FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission this week made grants to 34 organizations set to receive nearly $14 million.
The commission was created by the General Assembly to distribute the state’s portion of the more than $842 million in settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors, half of which goes to the state and the other half goes to cities and counties. The commission is housed in the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office and is headed by Bryan Hubbard.
Of the $13.9 million in this round of grant money, 21 of the awards were given for treatment and recovery, and 13 were given for prevention.
Including the first round of state grants, the commission has awarded more than $32 million of the opioid settlement money to 59 groups.
Kentucky Health News was told at the Sept. 22 meeting that there would be a delay in announcing the names of the recipients because the commission needed time to contact them.
Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Gov. Andy Beshear, who preceded Cameron as attorney general, both take credit for the state’s share of the opioid settlement money.
Cameron and Hubbard noted that $800 million in opioid settlements have come to Kentucky during his term. Hubbard said, “No other attorney general in our history has achieved such a momentous breakthrough in the fight against the opioid epidemic.”
Beshear has pointed out that when he was attorney general, he sued “more opioid companies than any other attorney general in the country,” and has also said that such lawsuits take many years to litigate, and that he filed the lawsuits Cameron has been settling.
The commission’s largest grants in the latest round were $1 million each to Voices of Hope-Lexington for treatment and recovery; to the Kentucky Health Department Association for prevention; and to the Northern Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy for prevention.
Twenty other grants are for treatment and recovery:
- Franklin County Women and Family Shelter, $134,750
- Kentucky River Foothills Development Council, $500,000
- Recovery Cafe Lexington, $657,000
- Feed Louisville, $500,000
- Oxford House, $500,000
- Ramey-Estep Homes, Inc., $578,800
- Stable Recovery, $300,000
- Sterling Health Solutions, Inc. dba Sterling Health, $575,280
- Enrich Corp, $595,213
- Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky, $320,098
- Faith Life Ministries, $225,000
- Freedom Management Co. dba SPARC Recovery, $500,000
- Fresh Start Health Centers, $300,000
- Grace Community Health Center, $205,000
- Hope 4 Harrison County Recovery, $123,349
- KVC Behavioral Healthcare Kentucky, $400,000
- AdventHealth Manchester, $250,000
- Serenity Counseling Services, $355,615
- Thrive Community Coalition, $376,050
- The Healing Place, $850,000
- Jeffersontown Police Department, $26,811
- Kentucky Center for Grieving Children and Families, $269,809
- Franklin County Health Department, $300,000
- Morgans Mission, $4,000
- Childrens Law Center, $250,000
- Franklin County ASAP Board, $126,700
- QRT National-O2SL, a division of Homeland Security Solutions, $750,000
- Kentucky Youth Advocates, $93,900
- Shaping Our Appalachian Region, $600,000
- Boyd County Detention Center, $45,200
- Hands Healing Hearts, dba Yes Arts, $200,000
