A proposal to change the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress in Bartholomew County to a nonprofit corporation and a request seeking funding for the organization’s hub has passed its first hurdle.
The Substance Abuse Advisory and Accountability Committee agreed to forward the requests to the Substance Abuse Public Funding Board with a positive recommendation, to be heard at a public meeting at 2 p.m. Oct. 15 at Columbus City Hall.
ASAP, which would drop the Bartholomew County designation from the nonprofit corporation name, is seeking a little over $500,000 from the city of Columbus and Bartholomew County to set up a hub location at the former United Way office complex in the Doug Otto Center in Columbus, possibly beginning as early as this November.
The Hub would be a location where individuals suffering from addiction could find the resources needed to recover from substance abuse, including referrals to already existing programming, help with navigating the health care and insurance systems and resources for connecting to community services.
ASAP is proposing hiring an ASAP executive director and the operations and communications manager, both paid positions. Two other paid positions, the ASAP Hub Manager and the ASAP volunteer services manager, would also be put in place. A part-time paid position for a Hub recovery specialist is also proposed.
Volunteers would be used as navigators to provide referrals to community services, and provide life skills and other training to those who visit the Hub.
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
