Multiconstruct

My job has been in transition for some period of time. For the last several weeks I have been a grant writer, mostly. Its kind of fun, a different set of challenges. A lot less emotionally draining than trying to save the world by helping struggling individuals get ahead and keep the wolves at bay. I like to compare it to writing a paper only instead of getting an “A” you get a million dollars. A “B+” pays zilch.

It makes for a little bit of pressure, but engaging as well. I have been writing the same proposal over and over, off and on, for almost three years. It makes my head spin when I think of sentences that i have pondered, retooled, or left alone for i don’t know, maybe a hundred times. But its good, it gets better each time and it is loads better than the last version.

The program i am trying to get funded is Assertive Community Treatment, which is a real neat model for treatment and pretty cutting edge for a substance abuse agency. As far as I know we had the only one, had being the operative word, and will have again if my grant goes through. A multi-disciplinary team with a lot of creativity and clinical freedom and a small case load to really expand the world of the possible for what you can do for folks.

The grant we are going for is a Recovery Oriented System of Care grant or  ROSC. Its really designed for interagency collaboration and its a bit of a stretch to just fund our program but i try to make the case. We were close last time and its a lot better, competitive though. But thinking about the idea of a ROSC has been cool though, has us getting more client and community focused.