Description
The Executive Office of the President, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) announce the availability of funds for new FY 2009 Drug Free Communities Support Program (DFC) grants. DFC is a collaborative initiative sponsored by ONDCP in partnership with SAMHSA in order to achieve two major goals: Establish and strengthen collaboration among communities, private nonprofit agencies, and Federal, State, local, and tribal governments to support the efforts of community coalitions to prevent and reduce substance abuse among youth.* Reduce substance abuse among youth and, over time, among adults by addressing the factors in a community that increase the risk of substance abuse and promoting the factors that minimize the risk of substance abuse. (Substances include, but are not limited to, narcotics, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, cannabis, inhalants, alcohol, and tobacco, where their use is prohibited by Federal, State, or local law.) Note: DFC projects must focus on multiple drugs of abuse. When the term drug or substance is used in this funding announcement, it is intended to include all of the above drugs. *For the purposes of this RFA, youth is defined as individuals 18 and younger. DFC grantees are required to work toward these two goals as the primary focus of their federally funded effort. The Drug Free Communities Program (DFC) was created by the Drug Free Communities Act, 1997 (Public Law 105-20), reauthorized through the Drug Free Communities Reauthorization Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-82) and reauthorized again through the Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-469). The latest reauthorization extended the program for an additional five years until 2012. This announcement addresses Healthy People 2010 focus area 26 (Substance Abuse). Since 1998, ONDCP has awarded approximately 1500 DFC grants, with an additional 130 new awards expected in FY 2009. The community sites that have been awarded grants represent a cross-section of communities from every region in the nation and include rural, urban, suburban, and tribal communities. The program has given priority to economically disadvantaged areas or counties in which 20 percent or more of the children are living in a household below the poverty line, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Additional grantee information is available on the DFC Web site: http://www.ondcp.gov/dfc/