$1.5M in HHS grants announced for faith-based partners to fight addiction

Alabama, Kansas, and West Virginia will be receiving $500,000 supplemental grants to expand their cooperation with faith-based organizations that weave together faith and prevention strategies to interrupt the cycle of addiction and strengthen families and communities. 

“Every child deserves the chance to grow up free from addiction,” said Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in a Sept. 15 press release. “Prevention begins with strong families, strong communities, and a sense of purpose,” Kennedy noted, adding that faith leaders “are uniquely positioned to reach young people at a critical point in their lives.”

The supplemental grants are part of the Trump administration’s broader Great American Recovery, which allocates $700 million in funding to programs that prevent and treat addiction and serious mental illness, with the aim of thereby addressing homelessness across America.

The new grants for faith-based organizations are part of the department’s Strategic Prevention Framework–Partnerships for Success program. 

In Kansas and West Virginia, the states are using the funding to work with faith communities to build new partnerships, conduct needs assessments, and co-develop prevention strategic plans with faith leaders.

Alabama plans to use its grant to support regional needs assessments to explore how faith-based prevention shapes youth attitudes and identify where additional resources are needed. 

Unique among the grantees, Alabama has a certification program called Faith-Based Support Specialists (FBSS), which provides training for religious leaders to bridge the gap between the mental health and faith communities and deliver effective assistance to those with addictions. The HHS grant will be used to help FBSS reach a new population, youth ages 12 to 17, and create opportunities for young people to connect with faith and community leaders.

Dr. Monty Burks, director of the HHS Center for Faith, highlighted the importance of involving religious communities. 

“Faith communities have been doing this work for generations — walking alongside families, mentoring young people, helping people find purpose, and responding when their neighbors are struggling,” Burks said. “Our job is not to replace that work, but to equip it.”