Bill Title: Amends the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Administrative Act. Requires the Department of Human Services to create the Cultural Empowerment Program to make grants-in-aid to one or more community providers to provide outreach, engagement, training, and support to faith-based organizations serving communities that are underserved by mental and behavioral health resources. Requires the Department to provide a list of ZIP codes identifying the targeted communities. Provides that grantees under the program shall utilize all available resources to provide initial relationship building within community areas by delivering training to faith-based leadership and providing connection through personal stories from persons with lived expertise to the leadership of faith communities or their congregations. Requires grantees to: (i) provide information about the Certified Recovery Support Specialist (CRSS) credential to interested individuals; (ii) build relationships with local community mental health centers (CMHCs) and other behavioral health providers to help facilitate linkage to mental health services for people in targeted communities; (iii) ensure that consumers in the program experience a warm handoff between the grantee and the CMHC or other service provider; (iv) assist consumers in navigating or bypassing wait lists and other barriers to accessing care; (v) use their relationships with CMHCs and service providers to support expansion of services when needed and where possible; (vi) utilize their expertise to build relationships with faith-based communities in the targeted communities and ensure that those organizations are aware of the behavioral health resources available; and other matters. Provides that the Department shall prioritize organizations that are existing trusted messengers within targeted communities in awarding funding under the program. Provides that the program shall begin operations no later than July 1, 2024.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Passed) 2023-07-28 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 103-0355 [HB3698 Detail]

Text: Latest bill text (Chaptered) [HTML]

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Voting Records

Chamber	Vote	Date	Yea	Nay	NV	Abs	Total	Result	Source	View
Senate	Third Reading in Senate	2023-05-17	48	1	10	0	59	Passed	Link	View
House	Third Reading in House	2023-05-12	70	36	1	1	108	Passed	Link	View
House	Motion in House	2023-05-12	66	38	3	1	108	Passed	Link	View

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