Answering Questions Raised by Todays Daily News Article

I have received a number of questions about the Latah Recovery Center raised by Bill Spence’s recent Daily News article.

The article painted an accurate picture of how Idaho’s 9 Recovery Community Centers started, funding history, current funding efforts and portrayal of the difficulties of keeping the 9 centers funded. Some centers have had to move, reduce staff, furlough, etc to make their budgets work.

I concur with everything stated in the article.

It fell short in explaining what the Centers proposed for Millennium Funding this year. This note explains how the Latah Recovery Center is funded, current Millennium Fund request, and the local impact on our Center of Governor Little’s budget re-directing the Millennium Fund.

How is the Latah Recovery Center funded?
We currently budget 30% of our money to come from local individuals and businesses. This comes from our annual Fundraising Breakfast on March 6, and Soups On! in the fall. 65% of our budget comes from various government entities. We have excellent support from Latah County, and participate in a statewide contract with all 9 Recovery Community Centers from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. The remaining 5% of our budget comes from generous support by Gritman, and other grants.

None of this years budget came from the Millennium Fund.

What did the Millennium Fund Proposal Request?
This years application was made by Idaho’s 9 Recovery Community Centers to provide outreach to our surrounding rural communities. Specifically, the Latah Recovery Center hopes to outreach to the White Pine, Genessee and Potlatch areas. This outreach was to include recovery coaching, meeting space, etc.

If the Millennium Fund funds our proposal, we will expand our current budget to provide these extended services.

If the Millennium Fund does not fund our request, it does not impact the Latah Recovery Center’s current operations. We will continue to look for ways to fund the desperately needed outreach to our states rural citizens that all quoted in the article agree is needed.

If you have any questions, please contact me.