GRANT BRINGS DRUG ABUSE TREATMENT TO NEEDY YOUTHS

Substance abuse treatment centers for adolescents will be set up in five of
the metropolitan Mobile area's neediest neighborhoods through an agreement
with the University of Alabama and the United Way of Southwest Alabama,
officials announced Tuesday.

The project will be funded through a $3.74 million federal grant awarded to
the university by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, said Mark
Johnson, executive director of the local United Way.

The program will focus on the neighborhoods of Alabama Village, Gulf
Village and Snug Harbor, all located in Prichard, as well as Trinity
Gardens and Roger Williams Homes in north Mobile.

The centers are expected to open their doors next October, said John
Bolland, a University of Alabama social scientist, who obtained the federal
grant. He said plans call for five on-site centers to operate for four
years under the current grant and he said he hopes it will be renewed.

The announcement was made at a news conference at the Mary Abbey Berg
Senior Citizens Center, 1717 Dauphin St.

Also at the news conference, MobileCAN, Mobile's Community Alliance
Network, announced it has received a renewed $90,000 grant from the
Children's Trust Fund of Alabama to help fund its daily operation. It was
further announced that MobileCAN, a United Way initiative, has been chosen
to be the substance abuse project's management information center.

Of the $3.74 million in federal funds, $71,500 will be allotted to
MobileCAN to fund the tracking of information involved in the project.

Bolland said research he conducted throughout inner-city Mobile and
Prichard last year revealed that about 275 youths between the ages of 10
and 20 living in the five targeted neighborhoods may be abusing drugs
and/or alcohol.

"Four of the neighborhoods," he said, "based on 1990 census data, have
median annual household incomes of approximately $5,000. Trinity Gardens'
is approximately $12,500." He said some 8,000 people live in the
neighborhoods, including more than 1,700 adolescents.

The researcher said the program "focuses on adolescents but if we do it
right we hope to get the families involved as well."

As for specifics about the treatment which will be offered the teens,
Bolland said, "We will contract with agencies that provide substance abuse
programs for adolescents. A lot of them have counselors and access to
medical staff."

MobileCAN was created in 1997 and "provides, via the Internet, community
on-line information about agencies and available services throughout the
area," said Nancy Self, a United Way spokeswoman. She said MobileCAN
"offers a system for agencies to share necessary client information and
improve client tracking; maintains a comprehensive client database to
reduce duplication of services; and provides statistical data for community
planning."

Partners in MobileCAN include the United Way of Southwest Alabama, 35
United Way agencies, the Mobile County Health Department TEEN Center, and
network administrator Bay Networking Technologies.