Howard G. Buffett Foundation Commits $30 Million to Address Addiction

The Howard G. Buffett Foundation in Decatur, Illinois, has announced a $30 million commitment to fund construction of a healthcare and social services campus dedicated to public health needs and the growing drug addiction epidemic in Macon County.

When completed, the seventeen-acre Community Care Campus will promote a multidisciplinary, multi-agency approach to addiction treatment centered around four new facilities, three of which will be operated by Crossing Healthcare — a 31,000-square-foot detox and residential rehabilitation building, an 18,000-square-foot outpatient treatment center, and a 17,000-square-foot transitional housing facility. In addition, early childhood development services provider Baby TALK will relocate to an 18,000-square-foot facility on the campus.

"By being housed at one location strategically located near Crossing Healthcare, Baby TALK can provide families with intensive immediate support to ensure that families struggling with substance abuse and in need of medical and mental health services receive wraparound support to begin to build healthy family relationships," said Cindy Bardeleben, the organization's interim executive director.

The campus also will provide quality-of-life amenities and services designed to help clients reclaim their independence while living in a sober environment, including a dental clinic, cafeteria, classrooms, a computer training lab, transitional housing, an industrial kitchen, a three-quarter-mile walking path, a garden and orchard, a park and outdoor pavilion, an indoor exercise facility, and a movie theater.

"In the six years I have been involved with the Macon County Sheriff's Office, I have seen firsthand the enormous human toll caused by drug addiction," said Howard G. Buffett, who served as Macon County undersheriff starting in 2014 and in 2017 was named sheriff. "Drug addiction is devastating our communities and affecting people at every age and income level. Drugs are killing more of our neighbors than firearms and auto accidents combined. It is clear to me that it will take a significant investment of public and private resources to stop the trajectory of addiction rates, and it will take a comprehensive approach to reverse current trends and heal communities. I hope the Community Care Campus can serve as a model for how we do that."

"The Howard G. Buffett Foundation Commits $30M to Build a Community Care Campus in Decatur, Illinois to Improve Public Health." Howard G. Buffett Foundation Press Release 08/08/2018.