(FOX40.COM) — The City of Stockton, Friends Outside and local partners have received an $8 million grant to provide prosocial support, mental health and substance abuse services.Video above: Swim school owner asks for help amid ongoing drug activity outside business
According to Friends Outside, the new funding will provide job training, housing, counseling and substance abuse programs to 650 people with Proposition 47-eligible offenses in San Joaquin County over three years.
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“Our goal with this funding is to give those identified by the courts the support they need to make better choices and to get them into jobs and housing,” Executive Director of Friends Outside Michael Sorenson said. “Addiction is a medical condition that leads to poor choices and social stigmatization, that makes it hard for people to recover.”
The grant was announced by the California Board of State and Community Corrections as part of the $127 million in funding statewide on Thursday. It will fund a new initiative dubbed REDIRECT (Restorative Engagement and Diversion through Incarceration Reduction, Care & Treatment) that will focus on youth and adults ages 15-35 with typically nonviolent drug crimes…