Public-health staff secure $10,000 grant for autism elopement kits, pursue two $200,000 youth substance-prevention grants

County public-health staff reported on several grant efforts. They confirmed an award of $10,000 from the Indiana Department of Health for autism elopement kits and said a separate water-safety/drowning-prevention grant application was not successful. "One for autism elopement kits and that's for 10,000 ... Unfortunately, we did not get the water safety so we're going to pull that out. But we did get the autism elopement kits granted for 10,000," the official said.

Public-health staff also described two separate $200,000 grant applications based on CDC evidence-based strategies to prevent youth substance use. The proposal would split work between school-based interventions (role-playing, refusal skills, after-school safe activities) and a community-facing phase to engage families, providers, and screen-and-intervene practices. The official said the approach would begin as a pilot in schools where county staff already have school-liaison relationships and that a part-time coordinator would be hired for each grant if both awards arrive. "So if we get both grants then this person would be working full time on that," the public-health presenter said.

County officials asked about basing limited staff resources and where programs would be deployed; the presenter said they plan to start in partner schools in January and expand based on results and school willingness. The transcript shows the autism kit award and the grant applications discussed but does not record final authorization beyond staff—s grant-application updates.