‘We Need Help’ Fighting Drugs Was Key to Lower Winning Grant

VILLAS – According to Cape Assist Executive Director Lynne Krukosky, Lower Township deserves all the credit for winning a $625,000 federal grant that will fund a township “Healthy Youth Coalition” over five years.
Cape Assist, a substance abuse prevention and treatment agency, worked closely with Mayor Michael Beck, members of Lower Township Council and Colleen Crippen, township grant officer, to win the grant.
 “I am very excited about this grant,” she said, adding “This grant proposal succeeded because Lower Township stepped up and acknowledged ‘We need help’ to confront the growing substance abuse problem that plagues the youth of our community.” 
She praised Beck for having the vision two years ago to see that there is a problem in Lower, and he began working to do something about it by involving the community, including the Police Department and other stakeholders, even before this grant was considered.
“I believe that we won this grant because the township had already begun to form the coalition model; this grant will now fund that model going forward” she stated.
According to Krukosky, the White House Office of Drug Control Policy saw that Lower Township was very receptive to the idea and this attitude clearly tipped the scales in favor of Lower Township’s application.
The township Healthy Youth Coalition that is forming will consist of representatives of about 12 different sectors of the community, including faith-based groups, schools, business and civic groups.
Cape Assist will act as the “agent” for this coalition; part of the funding will enable Cape Assist to hire a trained, experienced coordinator who will organize meetings, conferences and complete other related support tasks to maintain and grow the coalition.
The coordinator will advise the coalition based on his or her experience in prevention and treatment programs, but the coalition will be the ultimate decision maker; the coordinator and staff will support the work of the coalition, not direct it, she emphasized.
“There are existing resources and programs under the Municipal Alliance as well as other programs like Hooked on Fishing that will be supported and coordinated through this grant as well” she stated.
Krukosky added that the funding will not finance the programs directly, but will finance the coordination of the coalition model within Lower Township.
Krukosky repeated “Community readiness to act is an important factor; if the community is not ready, the drug prevention effort will fail.” “The coalition will be formed shortly after funding begins Oct. 1; this is great news for the people of Lower Township,” she concluded.
To contact Jim McCarty, email jmccarty@cmcherald.com.