City of Edmond transforming youth justice with help of opioid abatement grant

OKLAHOMA CITY (March 3, 2025) – Thanks to a grant from the Oklahoma Opioid Abatement Board, the City of Edmond is taking innovative steps to address substance abuse and other challenges facing its youth.

Edmond's initiative includes a strategic partnership between the Edmond Municipal Juvenile Court and Edmond Family Counseling. According to Sheila Stinnett, executive director of Edmond Family Counseling, they've seen an increase in certain juvenile charges since the COVID pandemic, particularly related to depression and marijuana use. As a result, Edmond leaders decided to focus on providing comprehensive support for young people facing substance-related violations and mental health challenges.

"We're trying to help get these kiddos connected quicker to whatever they need so they can be successful human beings and adults," said Christy R. Batterson, Edmond’s director of Housing and Community Resources.

A key innovation of the program is the placement of counselors directly in the courtroom. Yolanda Whitlow, Edmond's Court Administrator, said a personal connection is critical for a child’s success.

"We're actually able to turn to the juvenile and say, ‘Here's the human being who can give you whatever information you need,’... it takes some of that anxiety out of the parent and the youth," Whitlow explained.

Having a counselor in the courtroom has been a long-time need. But budgets didn’t allow for it. When Batterson heard about the grant, she reached out to facilitate this vital partnership.

"I'm a Number One advocate of partners because the City can't always do and doesn't have the capacity, or that's not our specialty,” Batterson noted. “I'm all about bringing those community partners in so they can provide those services without undue stress of worrying where the money is coming from."

Stinnett has already seen positive momentum from the addition of a counselor in the courtroom.

“It's a nice warm hand-off, and from the very beginning of their interaction, the families are much more engaged,” she said.

The program aims to provide wraparound services, addressing multiple risk factors simultaneously through various interventions, including:

• Early intervention drug refusal skills
• Pro-active decision-making strategies
• Emotional regulation tools
• Study skills and tutoring programs
• Mental health support

"For our kids who are in the system for that probationary time, all the services that we can potentially throw at them... what they learn they will take forward and it makes our community better across all the different environments," said Stinnett.

The initiative comes as part of a larger $11 million statewide effort to address Oklahoma's opioid crisis, with grants distributed by the Office of the Attorney General  to 71 cities, counties, school districts and public trusts. In 2022, Oklahoma recorded nearly 800 opioid-related deaths, with fentanyl responsible for 619 fatal overdoses.

"The goal is to try to turn their negative today into a positive tomorrow by planting positive, useful tools within that family dynamics," Whitlow said. "What is going on now is not their ending. This is just the beginning to a positive tomorrow."

In 2020, the Oklahoma Legislature enacted the Political Subdivisions Opioid Abatement Grants Act, creating the Opioid Abatement Board to oversee the distribution of opioid settlement funds. The purpose of the law is to promote and protect the health of Oklahomans by using monetary grants to fight the opioid crisis in a comprehensive manner that includes cooperation and collaboration with political subdivisions. 

Grants can fund treatment and recovery programs, assistance with co-occurring disorders and mental health issues, opioid abuse education and prevention, proper prescription efforts, and strategies to decrease the supply of narcotics across the state. Grants are rigorously reviewed and approved by the Oklahoma Opioid Abatement Board comprised of the Attorney General and appointees of the Governor, Speaker of the House, Senate President Pro Tempore, State Treasurer, State Superintendent for Public Instruction, and State Auditor and Inspector. 

For more information, go to the Oklahoma Opioid Abatement Grant webpage.