Nearly two years of investment from the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission is showing real results across eight Eastern Kentucky counties, where Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP) has helped hundreds of people in recovery move into jobs, earn credentials, and begin to rebuild their footing.
Through two grants totaling $950,000, EKCEP’s Project REACH connected 907 Eastern Kentuckians in recovery from opioid use disorder with career services between October 2024 and June 2026. Across the two awards, the project helped participants secure 462 new jobs, with reported average wages of approximately $13.19 per hour, and recorded 166 maintained-employment outcomes through services that addressed barriers to staying on the job.
“This is what these funds are meant to do,” said Becky Carnes-Miller, executive director of EKCEP. “The opioid epidemic has cost Eastern Kentucky families and communities more than most of the country will ever understand. This investment gave us the resources to help our neighbors take the next step into a job, a paycheck and a more stable life. That is real recovery, and it is exactly the kind of lasting benefit these dollars were meant to create.”
Project REACH served the residents of Breathitt, Knott, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Owsley, Perry and Wolfe counties. EKCEP delivered the program in partnership with Middle Kentucky Community Action Agency and LKLP Community Action Council. Support specialists at both agencies met one-on-one with participants to help them prepare résumés, practice interviewing, explore careers, enroll in training, and connect with employers ready to hire.
The program could also cover the everyday obstacles that so often stand between a person in recovery and a first day of work, such as transportation, an ID, work clothes, tools or the cost of a certification.
“People come to our career navigators wanting to work,” said Ethan Phipps, EKCEP’s director of Recovery and Reentry Services. “What they often need is someone in their corner and a little practical help getting past the barriers in front of them. Project REACH gave us the flexibility to meet each person where they were and help them take the next step forward.”
One example took place in Perry County in May 2026, when Project REACH covered tuition for eight people receiving recovery services through Beacons of Hope to complete a fiber-optics course delivered by Hazard Community and Technical College’s mobile training unit. All eight earned credentials that prepared them for skilled work in a growing field. Their stories are part of a much larger one that also includes Letcher Countian Jamie Madden, now working as a community outreach worker for the Kentucky River District Health Department, and Lee County residents Cassandra Arnold and Kyle Taulbee. Each is now building a life that recovery made possible, and employment helped them with the early steps.
“When you invest in people, you strengthen communities,” Carnes-Miller said. “Every person who goes back to work is a family with more stability, an employer with a good hire and a community with one more neighbor moving forward. That is the return this Commission is producing across our region.”
Although the current round of Commission funding for Project REACH has ended, EKCEP will continue its recovery and reentry work and will continue looking for opportunities to bring similar investments home to Eastern Kentucky. Those interested in supporting this work directly can donate at ekcep.org/donate.
EKCEP, a nonprofit workforce development agency headquartered in Hazard, Ky., serves the citizens of 23 Appalachian coalfield counties. EKCEP is funded by the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, along with various federal and state grants and private donations, and is a proud partner in the American Job Center network.