KRF Secures $300,000 Grant to Intensify Efforts Against Opioid Crisis

Kentucky River Foothills has been awarded a Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to sustain its fight against Opioid Use Disorder/Substance Use Disorder (OUD/SUD) in Madison County.

The agency was awarded a $300,000 grant over a one-year period to continue implementing a set of evidence-based interventions and promising practices that align with HRSA’s Four-Point Overdose Prevention Strategy to Combat the Opioid Crisis. The Strategy is guided by primary prevention, evidence-based treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support.

Nationwide HRSA awarded a total of $14,100,000 to 47 grantees. Five grant awards were made to Kentucky organizations.

In 2019, KRFDC was awarded a one-year $200,000 planning grant from HRSA to strengthen and expand substance use disorder (SUD) response, including opioid use disorder (OUD) prevention, treatment, and recovery services in rural areas. KRFDC was one of eight Kentucky organizations to receive this initial funding. In 2020, KRFDC was awarded a $ 1 million-dollar RCORP Implementation grant. As a result, KRFDC developed MORE (Madison Opioid Response and Empowerment), a consortium of organizations committed to working collectively to drive change in how our community responds to this epidemic. Since its inception, MORE has worked tirelessly to develop plans to ensure that services provided to the target population were coordinated in a county-wide unified manner.

This new RCORP Overdose Response grant will strengthen and expand efforts began in 2019. It will allow KRFDC to provide supportive services for recovery enhancement at the Madison County Detention Center. This program will serve men with Substance Use Disorder/Opioid Use Disorder.

“This exciting new program will provide community-based solutions to housing, employment, and health care barriers to inmates at the Madison County Detention Center to help reduce recidivism and reconnect returning prisoners to their families and neighborhoods,” said Karen Atkins, public information officer.

“Additional peer support services, along with intensive case management services, will help inmates successfully transition from incarceration to safe, affordable housing,” said Atkins. “The program will also offer employment supports so that returning citizens can be wonderful, productive individuals in our community.”

This program also aims to help inmates by offering resume building, financial literacy classes, job support, life skills sessions, and more.

To view the full list of awardees, see FY 2023 Overdose Response Awards | HRSA

To learn more about the RCORP program, visit the RCORP Webpage.