As overdose rates climb among Black people in Kentucky, organizations launch $500,000 in projects to reduce overdoses among BIPOC & underserved communities
Louisville, KY (September 18, 2024) – According to the 2023 Kentucky Drug Overdose Fatality Report, overdose deaths of Black Kentuckians rose in 2023 despite the overall decline of fatal overdoses. In response, The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky (FHKY) announced awards to 11 organizations selected for its Shaping a Healthy and Inclusive Future Together (SHIFT) grant program. The program is a partnership with Vital Strategies and the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort.
The SHIFT program will target this disparity and other inequities produced by the overdose crisis through harm reduction strategies. Along with resources like naloxone and fentanyl testing strips, harm reduction includes helping people to live longer and more safely, making sure they have access to health care and social support, and connecting people to other resources such as food security and workforce education.
“In Kentucky, communities of color have been disproportionately affected by overdose, and often don’t have adequate access to life-saving harm reduction services,” said, Hunter Harrison, Program Manager, Kentucky Overdose Prevention Program at Vital Strategies. “With these grants, we want to tackle these disparities by empowering communities that have been most affected. These grants are about making sure everyone has a chance to be part of the solution and creating a more inclusive and connected approach to harm reduction.”
“This project is about more than providing funding, it's about fostering partnerships and supporting innovative, community-driven approaches to harm reduction,” said Ben Chandler, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. “By working alongside organizations that are deeply rooted in the communities they serve, we can create safer, healthier environments where everyone has access to the support they need to thrive. Together with our partners at Vital Strategies and the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort, we are proud to empower these organizations to make a meaningful impact in the lives of Kentuckians.”
The organizations below are receiving grants for either $25,000 or $50,000:
Black Soil KY: The Lexington-based organization will use this grant to add Narcan boxes and educational materials to several Black Soil Farmacy Markets while also improving access to nutritious foods for Kentuckians in recovery and utilizing farming as a source for recovery capital.
Change Today, Change Tomorrow: The Louisville organization will use this grant to distribute harm reduction supplies across West Louisville through their ongoing food-access work. They will also be training peer educators in harm reduction, substance use safety, and the many pathways to recovery.
Granny’s Birth Initiative: This Louisville organization that provides perinatal support primarily to black Kentuckians will use their grant to provide additional harm reduction education to Doula Techs to enhance the support they give to clients with substance use disorder (SUD).
Greater Louisville Recovery Project: The Louisville center will use its funds to support low-barrier, peer-led programming to engage black Louisvillians and local business owners in the normalization of harm reduction strategies.
HOTEL INC: The Bowling Green organization will work with leaders in homeless encampments to expand access to harm reduction resources for people who use drugs. HOTEL INC will also work to train other providers in these strategies across the western Kentucky continuum of care.
Louisville Pride Foundation: The Louisville-based organization will use its funds to provide training for LGBTQ community health workers to disseminate harm-reduction information and supplies across the state, and it will train local health care providers on culturally competent care for members of the LGBTQ community who use drugs.
Project Ricochet: The Lexington-based organization will use its grant to develop a coalition of BIPOC community members with lived experience, developing an advocacy plan for issues that affect people in recovery, and hosting a ‘Black Family Conference’ that will provide attendees with education and training around harm reduction.
Queer Kentucky: The state-wide organization will use its funds to develop a coalition of businesses that will provide free harm-reduction supplies in discreet locations, and the creation of stigma-reducing campaigns.
Recovery Café Lexington: The community center in Lexington for people in recovery will use the funds to support its Minority Outreach Specialist position. This role will increase the organization’s capacity to provide harm reduction supplies, housing support, vocational training scholarships, transportation support, and other resources to BIPOC residents who are at risk of overdose or seeking recovery support.
Somali Community of Louisville: The organization that works with immigrants and refugees in Louisville will use this grant to expand its naloxone trainings and access for members of the Somali community as well as efforts to decrease the stigma in the community around mental health services, harm reduction, and recovery.
St. John Center: The Louisville organization will use the funds to expand its harm reduction activities within its Permanent Supportive Housing program which focuses on individuals who use drugs, who are formerly homeless, and struggle to maintain housing.
This program is being financially supported by Vital Strategies. With this support, the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is able to make this funding more accessible to community-based organizations by providing funds upfront and not requiring reimbursement-based contracts. FHKY will also support the grantees throughout their projects to help them utilize their resources and grow their capacity.
The grant period for this program will end on July 31,2025.
Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky
Funded by an endowment, the mission of the nonpartisan Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is to address the unmet health needs of Kentuckians by developing and influencing policy, improving access to care, reducing health risks and disparities, and promoting health equity. Since the Foundation opened its doors in 2001, it has invested in health policy research, advocacy, and demonstration project grants across the Commonwealth.
For more information, visit Healthy-KY.org.
Vital Strategies
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. Our overdose prevention program works to strengthen and scale evidence-based, data-driven policies and interventions to create equitable and sustainable reductions in overdose deaths. Work across seven U.S. states is supported by funding from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Overdose Prevention Initiative, launched in 2018, and by targeted investments from other partners.
Learn more at https://www.vitalstrategies.org/programs/overdose-prevention/