The University of Kentucky Center on Drug and Alcohol Research states that the neurodevelopment of the brain renders the adolescent brain more vulnerable to addiction than the adult brain.  The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services reports that 10% of adolescent’s self-report illicit drug use in the past month.  Preventing illicit substance use among adolescents in Kentucky is a public health priority. However, evidence-based programs and policies have not been widely implemented across Kentucky.

The Cooperative Extension Service holds a unique role in Kentucky communities, serving individuals across the lifespan, including teenagers, their families, and their communities.  Identifying, securing, and promoting educational resources to respond to substance use is a priority of the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.  Substance use prevention programming is critical to prevention, delayed onset, and/or early identification of substance use. 

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.  Evidence provided by Botvin touts that the LST program is proven to reduce drug use in adolescents and young adults by up to 75% and reduce alcohol use by up to 60% in the same population.  

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, to provide funding to institute the LST program in rural Kentucky communities.   

In the past six months, the LST program has been piloted in one school in Kentucky, with 137 student participants completing the program.  In the coming year, there are plans to continue to implement the program in an additional 10 rural counties across Kentucky, with an estimated reach of over 1,500 students.  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.