Youth Voice Project for Children Impacted by Family Substance Use

Cecil County, Maryland Department of Community Services seeks to contract with a vendor to complete a Youth Voice project by soliciting youth stories about the impact of personal or family substance use, identifying strategies and resources and developing a public awareness campaign.BackgroundThe Department of Community Services consists of seven divisions, managing over $11 million in federal grant dollars. The Opioid Affected Youth Initiative (OAYI) grant is administered by the Division of Community Partnerships within the Department of Community Services. The Division of Community Partnerships is responsible for the oversight of the Local Management Board (LMB), the Local Care Team (LCT), Cecil County’s Volunteer Program, Grants Management, and the Cecil County Neighborhood Youth Panel (NYP), among other programs/projects.In 2018, the Division of Community Partnerships was awarded a 3-year federal grant to provide trauma therapy services to youth and caregivers impacted by family substance use. The Division of Community Partnerships has subsequently been awarded additional funding to continue and expand this work. The Opioid Affected Youth Initiative was awarded through the Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), in the amount of $533,057, beginning in October 2021. This funding supports trauma therapy for children and their caregivers, training and support for foster, kinship and adoptive parents, bereavement groups for children, parenting classes, and the continuous collection and reporting of data. The funder has encouraged grantees to understand the impact of family substance use on children, and Cecil County intends to award up to $100,000 to complete a Youth Voice project for the final period of the grant (04/01/24 – 9/30/24).TimelineRelease Project Date:March 26, 2024Question Submission Deadline:April 3, 2024, 3:00pmProposal Submission Deadline:April 16, 2024,