Anderton announces funding for Murupara anti-drugs campaign

The government has agreed to contribute toward the Murupara community's anti-drugs education campaign, Jim Anderton said in Murupara today.

"I visited Murupara earlier this year and was impressed by the commitment of the Murupara community to take control of its own destiny in the campaign against drug use and alcohol abuse.

"So it gives me a great deal of satisfaction to come back to Murupara today and bring some good news from Wellington," Jim Anderton said.

The Progressive Party successfully sought funding from the coalition government's Budget to fund fifteen new Community Action on Youth & Drugs (CAYAD) programmes around the country selected on the basis of a range of data studied by officials.

"As I said earlier in the year, I was personally very disappointed that the very worthwhile community campaign in Murupara was not selected to be one of those 15 new CAYADs which officials agreed was worthwhile but it still missed out on funding afforded the other communities whose needs were judged more urgent," the Progressive leader said.

In Budget 2004, the Progressive Party successfully sought new funding for a new National Drug Policy Discretionary Fund aimed primarily at helping out good short-term initiatives or initiatives, which had not been able to get funding from mainstream funding sources.

"I am pleased to announce, therefore, that the Ministerial Committee on Drugs meeting on 30 November agreed to fund the Murupara application to address the problems of drug abuse in their community from this new discretionary fund," the Progressive leader said.

A total of $115,000 will be allocated to the proposed community action youth and drugs programme.

This is made up of $78,000 for the standard contract, $20,000 for set up costs, and $17,000 for the formative evaluation component.

The formative evaluation has been vital in establishing other CAYADs or Community Action on Youth And Drugs programmes and the Ministry of Health will contract SHORE to do the formative evaluation as it has for other CAYADs.

EDITORS NOTE

The level of funding earmarked for Murupara is for one full-time position rather than the two that had been initially sought by Murupara.

The decision to fund the project at this level relates primarily to the size of the area and population base covered. For example there is a two person CAYAD in Tauranga but it has to cover the whole of the Western Bay of Plenty.

The National Drug Policy Discretionary Fund is aimed primarily at short-term funding proposals i.e. discrete initiatives usually for no longer than 12 months, or initiatives which have not been able to get funding from mainstream funding sources but need time or evaluation, for example, to secure it. The Murupara proposal is one that fit the criteria of the Ministerial Committee on Drug Policy's discretionary fund. The Ministry of Health has indicated that ongoing funding of $78,000 will be sought from its 05/06 funding round for ongoing activities.