LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A nonprofit addiction recovery organization brought resources to the streets to help those without homes.

What You Need To Know

  • A nonprofit addiction recovery organization brought resources to the streets to help those without homes
  • Young People in Recovery volunteers pass out harm reduction supplies and clean up syringes and hazardous waste every month

  • Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet said in the Commonwealth last year, more than 2,000 Kentuckians lost their lives to a drug overdose

Young People in Recovery partnered with several nonprofits to hand out resources in December. Across the viaducts in downtown Louisville, volunteer Jessica Ashby spread kindness while handing out resources.

"We see all these treatment centers coming together in various formats and other locations; how is our unhoused population going to get there with no vehicles, no bicycles?" Ashby said.

She has volunteered for Louisville chapter’s Young People in Recovery. The group brought food and clothes to people experiencing homelessness, among other resources.

"When I thought about this, I thought about the means of, if we were to have done this somewhere else, the transportation of them getting there, they don't have cars," Ashby said. "People aren't going to pick them up to give them rides; they don't have [Transit Authority of River City] tickets. So this was a way for us to get that information directly into the most vulnerable population."

This outreach effort is the first time the group has gone to the streets and served a warm meal, she said. Every month, however, volunteers pass out harm reduction supplies and clean up syringes and hazardous waste.

"In the last year and a half, my perspective alone has changed drastically," Ashby said. "When I started volunteering with these mothers, everything changed for me as a mother. Whatever we collectively have to do to make sure that this doesn't happen with somebody else's child, we will do it, and this is how this is how we do it."

As a mother herself, Ashby said she feels responsible to take action to save lives.

"We have to do something," she said. "When I started volunteering with these parents that have lost their children and the 2,100 Kentuckians across the Commonwealth that died of a drug overdose or fentanyl poisoning just last year, we have to do something. For me, this is it. This is it."

According to the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, 2,135 Kentuckians lost their lives to a drug overdose in the Commonwealth last year.

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