2025/03/28 By: Sam Harasimowicz

COVINGTON, Ky. — The Commonwealth of Kentucky is funding solutions to drug abuse and addiction, to help with recovery and boost prevention.

Attorney General Russell Coleman, alongside Opioid Abatement Commission Director Chris Evans, announced $19.8 million in grant money has been awarded to 75 organizations across the state.

"This is money clawed back from those that brought this crisis and brought this devastation to our Commonwealth," Coleman said.

A 2024 report showed 1,984 Kentuckians were lost to drug-related deaths last year. Coleman said the money is intended to remember those lost and keep others from meeting the same fate.

"We're honoring each one of those lost Kentuckians by our stewardship of this, these resources," he said.

Many of the organizations receiving funding, including Brighton Center in Newport, are helping the Northern Kentucky community. Brighton Center received $300,000 and is using the money to help those recovering from addiction find employment, especially women in need.

The description of their grant from the AG's office reads: "Support sustainable employment with a three-prong approach to skills, credentials and career pathways."

WCPO 9 News sat down with Melissa Hall Sommer, Brighton's senior vice president, to discuss how her organization is helping those take important steps forward.

"We really thought about prevention, perspective, skills," Sommer said.

Their work is helping people find opportunities for people and families caught in the pain of addiction and recovery.

WCPO 9 News Reporter Sam Harasimowicz and Brighton's Melissa Hall Sommer

Another local grant recipient was the Northern Kentucky Area Development District, working with their partner, the Northern Kentucky  Office of Drug Control Policy. Director Amanda Peters said the funds are going to 18 positions throughout their partner organizations.

All of this work, Peters said, is to find a better future for a state that's been hit hard by drug abuse.

"Our local governments look at this as a disease not only of the brain of the individual, but a family disease and community disease," Peters said. "So this can combat those issues, we're going to save lives. We're going to invest those dollars to be more responsible, less reactive, save those families and help them reunite and really just make a stronger community overall."

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