Author: Jessica Evans
Major Program: Arts and Community Health
Kentucky currently ranks 5th in the nation in overdose deaths. Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is often referred to as a “family disease” because the consequences of disordered substance use also affect friends, family and loved ones. University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension is uniquely poised due to the breadth of its reach in Kentucky counties, to deploy research-based SUD support to communities.Through a partnership with Arts Extension, CEDIK and FCS, funded by a federal grant pr
Author: Cortney Moses
Whitley County, along with other counties in the state are experiencing climate change related events that effect their farms, families, and community. Invasive species, flooding, and extreme weather conditions are a few of these events. The Whitley County Extension Fine Arts Agent coordinated the annual Earth Day event. Through collaborations with local organizations, to include, Soil Conservation Service, Whitley County Health Department, Save the Children, KSU Snap and extension programs we w
Author: Lindie Huffman
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic recession have negatively affected many people’s mental health and created new barriers for people already suffering from mental illness and substance use disorders. During the pandemic, about 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. have reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, a share that has been largely consistent, up from one in ten adults who reported these symptoms from January to June 2019. Extension recognized the potential to suppor
Author: Kristy Porter
Throughout a seven week program spanning May to July 2021, Pike County Extension Fine Arts and Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky (CEDIK) partnered to test a grant funded pilot arts program. The program, Mind.Art.Recover.KY. (MARK), utilizes arts programing in an evidence-based therapeutic way to assist people undergoing drug addiction recovery. In Pike County, we took the program to a women’s rehabilitation center within the WestCare rehabilitation network in L
