CSAT RCSP Cuts

Colleagues,

As you all know, the RCSP program is in grave danger.



Thanks to everyone who has been educating the public and policymakers about how important the program is and what a difference it has made in the lives of so many of our friends and neighbors. We have our work cut out for us over the next few months, but we have an incredible story to tell and a national network of people who know how critical the RCSP program is to developing strong communities of recovery.



I wanted to spend a few minutes bringing everyone up to date on where we are:



Meeting with Dr. Clark on February 1st

Thanks so much to Bev Haberle (PRO-ACT); Kim Turner-Haugabook (CCAR); Bill Layfield (Alabama Voices for Recovery) and Tom Coderre (Faces & Voices and Rhode Island resident) for taking time from their busy schedules to attend a meeting with CSAT Director Westley Clark last Friday. At the meeting, they laid out what the RCSP program has meant to people in CT and PA and the need and desire for future grantmaking to duplicate and build on those successes in AL, RI and across the country.

At the meeting, we reiterated the need for a new round of grantmaking in 2008 and an expanded RCSP program in 2009.



There are two critical funding issues for the RCSP program: 2008 and 2009 funding. The third issue is providing technical assistance to support the growing national network of recovery community organizations.



2008 funding

At the meeting with Dr. Clark, we talked about the last time that there was a threat to the RCSP program – in 2006 when we learned that there wasn’t going to be a new round of funding. At that time, advocates came together and called on SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie to restore the cut and the agency went ahead and did it.



This time, it’s a different story.

When advocates and our allies on Capitol Hill called on SAMHSA to restore the cuts, the agency responded with a new strategy and a different message. Instead of restoring the cut to new funding, the agency has been saying that they are continuing to fund the program – at $5.2 million in 2008. Those are the funds that support current grantees in 2008 (RCSP grants are for four years, so organizations that received funding in prior years will continue to be funded this year; there won’t be any new grant awards however.)

So, we need to make sure that we and our allies understand that the agency has cut all new funding (about $2.5 million a year) as well as funding for technical support for grantees.



We are developing additional advocacy strategies to continue to pressure the agency to find the $2.5 million to fund a new round of grantees, working with our allies on Capitol Hill.



2009 Funding

Today, President Bush released his budget for 2009. In it, he called for the complete elimination of the RCSP program.

The budget document that accompanies the budget includes a note that this recommendation is being made “…because services provided, such as manicures and other non-traditional therapies, are not based on evidence-based practices for recovery and grantees have not consistently met all performance measures.”



This means that there would be no continuation of existing grants.



The President’s budget proposed funding for the Access to Recovery/Voucher Initiative Program at $99.7 million, representing approximately level funding compared to FY 2008. Many of the services that are provided under ATR are similar to those provided by RCSP grantees.



The President’s budget proposal is just that – a proposal. Before Congress enacts a budget, there will be Congressional hearings and other deliberations where we will have an opportunity to weigh in in support of an expanded RCSP program.



What you can do today

One thing that we’ve learned over the past few weeks is that we all have a very important job ahead of us. We need to educate the public and policymakers about the work that recovery community organizations are doing in their communities to support individuals seeking or newly in recovery and to document the tremendous contributions that individuals are making as volunteers to those efforts. Here are some suggested immediate actions that you can take:



If you are now or were an RCSP grantee:

1). Invite your US Senators and Representative and their staff to your program and educate them about the work that you are doing in your community.

2). Count up the number of volunteer hours that are being given by people in your community to your program and send that information to me immediately. We will be putting together a national snap-shot of the RCSP program and believe that if we can tally all of the volunteer hours that are being created because of the program, that will be helpful in building our case.

3). Send any press clippings or articles that your project has generated in the local media to me so that we can put a national face on the successful RCSP story.



We are also collecting information on organizations that have been thinking about applying for RCSP grants or have applied and have not been awarded grants to build the case that there is great demand for an expansion of that program. We will be gathering that information in an organized fashion over the next few weeks.



Future strategy

We still need to find out more information before we can finalize a strategy for reversing this decision. That strategy will include Action Alerts; targeted call-ins; incorporating the RCSP program into Faces & Voices’ Recovery Voices Count campaign; providing testimony and getting questions asked at Congressional hearings; and generating media coverage of RCSP grantees’ successes.



We will be keeping in touch, but wanted you to learn about all of these developments. Please alert others in your network to steps that you will be taking and the information in the email, but don’t forward this email. The people on this email include Faces & Voices board of directors; RCSP grantees and other friends of the RCSP program.



With our combined efforts, we have a chance to come out of this fight with an even stronger RCSP program, but it’s going to take all of our work to make that happen.