State Infrastructure Grant Program

The State Infrastructure Grant program (SIG), funded and supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), provides funding and technical assistance to state and tribal mental health and substance abuse agencies to develop their capacity to improve service systems for youth with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders and their families. Since this program's inception in 2004, the National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health has been funded by the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) to serve as the technical assistance provider for grantees, along with our partner, MayaTech, which is funded by the Federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT).

The purposes of technical assistance are to assist SIG grantees to:

• Learn strategies for cross-agency planning;
• Develop partnerships with CMHS-funded System of Care Communities; and
• Grow and sustain community-based systems of care with the capacity to serve youth with co-occurring disorders as part of an overall state plan.

The National Technical Assistance Center provides technical assistance to SIG grantees (with our partners at MayaTech) in collaboration with the National Indian Child Welfare Administration, Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health, and National Center for Cultural Competence, through a coaching relationship with each SIG grantee. Transformation Coaches fulfill their role in relation to the goals and requirements of the SIG program, ensuring an integrated approach with the larger system transformation agenda recommended by the NFC. 

Techncial assistance delivery strategies include grantee meetings, conference calls, issue briefs, and cutting edge technology, such as DVDs with training videos and documents. In addition, Nation Technical Assistance Center continues to nurture the peer network among grantees through a listserv and weekly resources.  Throughout all technical assistance activities, there is a strong emphasis on the role of families/youth and on cultural and linguistic competence.

The current SIG grantees include:

• Arizona
• Georgia
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• Puyallup Tribal Health Authority
• South Carolina
• Utah

The Director of  Techinical Assistance for this work is Neal M. Horen, Ph.D. and he may be reached at 202 687-5443 or horenn@georgetown.edu.