According to 2018 data collected by the University of Kentucky's Cooperative Extension Service Statewide Community Assessment, substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery were prioritized as an immediate issue that Cooperative Extension should address in over 70% of Kentucky counties.  Substance use prevention programming is critical to prevention, delayed onset, and/or early identification of substance use. However, evidence-based programs and policies have not been widely implemented across Kentucky. 

In the interest of addressing this issue, University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, in partnership with the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, secured a Rural Opioid Technical Assistance grant through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which has provided funding to support several targeted efforts to address opioid issues facing rural communities.  University of Kentucky's Cooperative Extension Service has the capacity to assist rural communities specifically, because of offices and staff located in every county.  Due to the varied backgrounds of Extension staff and resources in each county, there is a need to provide county staff with evidence-based substance use prevention curriculum for dissemination.  

Life Skills Training (LST), developed by Botvin and colleagues, is one of the most successful substance use prevention programs available for use. The LST approach was designed to take a holistic approach to address risk factors for substance use.   It teaches a variety of personal self-management skills and social skills in order to increase perceived self-efficacy and reduce the perceived incentives of substance use in youth and young adults.  

In the past six months, 16 Extension staff serving 10 counties across the state of Kentucky, plus one state coordinator, and one school personnel has been trained to facilitate the LST Middle School program.  Additionally, three more trainings are scheduled for the coming month.   

With this training, Extension staff and school personnel will have the capacity to implement LST in 10 rural counties across Kentucky in the coming school year, with an estimated reach of over 1,500 students in the first year alone.  While the initial funding supports the training and implementation materials for LST in 10 counties for one year, a long term goal is to provide enough support so that more counties across the state can offer the program, and counties currently involved will be able to continue to offer the program in future years in a financially sustainable way.