For Immediate Release

Friday, Oct. 6, 2017

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 978-743-0004
Email: john@jgpr.net

COIN Receives AmeriCorps Grant from P.A.A.R.I. to Bring on Full-Time Program Coordinator

Interested Applicants Encouraged to Apply

PEPPERELL — Chief David Scott is pleased to announce that the Community Outreach Initiative Network (COIN) received an AmeriCorps grant from the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) to bring on a full-time program coordinator to support its efforts in member communities.

The program coordinator role is a one-year position and COIN is currently looking for interested applicants.

COIN, a 10-town collaborative in northwest Middlesex County, works to assist those suffering from substance abuse and mental health disorders by connecting them to services and treatment options in order to divert them from the criminal justice system.

Over the summer, P.A.A.R.I. partnered with AmeriCorps to place 20 part-time recovery coaches and five full-time program coordinators with police departments in Massachusetts, enabling those agencies to dramatically enhance their capacity to reach individuals in need and better support them as they work to access treatment and recovery programs and services. The program launched this month, and COIN is one of the organizations to earn a grant to support a full-time program coordinator.

“We’re happy to have received one of the AmeriCorps grants to bring in a full-time person who can further the work we’re already doing surrounding substance abuse and mental health,” Chief Scott said. “We encourage anyone who has an interest in these fields to apply.”

The program coordinator will work with COIN’s part-time interim health clinician and will:

• Perform general outreach and help with awareness activities
• Organize fundraisers and open house style awareness events, and compile information for outreach packets
• Assist with locating and reviewing treatment facilities
• Help police departments with referrals and data collection
• Attend/take notes on steering committee and working group meetings
• Organize prescription drug and needle disposal throughout member towns
• Represent COIN at local awareness group meetings such as North Middlesex Cares and the Societal Heroin Addiction Awareness Resource Project.

The program coordinator will receive a monthly living allowance of $1,152.50, health insurance, professional development opportunities and valuable experience working in the field.

Those interested in applying should do so here.

About COIN:
The Northwest Middlesex County Community Outreach Initiative Network (COIN) is a collaboration among 10 police departments — Pepperell, Ashby, Townsend, Groton, Shirley, Ayer, Boxborough, Dunstable, Westford and Littleton – committed to addressing mental health issues and substance abuse disorders in their communities. Through its partnership with Family Continuity, a local mental health provider, COIN has brought in a mental health clinician to assist the departments with finding help for their residents in need and diverting them from the criminal justice system.

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