Use SOR Funds to Pay for Peer Job Candidate Barrier Crime Screenings

Hi Everyone!

Last week the SOR team learned that peer job candidates who have screenable barrier crimes on their background checks have to pay $200 out of pocket for the screening process….even if they don’t pass and are unable to gain employment through a DBHDS-licensed agency.

While the SOR team can’t singlehandedly change the laws or processes surrounding peer hiring, we can make it so that job candidates don’t bear the burden of paying for their own barrier crime screenings. Therefore, we encourage every csb to utilize SOR monies to cover this fee for your potential peer employees. If your SOR budget will be tight and you don’t have extra funding for this expense, please reach out and ask us for additional monies. If it’s a tight turnaround without enough time to receive extra monies in a warrant, reach out to us anyway and we’ll work with you and/or the screener directly to cover this expense.

SOR II Kickoff Meeting Follow-Up

Thank you to everyone that attended the SOR II Kickoff Meeting on Tuesday, October 6th. We truly appreciate everyone's attendance and participation! We have a few follow-up points:

  • Meeting slides & recording: The slides from the meeting are posted on the SOR Portal's General SOR Grant Resource Page and the recording of the meeting will be posted by the end of this week.

  • SOR II re-intake feedback: We had a fruitful discussion with all attendees regarding the re-intake process for clients receiving SOR II-funded services that also completed GPRA surveys for SOR I. OMNI is committed to incorporating CSB input and as discussed in the kickoff meeting, would like to hear from CSBs on how best to orient the GPRA survey process to clients and agency's best interests.

    We have created a short form to gauge interest in a meeting/workgroup in which CSB staff would provide feedback and input on the SOR II GPRA re-intake process. If you are interested in this meeting/workgroup, please fill out this form. Participation is optional and our goal is to hear from a mix of voices and CSBs. We have not yet set a date/time for this meeting but if you complete this form we will include you in future communication about scheduling. We will share final plans with our entire SOR contact list, so if you don't participate in the workgroup, you will still hear the results and changes that you need to know when they are finalized.

  • Justice-based GPRA training: As shared in the meeting, there are some slight differences to the GPRA questions and process for CSBs who will be administering the GPRA in jails or other justice settings. We will hold a training on October 20 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. to go over this information. Please register here for this training.

Thank you again! We appreciate everyone's time and energy as we get SOR II started. As always, please reach out to SORSupport@omni.org with any questions!

SOR II Treatment & GPRA Kickoff Meeting Final Reminder

We wanted to send a final reminder to register for the SOR II Treatment & GPRA Kickoff Meeting on Tuesday, October 6th from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm ET if you haven’t already. You can register for the meeting here: https://bit.ly/SORIIKickoffMeeting.

Join DBHDS, OMNI, and SOR II treatment sub-grantees in kicking off the SOR II grant. All CSBs receiving treatment funding under SOR II should plan to attend. Please reach out to SORSupport@omni.org with any questions. Hope to see you Tuesday!

Welcome to SOR II!

Happy October 1st! This is a reminder that today is the first day of the SOR II grant. You will notice that the resources page has been updated with all the SOR II materials that you should now be using. Please make sure any paper copies of the GPRA or the consent form that you have at your CSB are the current SOR II documents. All current SOR II materials can be found at this link. The changes to the GPRA survey are outlined in this document.

Please enter any interviews you did on paper at the end of September into the online system by October 5 so they are included in the final grant reporting. (For any questions that are in the new GPRA that you did not ask the client because the new one was not launched yet, you may select “Refused” as the response to move forward in the survey.)

We’re looking forward to another great year of SOR collaboration with you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at SORSupport@omni.org if you have any questions.

Quarter 4 Treatment & Recovery Services Surveys

With the end of Quarter 4 on September 30th, it is time to complete the Quarter 4 Treatment & Recovery Services Surveys. Agency contacts should have received an email with survey information on Monday, September 28th. If you did not receive this email and believe you should have, please reach out to SORSupport@omni.org.

Due to the end of the SOR I grant, this survey requires a shorter turn-around than previous quarters. We will need agencies to complete the survey(s) no later than Thursday, October 15th. This deadline is firm due to deadlines for final SAMHSA reporting requirements.

Thank you to everyone that has contributed to these quarterly service surveys - your time and effort is much appreciated!

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SOR II Important Updates & 10/6 Kickoff Meeting Reminder

The new SOR grant (i.e., SOR II) begins this coming Thursday, October 1st. This post contains important reminders and updates regarding the end of SOR I and the beginning of SOR II.

SOR II Kickoff Meeting

If you have not yet done so, please register for the SOR II Kickoff Meeting on Tuesday, October 6th from 11am-12:30pm EST here: https://bit.ly/SORIIKickoffMeeting. This kickoff meeting will provide a comprehensive overview of SOR II grant and GPRA information.

