$2 Million Grant: Professors Aid In Helping Local Business

Horizon Behavioral Health plans to expand the capacity of Lynchburg’s Adult Drug Court upon receiving a $2 million grant from the Bureau of Justice Administration with the aid of two Liberty professors.

Professors in the School of Behavioral Sciences Dr. Fred Volk and Dr. Brian Kelley aided in the grant application process and will continue to work with Horizon Behavioral Health to evaluate the positive impact of expanding the intervention on patient outcomes.

Approval of the grant was not a small feat due to the small number of applications accepted every year.

“Horizon … worked very hard on this grant and a very small percentage of grants are funded at that level. Typically only the top three to maybe six percent of grants submitted get funded so that was a really competitive application. On their end, they did a great job on what was a very difficult submission process,” Kelley said. 

Volk and Kelly were called in initially by a previous student and now co-principal investigator for Horizon, Jennifer Smith Ramey. She hoped her former professors would be interested in working with the community to help those truly in need. 

This interest has been the driving goal behind their involvement with Horizon. 

“This grant is working at pricing support for the community so in that respect I was pretty excited to see our community offered a new … option around substance abuse treatment,” Kelley said.

Volk echoed a similar reaction to the news as well.

“They can change trajectory of more people’s lives particularly those who might be otherwise incarcerated. It’s a big deal, and I think it’s exciting to get to have an opportunity to work with the difference makers in the community,” Volk said. 

One of the positives this project has is being able to give students a real-world example of making change in a community.

“One of the benefits is that we always want to make sure that we are giving students the most current information within our field. So while working in the field and being a part of things that are transformational right now, we can take that knowledge right back to the classroom better prepare our students for the workforce,” Kelley said. 

While taking on this project meant considerably more time and effort from both professors, it was a way to honor God with their work.

“When you get invited to be a part of something special, you make time for that. And when I say special, (I mean) in the sense that it’s consistent with your calling both from a skills perspective in your professional calling and also consistent with your faith walk,” Volk said. 

This calling of faith is a way the gospel can be spread to those in need at the treatment center. 

“Oftentimes that those people in the most need of help are often underserved in a lot of ways and probably underserved for a long time. So, it’s a great chance to spread the gospel for the Lord Jesus to people (in the) community both directly and indirectly,” Kelley said.  

The hopeful goal with the next four years’ work is a focus more on successful rehabilitation and increased capacity to serve additional individuals in need of drug treatment. 

“Our target is 100% effectiveness and that’s the target for the folks who work at Horizon. The drug court team wants to see everybody change their lives,” Volk said. 

haydon is a news reporter. Follow him on Twitter