Friends of the Maui Drug Court has been awarded a $24,000 grant from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to provide childcare, dental treatment and medical exams to Drug Court participants on Maui and Moloka'i.

About 60 percent of Drug Court participants are Native Hawaiian, according to Dr. S. Larry Schlesinger, president of the Friends group.

OHA's grant also will pay for training for Drug Court professionals, funding of an executive director position and research on the recidivism rates of Drug Court graduates, he said. The grant period runs from Feb. 1 to Jan. 31, 2010.

Drug Court provides nonviolent offenders an opportunity to avoid or minimize incarceration upon completion of an intensive, judicially supervised substance abuse treatment program. Nearly 300 former defendants have graduated from the Maui/ Moloka'i Drug Court since it began eight years ago.