Officials with Project Renew, a statewide program to help those affected by substance use disorder sort through civil legal issues, said they are working hard to help families in local communities.
Carrie Stambaugh is staff attorney at Legal Aid of the Bluegrass and an Equal Justice Works fellow in the Opioid Crisis Response Program. She said one part of recovery that often gets forgotten is the need for civil legal support.
“We have studies that show that 80% of people who are getting substance use treatment in recovery centers have more than one civil legal issue that needs resolved. And those range from everything from benefits, to tax issues that maybe they neglected while they were in active addiction,” said Stambaugh.
She said when people are no longer dealing with active addiction, they often have problems they need to go back through and clean up. She said this is why Legal Aid of the Bluegrass is partnered with three other legal aid organizations across the state through Project Renew. The other legal aid organizations that work with Project Renew are AppalReD Legal Aid, located in Prestonsburg, The Legal Aid Society, located in Louisville, and Kentucky Legal Aid, located in Bowling Green. Each of these organizations has at least one dedicated Project Renew attorney.
Stambaugh is one of three dedicated Project Renew attorneys for Legal Aid of the Bluegrass. She said that since she works almost exclusively with Project Renew cases, she sees a variety of issues.
“When folks are in active addiction, they often don’t address all the other life things that need to happen. So, a lot of these folks have lost housing, perhaps they have lost custody of their children, they have put off doing their taxes. Maybe they’ve put off leaving an abusive partner. So, these problems stack up and then multiply and compound,” said Stambaugh.
Stambaugh said helping people begin to unravel potential legal issues they may have is an important step toward sustained recovery. She said they can also work on criminal record expungement, setting up wills and trusts, and host low-income tax clinics every year.
She added that Project Renew services are not just for those suffering from addiction themselves. Anyone with a civil legal issue related to substance use disorder can make use of their services. This includes grandparents who may have custody of their grandchildren due to a parent being unfit to care for them. In 2024, Project Renew handled more than a thousand cases. In those cases, they helped 1,384 adults and 1,064 children. Additionally, of those 1,000 cases, 90% fell below 200% of the poverty level.
More information on Project Renew, and how to seek their services, can be found at lablaw.org.