Jefferson County Health Department presents Health First funding agreements totaling $120,000 for local prevention and recovery programs

Jefferson County Health Department staff told commissioners they have distributed and executed three Health First funding agreements with local organizations, describing them as following similar structures of deliverables, reporting and financial oversight.

Health department staff (name not specified in the transcript) said the agreements include a $30,000 memorandum of understanding with the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) for trauma and injury prevention education in schools and mandatory reporting training for adults who care for children; a $60,000 agreement with Infants in Bloom, a newly formed nonprofit that provides in‑home services and follow‑up care for infants born with substance exposure; and a $30,000 contract supporting the Freedom Center’s recovery groups, administered in coordination with Southeast Indiana Transitional Resources.

Staff described standard conditions across the agreements: quarterly reporting to the health department; a requirement that recipient organizations maintain financial records for three years; and a forfeiture/repayment clause if contract terms are not met. The transcript records the statement that the CAC agreement’s statement of work directs “all funding received from Jefferson County Health Department in the amount of $30,000 to use for youth‑based prevention programming intended to bring education and awareness.”

Infants in Bloom: Health staff said Infants in Bloom will operate in Jefferson County and at least one neighboring county and that the health department will house that organization’s vaccines under the state Vaccines for Children (VFC) program because the county already meets VFC requirements.

Freedom Center: The health department said the first Freedom Center payment was reimbursed to the Jefferson House for an earlier expense and that a roughly $13,000 payment planned for July will go directly to the Freedom Center; staff also said an extra $4,000 was added to make the Freedom Center total $30,000. The funding supports group recovery programming intended to reduce recidivism and improve recovery outcomes.

Why it matters: The funds target maternal‑child health, trauma and injury prevention, and substance‑use recovery supports in Jefferson County. Health staff said recipients have provided spreadsheets and data points the department will track to measure how the funding supports core services.

The transcript does not include an explicit recorded vote by the commissioners to approve these specific agreements during this meeting; staff said the agreements had been sent to the county administrator (“Pat”) and that they had not received negative feedback when this report was presented.

Quotes from the meeting included the health staff’s description of contract conditions: “they have to maintain their financials for 3 years, and they have to basically, they they have to report to us on a quarterly basis,” and the CAC statement of work language cited above.

Next steps: Health department staff said they will collect quarterly reports and data spreadsheets from each recipient so the county can track outcomes tied to the Health First funding.