LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A new effort is underway in Kentucky to save lives from drug overdoses. 

Emergency boxes filled with the overdose-reversing drug naloxone are hanging up in public areas around the commonwealth to allow a bystander to take action. 

Damin Williams with Louisville Recovery Community Connection has been bringing the boxes to locations around the city, as part of a project from the city’s health department and Voices of Hope Lexington.

"We know that recovery is a long process, so we just always want to have these emergency kits around so that ... people can access it," he said. 

An opioid emergency kit, referred to as a “NaloxBox," hangs on the wall at New Leaf Clinic, in a room used for an intensive outpatient program.

Opioid emergency kits have been placed in several cities around Kentucky. (Spectrum News 1/Erin Kelly)

"They’re able to have this and take it with them, maybe use it with their friends and family, just to save a life is just important to us," said Tamara Givens, a licensed professional clinical counselor.

Inside Boone’s Marathon convenience store in Portland, employee Savannah Hargrove said she has already given a dose to a person trying to revive someone. 

"They’ve come in handy for us to be here because there are so many drug addictions around here that we can’t seem to stop, " she said. "At least this here it could revive somebody, even my own family."

Williams also works with the Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition, which handed out kits with naloxone and test strips to people near the store.

For Williams, the work is personal. 

"I grew up in a household where my mother became addicted to drugs, where my father was an alcoholic, where I myself had issues with alcoholism and substance abuse," he said.

The feedback from the project has been positive and there are plans for more of the boxes, he said.

"We want it to save lives, " said Williams. "There’s nothing else we can say." 

Boxes have also been placed in locations in Nicholasville, Lexington, Richmond and Cynthiana.