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Project Overview

The WV Children and Families Funding Study project presents the annual cost of substance abuse in WV's criminal justice, healthcare, education, welfare, and workforce systems. For each system, a comprehensive breakdown of the cost is presented and estimation is made into the future. A final report is presented for each series.

The project is coordinated by the WV Prevention Resource Center, and it is currently funded by a federal Projects of Regional and National Significance Grant from the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.

Project History

An interagency group of policy makers and practitioners began planning this study in 1998 as part of an effort to improve children and family services for WV. It was the premise of this interagency group that many youth in WV were being under- or over-served by federal, state, local, and private agencies due to the lack of a coordinated, comprehensive planning process that would provide adequate and appropriate resources where they were most needed. This premise was based on: the lack of agreed upon statewide goals for improving service delivery and child well-being, the lack of accountability for reaching programmatic goals, the lack of information about child/family service needs, and the lack of information about the availability and use of child and family services. The study presented here is a significant step toward a coordinated approach to improving juvenile justice and children and family services in WV.

In 2000, the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council commissioned the study. The Governor's Committee on Crime Delinquency and Correction, Juvenile Justice Subcommittee voted to fund the WV Prevention Resource Center's proposal with U.S. Department of Justice, Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant funds in fiscal year 2001 - 2003 and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Block Grant in 2004 and 2005.

The initial report, included under the Publications section of this site, presents the findings of analyses of state and federal funding streams supporting public services for children and families in WV. The study's purpose is to provide WV citizens, including planners and policy makers, with data to inform planning and policy decisions and better understand the services provided to children and families in the state.

The study initially focused on funding streams administered by WV state agencies that provided services to children and families from fiscal year 1999 through fiscal year 2001. More than 250 funding streams were catalogued into six functional categories including: Education, Health Care, Economic Support, Safety and Family Stability, Economic Development, and Community Capacity Building.

The study included three types of information: an analysis of spending patterns and trends, program descriptions, and available state grant funding, each of which is available on this site.

The primary source documents used initially for thes study were the WV Single Audit of Federal Programs and the annual Enrolled State Budget Bill passed by the legislature for each of the three years of the initial study.

Project Time Line

  • 9/2011: Cost of SA to Criminal Justice System Report (series 2)released.
  • 4/2011: Cost of SA to all systems (series 1 final report) released.
  • 2/2011: Cost of SA to Workforce System Report released.
  • 10/2010: Cost of SA to Welfare System Report released.
  • 4/2010: Cost of SA to Education System Report released.
  • 10/2009: Cost of SA to Healthcare System Report released.
  • 9/2009: Cost of SA to Criminal Justice System Single Agency Reports released.
  • 7/2009: Cost of SA to Criminal Justice System Report released.
  • 6/2009: Annual Funding Study report released.
  • 6/2008: Annual Funding Study report released.
  • 6/2008: Regional workshops held in Charleston and Philippi to inform public of report findings.
  • 7/2007: WVPRC awarded JJDP Block Grant to continue research; Annual report released.
  • 4/2007: Presentation on prevention-related funding to the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being.
  • 7/2006: Annual Funding Study report released.
  • Summer 2005: Sub-Recipient Study report released and continuation of initial report released, updated through 2003.
  • June 2005: Study presented at the 2005 Juvenile Justice National Symposium.
  • 7/2004: WVPRC awarded JJDP Block Grant to continue research.
  • Fall 2004: Funding Study Project findings presented to WV Legislative staff.
  • Winter 2003/Spring 2004: Regional workshops held to inform public of report findings.
  • 7/2003: WVPRC awarded Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Block Grant to expand study to include sub-recipient award data.
  • 5/2003:First report released indentifying spending patterns FY 1999-2001.
  • 7/2003:WVPRC awarded JAIBG to continue research and educate interested parties.
  • 7/2001: WVPRC awarded Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant (JAIBG) to begin research.
  • 1998: Project planning began.