News Releases
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Virginia Elliott, Senior Program
Officer, 800-369-7191
Date: May 12, 2004
Substance Abuse Treatment Program Awarded Project of the Year
HUTCHINSON, KS—An innovative adolescent substance abuse treatment
program received the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund’s
Janet Sevier Gilbreath 2003 Special Project of the Year award.
The award, with a check for $2,500, was presented to Higher Ground,
Wichita, at a ceremony in Hutchinson today. The award recognized
Higher Ground’s Learning the Ropes adolescent treatment
program, a program started in 1998 with support of a grant from
the Health
Fund.
Learning the Ropes offers prevention, early intervention, and substance abuse treatment each year to more than 400 adolescents, most from culturally diverse, low-income families in Wichita and Sedgwick County. The service blends experiential programming—such as a ropes challenge course, weekend excursions, and camping trips—with traditional counseling.
The program was selected from more than 150 grant projects supported in 2003 by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund as its Project of the Year.
“Each year, in memory of our first Chairperson—Janet Sevier Gilbreath—we recognize one project that exemplifies the highest standards of nonprofit work in health,” said (Mr.) Kim Moore, president of the Health Fund, in announcing the award.
He praised Learning the Ropes’ development of volunteer and community support to sustain the program beyond grants and its sound financial and business practices, as well as its success rate in helping teens abstain from drugs and alcohol.
The program served over 1,500 teens in its first five years. Of those, 265 needed the most intensive level of therapy lasting from three months to one year. Follow-up calls found more than 80 percent of clients receiving intensive services reported abstinence from mood-altering substances six months after completing the program and 89 percent had no new legal charges. Clients also consistently reported improvements in family relationships, emotional health, and school work.
The growth of the organization alone warrants recognition, according to Moore. “Rapid growth can be the downfall of many non-profit organizations,” he explained, “but Higher Ground met the challenge of solid development and mission-driven results all at the same time.”
Higher Ground’s Learning the Ropes program was one of just 21 programs nationwide selected to be funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Local Initiative Funding Partners program in 1998. The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund nominated Learning the Ropes for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant and provided grants totaling $271,587 to support the establishment of the program.
The Health Ministry Fund is a Kansas philanthropy dedicated to health. It was endowed by the Kansas West Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1986 with a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. The Fund makes grants for health-related projects totaling approximately $2.5 million a year.
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