VOICES OF HOPE--LEXINGTON INC

Despite staggering relapse rates, Substance Use Disorder, which is a chronic disorder, has traditionally been treated as an acute condition. Most attention to this issue is on prevention, crisis stabilization, or acute treatment. With relapse rates between 40-60%, there is a critical need to focus on long-term recovery. SAMHSA recognizes that peer supporters play a critical role in promoting long-term recovery. They are individuals who have been successful in their own recovery journey and who help others stay engaged in the recovery process through sharing resources, building skills, leading recovery groups, and mentoring others. Many institutions such as treatment programs, healthcare facilities, and criminal justice settings employ peer support specialists, but their relationship with participants ends when they depart the program. Also, peers working in institutional settings may be limited in the goals they can work on with participants. For example, peers working in abstinence based residential treatment may not be able to assist a participant with obtaining medication for their OUD. On the other hand, community-based peers have the ability to be person-centered, working on any goal the individual sets for themselves to achieve and maintain recovery. RCCs are ideal locations for the provision of peer support services because they serve as a relocatable hub as well as a safe and sober environment.
Voices of Hope operates the only RCC in Lexington/Fayette County. Prior to opening, we conducted a comprehensive needs assessment, which included focus groups with individuals in recovery and leaders in the recovery community. Results indicated that most recovery support services in the Central Kentucky area were based on a 12-step model. Often, FDA approved medication for OUD is controversial in 12-step communities, and thus, some participants reported a lack of available recovery support for their chosen recovery pathway. Our RCC provides a safe space for people in recovery, regardless of their pathway (e.g,12-step, medication, faith-based or Recovery Dharma) as well as houses our peer delivered recovery support services. Further, VOH serves many vulnerable groups, including participants who are justice-involved, women who are pregnant and parenting, veterans, people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and individuals with co-occurring mental illness.
Our specific goals are to enhance and and expand access to recovery support services for people in or seeking recovery in Central Kentucky, expand support for friends and family members of people with Substance Use Disorders, sustain a Recovery Community Center to house recovery support services for people in or seeking recovery and their families in Central Kentucky.

Goal 1: Enhance and expand access to recovery support services for people in or seeking recovery in Fayette County
Activity 1. Provide access to telephone recovery support and recovery coaching services
Activity 1.2 Provide enhanced recovery coaching services by offering specialized housing and employment coaching services 80% of participants who access employment services will gain employment within 60 days and 80% of participants who access housing services will obtain safe and sober housing within one week
Activity 1.3 Provide Employment Readiness Internships to 10 recipients/year All 50 individuals who complete the Employment Readiness Internship will become certified Kentucky peer support specialists
Goal 2: Expand support for friends and family members of people with SUDs in Fayette County
Activity 2.1 Provide access to one weekly Self-Management and Recovery Training (SMART) Friends & Family meeting We will serve 80 family members with our SMART Friends & Family meeting each year.
Activity 2.2 Provide access to individual telephonic education, support, and resource navigation through a Family Support Warm-line In Year 1, we will serve 250 friends and family members with our Family Support Warm-line. In years 2-5, we will serve 500 friends and family members.
Activity 2.3 Provide access to quarterly educational programming for friends and family members
We will serve 80 friends and family members with our educational series each year.
Goal 3. Sustain a RCC to house recovery support services for people in or seeking recovery and their families in Fayette County
Activity 3.1 Provide access to a safe sober environment for people in or seeking recovery We will serve 1200 individuals per year in our RCC each year.
Activity 3.2 Provide access to monthly sober social events We will serve 500 individuals with our sober social events each year.
Activity 3.3 Provide access to two weekly support groups open to all pathways of recovery (e.g., SMART and All Recovery Meetings) We will serve 200 individuals with our weekly support groups each year.

Our leadership consists of Shelley Elswick, President/CEO, a former CPA, is the mother of a son in long-term recovery. With this lived experience, she is grounded in the culture of addiction and recovery. She was a founding member of VOH and the first President of the Board of Directors. Under Ms. Elswick’s leadership, VOH opened the first RCC in Kentucky and launched peer-based recovery support services. Ms. Elswick is a Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) certified trainer of Recovery Coaches. Alongside Dr. Fallin-Bennett, Ms. Elswick has overseen multiple grants, including corporate, foundation, and state pass-through SAMHSA grants (SOR and STR). Ms. Elswick will oversee all aspects of this project and ensure required reporting and communication regarding grant progress and completion. Amanda Fallin-Bennett, PhD, RN, is Program Director at VOH overseeing the training and provision of Peer Support Services. As Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky College of Nursing, Dr. Fallin-Bennett has successfully competed for state, foundation, and federal grants, including a MERIT award (R01/R37) from the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Fallin-Bennett is a Co-Investigator on UK’s HEAL (PI Walsh) and JCOIN (PI Staton) grants, which are highest and among the highest funded applications ever received by the University of Kentucky. Under the HEAL and JCOIN grant, VOH will expand recovery support services across the state. Dr. Fallin-Bennett will lead the development and pilot testing of the curriculum to certify peer support specialists as well as oversee all data collection and analysis for reporting. Marysha Fritz, Operations Manager has ten years of management experience.
VOH recovery support services include Telephone Recovery Support (TRS) and Recovery Coaching. Through our TRS program, volunteers make weekly recovery check-up calls to provide encouragement, social support, and referral to community resources. TRS engagement is associated with a reduction in substance use and SUD-related problems. Recovery Coaching consists of weekly, hour long sessions with recovery coaches who are certified adult peer support specialists. Recovery Coaches help those in early recovery identify goals and set strength-based strategies. They use evidence-based techniques such as motivational interviewing to help participants in positive decision-making and behavior change commitment. Further, coaches leverage our strong community partnerships for facilitated referrals (e.g, sober housing, transportation, employment and financial counseling).
We currently recruit in-person and through direct referral from partner sites, including outpatient, intensive outpatient, and residential treatment programs, sober living homes, and drug courts in multiple counties across Central Kentucky. Additionally, participants enroll by calling or walking in to our RCC or enrolling through our website.

VOH currently serves approximately 300 individuals per week with our TRS program, 125 per week with our recovery coaching program, and 15 with our on-site coaching at Baptist Health. VOH has been a member of the Association of Recovery Community Organizations since 2016. We opened the first RCC in Kentucky. Our RCC houses our recovery support services, including TRS and recovery coaching. To date, we have served 1300 individuals with our TRS program and 600 with our recovery coaching program. In 2019, 1500 individuals became members of our community center. Members have free access to our mutual aid meetings, family support meetings, sober pro-social events, and educational events (e.g. Overdose Response Trainings, Expungement Fairs and HIV/Hepatitis C prevention and screening, Insurance Enrollment, Tax Prep) Through these programs, we have developed strong partnerships with treatment providers (residential, intensive outpatient, and outpatient) and sober living homes throughout Central Kentucky (see letters of commitment Attachment 1). VOH currently has a paid Employment Readiness Internship program and all five of our previous interns successfully completed the program by obtaining employment. VOH was awarded a contract through the University of Kentucky to expand provision of remote recovery support services to 21 counties through the NIDA funded HEALing Communities Initiative for the next 5 years. We are guided by an eight-member Board of Directors which includes three people in long-term recovery, two parents of children impacted by addiction, and three professionals.

In the near future, we would like to focus on sustainability. Current funding due to the opioid crisis has allowed us to begin, however we serve people with all substance use disorders and want to see recovery support services available to people getting their lives back for many years to come. We plan to expand our ability to support people in recovery with new programs as research shows promising new ideas. We plan to continue researching our own programs to add to the body of knowledge surrounding recovery support services.