The Iwo San residential program for women and their children is part of the mother organization, the East Side Catholic Shelter, Inc., a nonprofit, inner-city agency located in Cleveland, Ohio which provides food and shelter to homeless women and their children. Operational since October 1993, the six month residential and 18 month continuing care programs of the Iwo San project provides an Afrocentric model of comprehensive services for 12 substance abusing women and up to 20 children at any given time. The target population is inner-city African American parenting women whose drug of choice is crack cocaine. The treatment for women focuses on rehabilitation from the disease of chemical dependency and places heavy emphasis on community reintegration and self-sufficiency. The treatment program for children provides thorough developmental, physical and emotional assessments.
Treatment is age-specific, culturally relevant and involves participation of the mothers.
The Iwo San program strength is its continuing care program grounded in the philosophy that solid, comprehensive continuing care is proactive relapse prevention at its best. Eight continuation awards were issued in fiscal year 1999, but no new awards were made in fiscal year 1999. No continuation awards are anticipated to be awarded in fiscal years 2000 or 2001. Program announcements, guidelines and instructions are included in the application kit which is available from Headquarters Office listed below. This program has no statutory formula or matching requirements.