BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — After months of meetings with advocacy leaders across the nation, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services released a national toolkit aimed at addressing homelessness crisis and addiction services.
Joined with HHS, was the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The toolkit was announced late last week in San Diego, where Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HUD Secretary Scott Turner and Sara Carter, director of the ONDCP, were in attendance.
But also in attendance was Mission at Kern’s Executive Director Carlos Baldovinos.
Baldovinos has made serval tips to Washington D.C. to meet with the White House officials and federal agencies to help develop the nationwide strategy addressing homelessness, addiction and mental illness.
Baldovinos highlighted Kern County’s “Higher Up” program as a model, saying its success in reducing relapse drew strong interest.
While the federal government has begun to promote the plan, local advocacy groups have some work ahead of them to implement the toolkit’s recommendations.
Read the full tool kit below:
Best-Practices-Toolkit_FINALDownload
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