FRIENDS OF THE MAUI DRUG COURT AWARDED $24,000 GRANT BY OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS

Friends of the Maui Drug Court was awarded a $24,000 grant today from Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Of the 300 clients who have graduated from the program, approximately 60 percent are native Hawaiian.   The funding will allow the agency to provide services such as child care, dental treatment and medical exams to clients on Maui and Moloka`i.  OHA’s grant will also facilitate training for Drug Court professionals, funding of an executive director position and research on Drug Court graduates’ recidivism rates. The grant period runs from Feb. 1, 2009 to Jan. 31, 2010.

“This is OHA’s first grant to Friends of the Maui Drug Court, and we look forward to our new partnership,” said FMDC President S. Larry Schlesinger, M.D. “We commend the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for its progressive thinking and its major backing of the Drug Court’s important work to break the cycle of substance abuse and crime in Maui County.”

The Maui/Molokai Drug Court provides a range of intervention, treatment and prevention programs with the goal of reducing the devastating impact of substance abuse on Maui County’s families and community resources. Drug Court provides non-violent offenders an opportunity to avoid or minimize incarceration upon completion of an intensive, judicially supervised substance abuse treatment program.

Since the Maui/Moloka`i Drug Court began accepting clients under the leadership of Judge Shackley F. Raffetto more than eight years ago, FMDC has provided critical support to the program, including the funding milestone awards and graduation ceremonies.

The most recent graduation ceremony was conducted on Maui on Jan. 22. A graduation ceremony is also scheduled today on the island of Moloka`i.

(Posted by Wendy Osher:  Monday, January 26, 2009)  (Photo Drug Court graduates celebrate in 2006: courtesy Hawai`i State Judiciary)