Promoting Peer Recovery Support Services in Criminal Justice and Child Welfare

Signed into law on July 22, 2016, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) is the first major federal substance use disorder treatment and recovery legislation in 40 years and the most comprehensive effort to address the opioid epidemic. CARA establishes a comprehensive, coordinated, and balanced strategy through enhanced grant programs that expand prevention and education efforts while also promoting treatment and recovery. The purpose of this program is to deliver training and technical assistance (TTA) to state and local criminal justice and substance abuse treatment agencies, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), and their partner agencies in sites selected through the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Site-based solicitation. This TTA program is designed to complement the site-based competitive solicitation. This solicitation offers four TTA categories for distinct sets of activities to provide targeted customized TTA to existing and future COAP sites. In category C, BJA seeks an applicant to provide training and technical assistance to all site-based COAP grantees interested in incorporating a peer review recovery component into their projects.

The Altarum Institute will use the BJA funds to promote peer Recovery Support Services in Criminal Justice and Child Welfare by establishing a national training and technical assistance (TTA) center to support peer recovery support partnerships in the criminal justice and child welfare systems. In order to develop an integrated and comprehensive opioid abuse TTA program, TTA center staff will actively participate in scheduled calls with BJA staff and the Category A COAP Network TTA provider, work collaboratively and share information among the selected COAP TTA providers, support national and federal partners on related projects, and maintain a strong presence at national conferences and training events, including participation in panel presentations.

CA/NCF