ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
The opioid epidemic has taken an enormous toll on America, but with the help of a 4-1 vote from the Seward County Commission Monday night, local officials will soon get help with fighting the crisis.
After hearing two requests for proposals, the board opted 4-1, with Commissioner Presephoni Fuller voting against, to award $116,481.51 to be used by Cimarron Basin Community Corrections and Juvenile Corrections and Prevention Services.
The county received the total funding in 2023 and 2024 to be used with the Seward County Fights Addiction Fund Grant Program, and Administrator April Warden said requests for proposals were put out by the county to decide where the money should be used.
“Settlements have been reached with several of the opioid distributors, and they did outline core abatement strategies to address the opioid crisis,” she said. “Given the short term nature of these funds, we were looking for prioritization to be given to funding projects in need of one-time or startup cost.”
Along with CBCC and JCAPS, who submitted a joint application, Liberal’s Stepping Stone Shelter likewise applied for funding.
Commissioners then heard from leaders with the three agencies, staring with SSS, and Development Director Lindsay Bennett said every resident the shelter works with is in some form of recovery, whether it is with addiction, trauma, mental health challenges or a combination of these.
“We are on the front lines every day doing the hard work and helping these people rebuild their lives,” she said. “These funds were created to support exactly this kind of work.”
Bennett said if the funds are not allocated locally, the money will be directed by the state by people who do not know the community as those at Monday’s meeting do.
“We are asking for your support and ensuring these dollars stay here and serve the people who need the most right in our own backyard,” she said. “We have the infrastructure. We have the team, and we are already doing the work. With your help, we can do even more.”
Liberal Area Coalition for Families Director Sarah Mersdorf-Foreman helped Stepping Stone officials with the proposal, and she said shelter residents come from about 20 Kansas counties in addition to Seward County. She added additional assistance could be requested from those counties.
Bennett said SSS is the only long-term shelter in Southwest Kansas.
“The shelter in Garden City is only three days stay, and we’re the only shelter who outwardly looks at rebuilding someone’s life and not just save them for a coupe days and put them back in the streets,” she said.
Warden and Mersdorf-Foreman said the county will be eligible for additional funding in future years, but the money awarded Monday is short-term funding.
“When we put out those requests for proposals, we were looking for someone who would need one-time fees or some startup costs to get things going,” Warden said.
“When I started researching these funds, I believe the funds go for 17 years, but amount trickles down each year,” Mersdorf-Foreman said. “We realize, with what we’re asking, it does look like we would need the support every year, but in actuality, we would not. We have some other funding sources, but this would give us the time for a bit of a breather to catch up and start seeking some of those other more sustainable funds for these positions.”
Warden said the long-term funding also trickles down over a period of time, and it is not available until July 1.
“After July 1 is when you receive a payment every year, so I won’t know what our 2025 funds will be until after that date,” she said.
Warden said any additional funds would need to have a new RFP submitted, as the proposals submitted before Monday were for the money the county has currently from opioid settlements.
Commission Chairman Scott Carr asked if there is an overlap of services between Stepping Stone and Southwest Guidance Center. Mersdorf-Foreman said the guidance center does have certified licensed addiction counselors.
“That would be the credential we are looking for what we are proposing just to have our own at the shelter,” Mersdorf-Foreman said. “We want to get the client served as quickly as possible and on the road, but I don’t it’s a competition for services. I would hope it would be working together for services.”
SSS Board Secretary Susan Copas said when the shelter intakes clients, their needs are identified and they are referred to organizations that can work with the shelter.
“One of the things this grant would help us to do is to work with our clients once we transition them into housing,” she said. “We haven’t had the staffing to be able to continue to work with those clients, and sometimes, they fall down once they’re back on their own. That would be something with this additional staffing and training we could continue to keep those folks on the path they want to be on.”
CBCC and JCAPS then talked about their proposals, and Cimarron Basin Director Kayla Janko said the request was done jointly since both agencies work with similar kinds of individuals both youth and adults.
“Our main concerns are trying to get the individuals help for the treatment recovery, the harm reduction, the linkage to care, the prevention and the health systems we need to be able to get out to the youth and the adults so we can continue getting them the care and the treatment as much as possible,” she said. “If we don’t start with them at the juvenile side, it’s hard to get them into the adult side.”
JCAPS Director Chelsea Droste said the agency currently utilizes behavioral therapy workbooks.
“We’d be able to expand that access to the different types of workbooks with the prevention as well as get in touch with the schools, the middle schools, the high schools and start doing some preventive types of work with the schools,” she said.
Droste said JCAPS could likewise be able to help with family engagement services with the linkage to care because substance use affects everybody in the environment.
“Helping the families also understand how to work with that and help the environment as a whole would be able to help us on the juvenile side and hopefully prevent them from even entering into the adult side,” she said.
Due to a lack of local providers, Janko said many CBCC clients are referred to Garden City and Dodge City.
“If we could get assistance on trying to get the treatment going, even helping pay for the recovery, we would be able to make amends on our community here from the opiate funds,” she said. “Fentanyl is on the rise, so this is where we need to be addressing as much as possible.”
Fuller asked if any grants were available to help with prevention services.
“Mental health is an issue not only in Seward County, but in the world, in the country, in Kansas,” she said. “It is a crisis in our country. It’s a crisis in our cities, in our states.”
Janko said a majority of such grants require either 50/50 matches or 100 percent matches.
“We would have to come back and ask the counties to match the grant we received,” she said. “Speaking to Sunflower Addiction, the foundation that’s in charge of this, they will allow some of the funds to be applied to salaries and benefits for staff members to help with this.”
Droste said the juvenile side is slightly different.
“We do receive funding to be able to help assist youth and their families receive mental health services and/or substance abuse evaluations and services,” she said. “However, that is only after they have already entered into the system and received criminal charges. We do not receive any funding on the preventive side to be able to help prevent them from even entering into the system.”
CBCC Intake Supervisions Officer Tony Dinkel said little, if any, money can be found for prevention grants.
“This grant gives out some money for some signage where we could partner with the school district, or we could partner with local churches or any group we feel this would benefit,” he said.
Droste said JCAPS has not expanded due to lack of funding.
“As far as how much we’ve allocated for mental health services and drug or substance abuse services, we have budgeted for $2,000 for each of those as well,” she said.
On the adult side, Janko said mental health funding varies for CBCC.
“It’s not funded at all by the Kansas Department of Corrections,” she said.
Warden said the commissioners did have the option of dividing the money between the agencies who requested funding.
“If there was something you wanted to consider for both agencies, you’re not required to designate the money all to one agency,” she said. “That is something else you could consider. We would just need to do memorandums of understanding with the agencies you provide funding to.”
Fuller said she liked the choice of being able to divide the money between Stepping Stone, JCAPS and Cimarron Basin.
“Both of these agencies will help with mental health in one capacity or the other,” she said. “My recommendation is we could divide this among the two agencies. This is not something that’s going to be ongoing. Next year, it may be in a different position. I pray it’s in a better position, but both agencies need help, and I don’t want to put more weight on the other. I’m about being fair. I have mental health isssues in my family. I have evictions in my family. I’ve had murders in my family. I have suicide in my families because they could get not get the help they needed.”
The remaining commissioners, including Todd Stanton, disagreed.
“It’s not a large amount of money to begin with, and my recommendation would be support Cimarron Basin’s largely ongoing endeavors,” he said. “It’s a limited amount of funding.”
