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Officials seeking grant for Day Report Center

PARKERSBURG – Applications for grants to help fund the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Community Corrections Day Report Center and Victims’ Advocate Office were approved Monday by the Wood County Commission.

The applications will be forwarded to the respective granting entities for review.

County grant coordinator Toni Tiano and Hernando Escandon, interim director of the center, outlined the $658,973 community corrections grant being sought for the alternative rehabilitative program.

The match for the grant, if approved for the full amount, would be $246,076.

The local center on Market Street serves Wood County, with satellite offices in Roane and Jackson counties.

“Roane and Jackson counties do contribute to the program as part of the matching funds,” Tiano said. “Client fees and drug lab revenue also makes up part of the match.”

Funds from the drug court service fees also make up part of that match, Commissioner Blair Couch said. Couch serves on the center’s board as liaison for the county commission.

“The program has been applying for more funds, but for the last two years has received the same amount of funding, $453,000,” Couch said.

The applications include requests for funding for salaries for additional case managers. Clients are not turned away from the program because of inability to pay, Couch said.

“Additional money has been placed in this pool of funds on the state level, but we are not receiving additional funding,” he said. “At one point, we were told if we expanded to other counties, we would receive additional funding, we did expand, but we did not receive additional funding, it seems to go to other programs.”

According to Tiano, about 275 clients are served annually through the day center. Escandon said the program length for the clients varies, but is usually six months to one year.

The commissioners approved the application on Monday. It will now be forwarded to the granting entity for consideration.

The center offers an alternative sentencing program providing assessment, case management, substance abuse treatment, batterers intervention prevention programming, life-skills training, counseling, and rehabilitation, along with supervised community service to clients assigned through the court system.

Referrals to the program come through the courts, Department of Health and Human Services, law enforcement, Home Confinement Program, probation and parole officials and attorneys.

In other business Monday, an application for a $39,243 Victims of Crime Act grant to help fund the salary for the victims advocate and a part-time advocate assistant also was approved by the commission. The application will be submitted to the office of Victims of Crime Act in the Office of Justice Program, U.S. Department of Justice for consideration.

The match of $9,811 for the grant comes from the prosecutor’s office, Tiano told the commission.

“The victim advocate office sees about 4,000 clients a year and provides about 9,000 services,” Tiano said.

The victims advocate office services include acting as liasons between attorneys and victims, keeping victims apprised of court schedules, assisting with understanding of the court process and procedures, providing referrals to other community services if needed, helping with victim reparation and just providing support, understanding and an empathic ear.

Tiano said the county has received the grant for the past 18 years.

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