In FY2022, there were an average of 6,307 corrections-based substance use disorder (SUD)treatment slots in jails, prisons, Reentry Service Centers (or halfway houses), Recovery Kentucky Centers, community mental health centers, and intensive outpatient centers – which is the highest number in the history of DOC SUD programming. Recovery Kentucky was created to help Kentuckians recover from substance abuse, which often leads to chronic homelessness. There are 13 Recovery Kentucky centers across the Commonwealth. They are in Bowling Green, Campbellsville, Erlanger, Florence, Grayson, Harlan, Henderson, Hopkinsville, Owensboro, Paducah, Richmond, Somerset, and Knott County. These centers provide housing and recovery services for up to 2,000 Kentuckians across the state. (Department of Corrections and Recovery Kentucky, Combined Annual Report 2022, Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy and Kentucky Agency for Substance Abuse Policy)

Best and Laudet (2010) argue that recovery is not just something that happens to individuals, but rather that it is also an experience that happens to many people and unfolds in specific places. As such, if the community has visible recovery “champions” and vibrant recovery-oriented systems of care, people are more likely to feel hopeful that recovery is possible and to mutually empower each other by getting involved and participating in their physical community as well as their substance misusing group. Recovery capital is thus a community asset. It benefits families and the wider community even beyond helping individuals recover from addiction.  (Recovery Garden Toolkit, University of Kentucky/KYNEP)

Taylor County Cooperative Extension, through the Nutrition Education Program Assistant and the Horticulture Extension Agent, has partnered with The Healing Place of Campbellsville to provide nutrition education and gardening education since 2018. The recovery garden program is designed to be implemented alongside the Healthy Choices for Your Recovering Body, a newly designed curriculum for those in recovery, teaching recovery-focused nutrition concepts, food preparation and safety skills, and food management resources. Food produced in the garden is used to enhance meals in the facility's kitchen. There were 67 men who completed the HCYRB curriculum and garden education for the 2023-24 program year. 

On August 7, The Healing Place and Taylor County Cooperative Extension participated in a Ripple Effects Mapping (REM) to determine whether the program has met its intended goals and explore unintended impacts. Healing Place participants included past and current clients who had completed gardening and nutrition education in the past few years, along with the NEP Assistant and Horticulture Agent. After a time of sharing in small groups, there were stories and experiences shared on how the programs have effected their recovery process. A closing statement was made that it meant so much that members of the community would take time out of their week to come into the facility to teach and care about their recovery. 

Out of forty-six male participants who completed HCYRB in the first two quarters of FY24, 87.50% had positive change in food safety knowledge, 81.50% had a positive diet change behavior, and 78.60% saw positive change in food resource management confidence. Almost all participants, 97% agreed that participating in NCYRB had increased their knowledge of substance use recovery and 100% intended to use self-care strategies, eat healthier, and be more physically active to improve their recovery.