to serve 250-300 individuals with the grant funds over the total grant period. Individuals participating in one of the Dallas County pre-adjudicated specialty courts are engaged for approximately 12-18 months.   The target population for the grant proposal is offenders with an un-adjudicated felony charge, who live in Dallas County, or an adjacent county. Participants must have no prior felony history and score moderate to high risk on a standardized risk assessment. Dallas County has MAT services, and this grant seeks to utilize peer support to enhance access recovery support for those on MAT. Dallas County will utilize peer recovery services to help enhance participant retention and recovery engagement. It will also work in collaboration with Dallas County’s COSSAP grant to reduce opioid overdose by ensuring all courts are trained on and access to NARCAN. The grant proposal will utilize NADCP’s Adult Drug Court Best Practice Standards to ensure the courts engage with evidence-based practice treatment interventions (pgs. 5, 6, 9, 11, 14), utilization of a multi-disciplinary staff (pgs. 13), applying the use of appropriate, fair, and consistent incentives, sanctions, and therapeutic adjustments (pgs. 11, 19), etc. The Dallas County grant proposal will leverage federal COSSAP funding to support this initiative.