Opioid Project

In 2020, CLC began piloting the Opioid Project, in partnership with the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, to deepen services for NKY children impacted by substance abuse. CLC attorneys and social service clinician collaborate to provide trauma-informed services for opioid-affected children. Opioid-affected children may need legal representation in any of the following circumstances:

• Children in family court as victims of substance-related (and often opioid-related) abuse, neglect, crime

• Children involved in high-conflict custody cases

• Children in need of specialized legal advocacy to protect their educational rights

• And many more

CLC has since gained additional support for the Opioid Project, including through the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime and the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, both of which have allowed CLC to further refine and expand the pilot.

Over the course of the four-year pilot, CLC has now served more than 250 opioid-affected children and youth in Kentucky—and is continuing to invest in and refine this service area for Kentucky’s youth. The project has expanded from its original three-county geography (Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties) to provide services to youth in need in Gallatin, Mason, Fayette, Pendleton, Fleming, Bracken, Hopkins, and Bourbon counties.