The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office is donating $20,000 from state forfeiture funds to support efforts by the local non-profit Join Together Northern Nevada to increase parent awareness and education about local drug use trends, the signs and symptoms of drug abuse, and effective intervention skills.

“By partnering with the Sheriff’s Office, we are essentially able to build a network of support that reaches across the entire community,” Join Together Northern Nevada Executive Director Kevin Quint said.

State forfeiture funds come from assets seized during local investigations such as drug cases.

State law allows the Sheriff’s Office to use those funds for education and training as part of ongoing efforts to prevent criminal activity.

In this case, the Sheriff’s Office funds will be used by Join Together Northern Nevada for outreach and training to various parent groups such as Parent-Teacher Associations and Organizations, as well as parents with children entering the juvenile justice system.

“This is an exciting opportunity to work with parents of youth who may have gotten into trouble with drugs for the first time and give them the tools they can use to help their children make better choices and to not become a repeat offender,” Quint said. “These funds will also support our ability to respond to parents who are trying to better understand how to recognize if a child is dealing with a drug or alcohol problem and host future community forums that will engage the wider community in a discussion of substance abuse.”

Join Together Northern Nevada also hopes to work with current inmates who are parents.

“We know that many inmates in Washoe County have some type of substance abuse problem and many of them are parents,” Quint said. “We hope to be able to educate them about their substance abuse and provide them with parenting skills for when they return home.”

The Sheriff’s Office donation will be presented to Join Together Northern Nevada during their Executive Board Meeting on Tuesday, July 19th at 10am.

Join Together Northern Nevada is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to build successful partnerships to create healthy, drug-free communities. It is the largest substance abuse coalition in northern Nevada and can be found on the web at http://www.jtnn.org/. For more information on JTNN contact Mr. Kevin Quint at 775 240-7340.