Important SOR I and SOR II Updates & Reminders

SOR I:

  • Any GPRA interviews completed on paper in late September must be entered into the online system by October 5th in order to be submitted to SPARS (SAMHSA).

SOR II:

  • SOR II is slightly different than SOR I - we have created a short one-pager to summarize the main grant and GPRA changes. Please review this one-pager here.

  • There is a new version of the GPRA, to be used starting October 1, 2020. This new GPRA has minor question adjustments that will be reviewed in the kickoff meeting on 10/6. The paper copy of the new version is now posted to the TA website's resources page and the new GPRA online survey links will be posted at the end of the day on September 30th. If your agency has the survey links bookmarked, you will need to update these links to the new GPRA.

  • There will be a new consent form, to be used starting October 1, 2020. The paper copy of the new consent form is now posted to the TA website's resources page. Your agency will need to adjust processes to use the new consent form.

  • SOR II is expanding GPRA to the jail setting this year. This means that eligible clients in jail settings will receive the GPRA. OMNI will hold a training for administering the GPRA to these clients in October (more information/specifics to come). Please wait to start administering the GPRA in this setting until you have attended the training.

As always, please reach out to our TA team if you have any questions (SORSupport@omni.org).

SOR II Important Updates & 10/6 Kickoff Meeting Registration

Greetings!

Thank you for all your hard work over the past fiscal year on your SOR I grant activity! It's hard to believe, but we are ready to transition to SOR II. To prepare for the SOR I grant to end on 9/30/2020 and the SOR II grant to begin on 10/1/2020, we have some important updates and announcements!

As you were notified about last week, we are hosting a SOR II Kickoff Meeting on Tuesday, October 6th from 11am-12:30pm EST. If you have not yet, please register to attend this meeting here: https://bit.ly/SORIIKickoffMeeting. This Kickoff Meeting will provide a comprehensive overview of SOR II grant and GPRA information, but we want to share a few important updates in the meantime.

Important Pre-Kickoff Meeting Updates

SOR I:

  • Any GPRA interviews completed on paper in late September must be entered to the online system by October 5th in order to be submitted to SPARS (SAMHSA) in a timely manner.

SOR II:

  • SOR II is expanding to include Stimulant Use Disorder, in addition to Opioid Use Disorder. Clients that have a Stimulant Use Disorder diagnosis will be eligible to complete the GPRA starting October 1, 2020.

  • There will be new version of the GPRA starting October 1, 2020. This new GPRA will have minor question adjustments that will be reviewed in the Kickoff Meeting on 10/6. If your agency has the survey links bookmarked, you will need to update these links to the new GPRA. The paper copy of the new version will be posted to the TA website's resources page in late September and the new GPRA links will be posted at the end of the day on September 30th.

  • There will be a new consent form starting October 1, 2020. Your agency will need to adjust processes to use the new consent form.

  • SOR II is expanding to the jail setting this year. This means that eligible clients in jail settings will receive the GPRA. OMNI will hold trainings for administering the GPRA to these clients in October (more information/specifics to come).

Another email with more updates, specifics, and reminders regarding the GPRA and grant changes will be sent out closer to October 1st. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to the TA support team at SORSupport@omni.org. We are looking forward to continuing this work with you all!

Congratulations - SOR Year 2 Intake GPRA Goal Reached!

The Virginia SOR grant has officially surpassed the second fiscal year (Oct. 2019 – Sept. 2020) goal of 1500 Intake GPRAs! We want to thank you all so much for your hard work – these numbers are a reflection of everyone’s incredible efforts!

We still have more work to reach the goal of 1900 Intake GPRAs for the entirety of the grant (by the end of Sept. 2020), but we are confident that we will reach this goal shortly. The below figure shows the year two (Oct. 2019 - Sept. 2020) intake GPRA goal compared to the current number of intake GPRAs completed (June 2019 - Sept. 2020), and the total intake GPRA goal:

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Thank you all! We are extremely proud of everyone’s hard work and are excited to continue to meet our overall grant goal of 1900 Intake GPRAs.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200#200.112 Per 2 C.F.R. § 200.112-1113 The Federal awarding agency must establish conflict of interest policies for Federal awards. The non-Federal entity must disclose in writing any potential conflict of interest to the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity in accordance with applicable Federal awarding agency policy. Failure to adhere to these statues will result in immediate termination of funding.

Virginia’s State Opioid Response (SOR) grant is awarded at the discretion of DBHDS and SAMHSA. All recipients of SOR funding supports evidence-based prevention, treatment and recovery services to address opioid and stimulant misuse and use disorders, including for cocaine and methamphetamine. The SOR grant is not intended to be utilized as a long-term or permanent funding source. All SOR proposals must include a realistic plan for financial sustainability beyond the grant period.