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McLean County Family Treatment Court accepts first client and receives a $750K grant

The McLean County Law and Justice Center in downtown Bloomington.
Ralph Weisheit
/
WGLT file
The McLean County Law and Justice Center in downtown Bloomington.

McLean County’s new Family Treatment Court accepted its first client and received a $750,000 grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to fund operations, according to a press release.

On its website, OJJDP details that the money will primarily fund a coordinator who will provide training and find a peer recovery support specialist, as well as provide other support to the court team and families.

The grant is also financing collaborative efforts with multiple community partners, including the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Carle BroMenn, The Center for Youth and Family Solutions, and the Baby Fold.

The county has been working to get a family treatment court operational for a couple of years. It’s the first of its kind in Illinois, meant to aid parents who are at risk of losing their children and have substance use issues.

“By providing comprehensive services overseen by a multidisciplinary team, coupled with frequent court appearances and the ability to monitor a parent’s progress in real time, the goal is to address failures more quickly in order to complete tasks in the case plan (and get the parent back on track), and incentivize progress where appropriate, ultimately resulting in more successful completions of treatment and reunifications,” according to the release.

The first participant entered the program Oct. 16.

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Melissa Ellin is a reporter at WGLT and a Report for America corps member, focused on mental health coverage.