Last week the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission (KOAAC) announced $13.9 million in awards to 34 community-based organizations in Kentucky that applied for funding to help combat the opioid epidemic. This round of funding brings the total amount awarded this year to $32 million. Officials said the organizations being funded focus on opioid treatment, prevention, and recovery programs.
Bryan Hubbard is the Chairman and Executive Director of the KOAAC. He said a third round of funding will come next year. The application portal will open January 1, 2024, and will remain open until March.
“Kentucky, and in particular Eastern Kentucky is used to being stigmatized as being behind the pack and backwards in many ways. Our state is among the very first, if not the first to have a grant-based opioid fund distribution system that has actually managed to get dollars out the door,” said Hubbard.
The KOAAC made the distributions just ahead of their Kentucky Opioid Symposium, October 8-10. Officials said it was the first such gathering, held to increase awareness of the opioid epidemic and to discuss a collaborative approach to combat the issue.
Hubbard said the gathering allows state leaders, activists, families, and individuals who have been impacted by the opioid epidemic to be able to converge.
“To be able to have for the very first time, a state-wide conversation underneath one roof as to what we’ve already done and experienced, what it is we’ve got to continue to do moving forward to address the evolving epidemic,” said Hubbard.
Keynote speakers for the symposium included U.S Congressman Hall Rogers and freelance journalist Sam Quinones. Hubbard said he hopes to make the symposium an annual event.
Organizations that have won funding can be foundhere.