A nearly $500,000 grant to the Council for Postsecondary Education is looking to establish recovery resource centers for college students struggling with substance use disorder.
The grant was awarded by the Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission. The council is accepting proposals from colleges to establish five such centers across Kentucky.
Carl Wilson organizes workforce programs for the council. He says those centers are meant to help students outside the classroom.
“Most likely, it's not academics, it's life. It's these things that get in the way. So CRRCs provide that on-campus resource center where these students, or any student, suffering through these mental or behavioral healthcare issues can go and find solutions,” Wilson said.
He says it’s part of a larger push to find career paths for those affected. The grant will continue for one year, but they’re looking for colleges that will continue the program.
“We were recruiting and calling students with lived experience backgrounds to come to colleges and to start engaging in career pathways,” Wilson said. “Yet the faculty, staff and really the college itself, was really not aware of the unique requirements beyond the classroom.”
Wilson says the council is looking to establish the centers at schools in areas with high overdose rates and with plans to expand the program further. The grant program begins in July. The council will invite two-year and four-year colleges to apply later this spring.
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