Local Legislators Announce $5M In Grant Funding To Expand Mental Health Services In Evansville Area
STATEHOUSE (July 27, 2022) – Local mental health service providers will receive more than $5 million in grant funding to help serve Hoosiers in need, according to area legislators.
State Rep. Cindy Ledbetter (R-Newburgh) said the Community Catalyst Grants totaling $54.8 million will support 37 programs across the state to help enhance the quality of and access to mental health and substance treatment services, including two providers serving local Hoosiers. The total funding amount includes $22.3 million in local and grantee matching dollars, and $32.5 million in state funding.
“Our mental health is just as important as our physical health, and it’s imperative that we continue to invest in specialized care and treatment programs throughout our state,” Ledbetter said. “This major infusion of funds, spread throughout Indiana, should lead to more positive outcomes. From reducing crime to improving children’s grades and test scores, addressing mental health gets to the root of a number of issues.”
Locally, Southwest Behavioral Healthcare serving Vanderburgh, Posey, Gibson and Warrick counties will receive $4,973,831 to implement community-based programming addressing behavioral health and substance use disorder needs. The organization will hire therapists and care coordinators, and also focus on the needs of youth with a dual diagnosis of mental health, and intellectual and developmental disabilities in Southwestern Indiana.
The Wellness Council of Indiana serving Delaware, Dubois, Hancock, Hendricks, Kosciusko, Orange, Posey, Spencer and Vigo counties will receive $275,957. This grant will help educate and train its employees on crisis response, and local mental health and substance use resources services.
Ledbetter and State Reps. Wendy McNamara (R-Evansville), Matt Hostettler (R-Patoka) and Tim O’Brien (R-Evansville) supported funding the grants in the state’s two-year budget passed in 2021.
“Every community has unique challenges but also unique opportunities,” McNamara said. “These grants can help initiate positive change in Indiana communities through funding programs that are collaborative, innovative and sustainable. We can help multiply the force for good through these public-private partnerships.”
“Whether it’s dealing with trauma, addiction or a mental health disorder, many Hoosiers need help,” Hostettler said. “These investments will help support both existing and new mental health services in order to increase access and quality of care.”
O’Brien said Hoosiers in need of mental health services can now call 988 to connect with a trained crisis specialist from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at any time.
“This isn’t just a launch for the three-digit number,” O’Brien said. “Indiana is revolutionizing how the state responds to those in crisis. We will be able to provide consistent, reliable and effective help to those who need it. The start of this easy-to-remember number and the increased support services will help save lives.”
Gov. Holcomb Issues Statement Following The Senate Passage Of CHIPS Plus Legislation
Gov. Holcomb Issues Statement Following The Senate Passage Of CHIPS Plus Legislation
INDIANAPOLIS- Governor Eric J. Holcomb today released the following statement:
“The U.S. Senate just passed once-in-a-generation legislation that invests in American technology to keep our country safe from any and all of our adversaries. The U.S. House of Representatives should quickly pass the CHIPS Plus legislation to keep America in the fast lane of the technology race and boost our country’s competitiveness globally.
Last week, SkyWater, a major supplier of semiconductors to the Department of Defense, in partnership with Purdue University, announced a 600,000-square-foot semiconductor research and development production facility in West Lafayette, Indiana. The company’s ability to make an investment of this magnitude is reliant upon the passage of CHIPS Plus and federal investment to boost this critical industry sector. This exact legislation also invests in research at our great universities, workforce programs and tech-hubs tailor-made for our state.
If the U.S. wants to be a leader in 21stcentury industries, semiconductors must be our first objective. Members of the U.S. House should vote yes and make this investment, which includes comprehensive oversight responsibilities to ensure taxpayer dollars are invested wisely.â€
Liz Cheney’s Frontier Days
Liz Cheney’s Frontier Days
RAWLINS, Wyoming—The folks at Buck’s don’t seem to care much about the lonely battle U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, is waging to save her political career, her political party, and her country.
It’s a Friday night at this popular sports pub in downtown Rawlins. The place is crowded. There are no tables to be had, so I crowd into the bar to grab dinner after a long day on the road.
Cheney dominated the tube the night before, when the Jan. 6 Select Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held a primetime hearing that demolished any notion that former President Donald Trump hadn’t hoped the insurrection wouldn’t succeed so he could continue to hold power illegally and unconstitutionally.
Cheney has been both the face and the voice of the efforts to hold Trump accountable for his assault on American law, but it has cost her.
Once one of the rising stars in the Republican Party, she now faces a primary challenge here at home. The most recent polls have her trailing Harriet Hageman, a Trump-backed lawyer.
I try to talk with a guy at the bar about Cheney’s lonely struggle, but he shrugs his shoulder and says he hasn’t been paying attention to the hearings.
But he adds that he likes Trump because “he kept his promises.†Then he turns away and reaches for the bowl of peanuts sitting on the bar.
In fact, Trump didn’t keep his promises.
He promised to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and have Mexico pay for it. Never happened.
He promised to provide cheaper and better healthcare coverage to all Americans. Didn’t do it.
