Special Bd. of Aldermen — 02/27/2017 Page 7
operational, like the incentive programs, loans that we give out if someone needs help with their first month’s
rent. If somebody were interested in donating, they could donate to the Friends of New Hampshire Drug Court
if they wanted to market for Hillsborough South or if they wanted to just go state-wide, they could choose to do
that.
Alderman Tencza
Can you let the Board know the percentage of people in Drug Court now who are from Nashua?
Ms. Christiansen
A little tiny bit less than 75 percent of our participants live in Nashua, with the remaining living in the outlining
areas: Hudson, Merrimack, Milford, Hollis. It’s a little hard to tell how many come from Nashua, but | would
say the majority are from Nashua. Some people from Nashua actually end up living in the outlining areas so |
would say it’s about *% of our participants at the moment.
Alderman Jette
Someone said the state has stepped up. Is the program funded now? Is it financially secure?
Ms. Christiansen
We still have some funding through SAMHSA who we are about a half paid for by the state and half through
SAMHSA. The state funding supports some therapeutic time , case management and the program coordinator
position. It supports the basics of the programs, but there are things that we would be looking to do like
partnering to get more recovery coaches trained. We don’t have funding for that type of thing from the state.
Ms. Gilmour
One of the things we have talked about is if we could get private funding or donated funding to do something
gender specific like a women’s group as Dave talked about. They have found that gender specific treatment
opportunities can be beneficial, particularly for women.
Mayor Donchess
| thought it was a great presentation. Thanks for coming in. It’s obviously a great program. Tina has done a
great job. It’s really wonderful to see one of the big success stories. | did have one question: | there any
follow up in terms of seeing how people are doing after graduation, six months or a year later, to see if they are
still successful? My guess is that they are and that is a very powerful argument for the effectiveness of the
program.
Alderman Tencza
As part of the grant funding, a lot of those statistics have to be kept. I’m not sure if the state will continue to do
that once it is all state funded.
Ms. Christiansen
One of the things the Drug Court looks at is the recidivism rate of the people that go through the drug court. It
is usually measured at one year out and three years out. The state has actually contracted with a research
and evaluation agency that is doing a study state-wide. We're also going to be collecting that data. Right now
we don’t’ have a whole lot of people who have been out more than a year, but we will be collecting that and the
recidivism rate.
