$1-Billion Proposed to Train Mentors and Help Drug and Alcohol Addicts

By Grant Williams

In his State of the Union address last week, President Bush asked Congress to pass a pair of new proposals, at a cost of more than $1-billion, that would help religious and other groups further one of his chief goals — applying “the compassion of America to the deepest problems of America.”

Mr. Bush said he wanted lawmakers to approve a new three-year, $450-million program to recruit and train mentors for more than one million disadvantaged young people and children with one or more parents in prison. Federal agencies would work with nonprofit, community, and religious organizations that train volunteer mentors and place them with children in need.

“Government will support the training and recruiting of mentors, yet it is the men and women of America who will fill the need,” Mr. Bush said.

In addition, Mr. Bush called for a $600-million increase in federal funds over the next three years to help people with drug addictions find treatment from the most effective programs, including those offered by religious institutions.

The Bush administration said the funds would allow 300,000 more Americans to find assistance through vouchers they could use at treatment facilities.

Mr. Bush said that the United States “is blessed with recovery programs that do amazing work,” and he cited a religious institution, the Healing Place Church, in Baton Rouge, La., as an example.

“By caring for children who need mentors, and for addicted men and women who need treatment, we are building a more welcoming society, a culture that values every life,” the president said.

“Americans are doing the work of compassion every day: visiting prisoners, providing shelter for battered women, bringing companionship to lonely seniors,” Mr. Bush said in his speech. “These good works deserve our praise, they deserve our personal support, and when appropriate, they deserve the assistance of the federal government.”

Mr. Bush urged lawmakers to pass two of his proposals that had stalled in the past Congress: a “faith-based initiative” that would make it easier for religious organizations to obtain federal funds for social-service programs, and the Citizen Service Act, which would extend the life of AmeriCorps and other federal national-service programs.

More information about the proposals in the speech is available at the White House Web site, http://www.whitehouse.gov.