The Annie E. Casey Foundation Awards Grant to Volunteers of America Indiana to Expand Family-Focused Recovery for Women

INDIANAPOLIS, In. (April 17, 2017) – As part of its efforts to build brighter futures for vulnerable children, families, and communities across the country, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has provided a grant of $25,000 to Volunteers of America Indiana for its Fresh Start Recovery Center. This center is a family-focused residential addiction program for pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorders.

This award was a fraction of the $100,000 given to Volunteers of America (national headquarters), bringing the Foundation's total support to $1.4 million over the past decade. The Foundation most recently supported Volunteers of America's Look Up and Hope program for families affected by maternal incarceration. This new grant will aid in the creation of a "trauma-informed child and family services system" spanning Volunteers of America's entire child and family services network composed of approximately 140 programs across the country.

Mothers involved in the Fresh Start Recovery Center will be able to engage in treatment while remaining with their children, promoting healthy, drug-free babies, healthy moms in recovery, and family preservation.

"Volunteers of America Indiana is thrilled to continue our partnership with the Annie E. Casey Family Foundation as we collectively change the lives of pregnant women and mothers with newborns suffering from the opioid epidemic devastating our state and nation," said John von Arx, President/CEO of Volunteers of America Indiana. "This funding will reduce the cycle of addiction and result in babies being born healthy."

The impact of the pilot program on mothers and children will be documented and reported over the course of the year, and the new model will be prepared for replication with families across Volunteers of America's nationwide network.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation is devoted to developing a brighter future for millions of children at risk of poor educational, economic, social and health outcomes. The foundation focuses on strengthening families, building stronger communities and ensuring access to opportunity, because they believe that children need all three to succeed. The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private philanthropy organization based in Baltimore and working across the country that makes grants that help federal agencies, states, counties, cities and neighborhoods create more innovative, cost-effective responses to the issues that negatively affect children: poverty, unnecessary disconnection from family and communities with limited access to opportunity.

For more information about the trauma-informed child and family services model and other Volunteers of America programs, please visit voa.org/children-youth-and-families.