Family and Consumer Sciences has taken several steps to address the Substance Use and Prevention issues facing Johnson County. The need to pursue these educational efforts has been requested by both the local Extension Councils as well as an initiative the County Judge Executive and the Mayor coordinated through CEDIK. In response to these local emerging requests, the FCS agent has been trained in the Recovering Your Finances 8 part series and offered them to 30 drug court participants. Over 50% of the participants completed all 8 parts. One stated "no one ever talked to me about finances before", another stated, "I was able to get my credit scores and learned how to improve them", and another stated that they now had a savings account. Participants were given complimentary incentives for each lesson. On the budget lesson, FCS distributed seeds and a few gardening tools. One stated she had all kinds of things growing now, because she planted "everything". The Drug Court coordinator stated that "All the participants have reported enjoying the program, one talked about how excited she was to be able to teach the concepts to her daughter".

A second effort by the FCS agent was assisting in the implementation of the MARK program pilot phase. Mental Arts Recovery in Kentucky (MARK), is an 8 part series of arts activities that walk the participants through a diversity of artistic expressions designed to release stress and validate personal experiences. These types of experiences are known to have positive affects on participants. This pilot was done with 20 participants with Substance Use disorders, housed in Lawrence County. Because of the pilot, it will be available for use by all extension agents in, in months to come. 

Extension Homemakers worked together to create 30 backpacks for the homeless. These were distributed through the Drug Court program coordinators; they have also been committed to distributing information to educate people about syringe exchange, as this topic is controversial and they want the public to know the facts about the program. The information was distributed during a health fest event. 

Dr. Alex Elswick presented a substance use prevention program to 4th-6th grades of Highland Elementary.