He promised to bring back jobs for working-class Americans. Once again, didn’t deliver.
But I’ve had variations of this conversation many times and in many places. It always leads nowhere.
So, I take a sip of my beer and wait for my food to arrive.
A guy settles onto the stool to my left. He’s young—in his middle 20s—and he has an honest-to-God mullet. He orders a beer and then tries to chat up the bartender, a petite young blonde woman maybe a little younger than he is.
After some awkward banter, he asks her if she’s going to an upcoming frontier days festival. I don’t know about this one, but I’ve been to similar such events before. They’re romanticized celebrations, more myth than fact.
The bartender says she will be going—with her boyfriend. (That’s a hint, buddy.
The guy persists, either not realizing she’s telling him she’s not interested or ignoring the message. To deflect him—and maybe to alert friends that she could have a problem on her hands—she pulls a couple of guys from the other end of the bar into the conversation.
Soon, much of the bar is talking about the upcoming festival.
As I munch on my dinner, I eavesdrop.
I learn that this is the first year since COVID hit that the festival will be back. Everyone says they didn’t realize how much they missed it—how much they wished things could go back to the way they were.
The way they should be.
This is what Liz Cheney is facing.
So many people prefer an imagined west to a real one.
An imagined world to a real one.
A Donald Trump who “kept his promises†to one who violated his oath of office and attacked the very country he’d pledged with his hand on the Bible to defend.
After I finish my meal, I settle up and thank the bartender. The guy will the mullet still hangs in there, but two older and much bigger guys at the end of the bar have their eye on him.
If there’s a problem, he’ll be the one having it.
I walk out into the gathering evening and stroll the streets of Rawlins.
As is the case with many, even most, small to mid-sized American communities, there are vacant buildings, remnants of businesses and jobs that have collapsed or fled.
Up on a rise, a train sits stationary on the track, the twilight framing the cars in the otherwise wide-open landscape, a powerful locomotive waiting for someone to drive it.
This is the real west.
The real world.
Frontier days, indeed.
FOOTNOTE: John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. The opinions expressed by the author do not represent the views of Franklin College.
Romain College of Business Receives $100,000 Endowment To Establish Scholarship
The University of Southern Indiana Romain College of Business has received a $100,000 gift from Warehouse Services, Inc., to establish a scholarship endowment named for its President, Barry Cox, for students enrolled in the College’s Supply Chain Management Certificate Program. This gift will provide perpetual scholarship support for eligible students.
Eligibility for the Warehouse Services Inc. Barry Cox Scholarship Endowment includes:
- Full-time USI undergraduate students must be enrolled in the Supply Chain Management Certificate Program.
- Student recipients must be in good academic standing at USI when the scholarship is both awarded and received.
- Second preference will be given to full-time USI undergraduate students majoring in management.
Warehouse Services, Inc. provides various supply chain services (e.g., warehousing, distribution, fulfillment services, etc.), and it occupies more than 18 million square feet of distribution space in over 20 locations across North America. Its operating headquarters are in Mount Vernon, Indiana. The company employs many USI alumni in a multitude of positions across its more than 4,000 personnel.
“I am truly grateful to Warehouse Services, Inc. and its President, Mr. Barry Cox, for this generous support of students seeking the new Supply Chain Management Certificate,” says Dr. Abbas Foroughi, Chair of Management and Information Sciences. “Warehouse Services’ strong interest in the certificate underscores how much regional companies value the establishment of this new program. I would also like to thank the Supply Chain Management Committee and other management faculty at USI for their hard work and support in creating this timely certificate.”
In addition, Cox has been a member of the USI Foundation Board Advisory Council for 22 years.
“Mr. Cox has been a generous friend of the University for many years, and he truly values USI’s economic impact on this region and beyond,†says David Bower, Vice President for Development. “The number of USI alumni employed by Warehouse Services underscores that trust in the students we are educating.
Morales and Vazquez set for 2022 Volleyball Challenger Cup
Duo representing Puerto Rico
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ZADAR, Croatia – Another international tournament opportunity is slated to open Friday for University of Evansville head volleyball coach Fernando Morales and 5th-year senior Alondra Vazquez who will represent Puerto Rico in the 2022 Volleyball Challenger Cup.
Taking place in Zadar, Croatia, the Challenger Cup is an 8-team event that is held from July 28-31. The Puerto Rico Women’s National Team opens play on Friday with an 8 p.m. local time (1 p.m. CT) match versus Cameroon. With a victory, the team would guarantee a spot in one of the medal contests while matching up against either France or Colombia for a spot in the championship final.
On the opposite side of the bracket, Belgium opens against the Czech Republic while Croatia faces Kazakhstan. Round two features two matches on Saturday, July 30 with the medal games taking place on July 31. The winners of the competition will earn a promotion to play in the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Nations League replacing the lowest ranked challenger teams of this year’s VNL in each gender.
Morales serves as the head coach of the national squad while Vazquez is an outside hitter.   Earlier in the summer, they were part of the Puerto Rico team who competed at the NORCECA Final Four Qualification Tournament in Mexico. Highlighting the event was a victory over Costa Rica.