Tech Will Develop Addiction Center To Help Region With Grant

Tennessee Tech has been awarded a $1.8 million federal grant to create a new research and support facility for substance abuse.

The Center for Addiction, Prevention, Research, and Support will work with students who are in recovery. Director Steven Seiler said the center will also provide support to substance abuse coalitions across the Upper Cumberland.

“They’re highly competitive grants and this is a vision that we’d had for some time,” Seiler said. “It’s something that we’ve talked about for quite a few years and so it’s really an honor to have gotten this grant and be part of seeing this center come together.”

The center will be housed in Tech’s School of Human Ecology. Seiler said he will be the program director of the proposed center, with Elizabeth Ramsey serving as the Assistant Director. Seiler said the center hopes to connect with local organizations with similar goals to fight addiction.

“We will reach out to them, we will basically see what their needs are, what areas can we help fill in for them, particularly as it relates to their evidence-based practice,” Seiler said. “That is their assessment models, their evaluation models.

Seiler said the facility will have three prevention coordinators setting up outreach activities on campus and in the community. Seiler said the facility will also provide a support coordinator, who is also a Tech professor, who will be building a recovery program.

“What we know is that if we can connect with folks early then it increases the likelihood of not engaging in substance misuse and certainly to decrease the likelihood of addiction,” Seiler said.

Tech received the grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.