New NY State Program Recruits Military Vets as Substance Abuse Counselors

FIRST-TIME SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE FROM OUTREACH TRAINING INSTITUTE

New Help for U.S. Military Veterans

Veterans seeking training as drug and alcoholism counselors will now have a unique opportunity from Outreach Training Institute (OTI), a division of Outreach Project, one of New York State’s leading alcohol and substance abuse treatment agencies, which helps teenagers and adults with addiction issues. 

Veterans Program
Through special funding, any honorably discharged U.S. military service veteran within the past nine years can receive a full scholarship for OTI’s Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC) program for licensing by the New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services.
 
With classroom sites in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Richmond Hill, Queens and Brentwood, Long Island, the program offers a 350-hour/11-month curriculum with classes held on weekdays, evenings and Saturdays. 

Joe Johnson, who served in the U.S. Air Force for four years, is a graduate of OTI’s CASAC program.  He is now a New York State Licensed Substance Abuse Counselor.

"This is the first time we’ve been able to offer such a program to veterans and the first program of its kind in New York State," said Mark Armiento, director of OTI and a vice president of Outreach Project.
"Because so many veterans have been affected by alcoholism and substance abuse, we feel the additional training of counselors with a record of military service will be of extraordinary help to those of their fellow vets who suffer from addiction issues."
 
The OTI CASAC program includes internship placement and employment services for all its students.  More than 1,500 OTI graduates have gone on to counseling and supervisory positions in the treatment and addiction field.
 
Outreach Project is a 501(c) organization dedicated to helping those (especially youth, women and women with children) struggling to break free from addiction, providing a variety of programming options to help them turn their lives around and become productive members of society.

With facilities in Queens, Brooklyn and in Suffolk County, Outreach offers outpatient and residential programming for youth, intensive daytime treatment for women and women with children and adult outpatient treatment services (with programming in Spanish at our Richmond Hill office and in Polish at our Greenpoint clinic). 
 
For further information about OTI’s veterans scholarships, or if you or someone you know needs help with a drug or alcohol problem, please call David Greenberg at Outreach Project at (718) 847-9233, ext. 108.  You can visit Outreach Project at www.opiny.org