The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky (FHKY), in partnership with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities, is currently accepting applications for a new round of the Funding for Recovery Engagement and Expansion (FREE) program. FREE is designed to reduce overdose deaths, expand outreach and engagement in Kentucky communities significantly affected by the overdose epidemic, connect individuals to substance use treatment and recovery supports, and reduce stigma around life-saving interventions.
Funding: FHKY states that up to 10 grants will be awarded at approximately $50,000 each. Funded activities must occur from November 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.
Eligibility and project requirements: Projects must use a trauma-and-resilience-informed care approach, provide evidence-based prevention, treatment, and recovery support services, strengthen prevention, treatment, and recovery infrastructure through collaborative projects centered on the overdose epidemic, be housed within organizations that have operated for at least two years, and be located in Kentucky.
Eligible activities: Examples include outreach and relationship building, stigma-reduction activities, coalition building among service providers, and increasing public knowledge of overdose prevention and life-saving interventions such as naloxone, evidence-based treatment and recovery supports including FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder, and multiple paths to recovery.
Key restrictions: The program will not fund projects that are not evidence-based, evidence-informed, or community-defined. Out-of-state travel, promotional or incentive items, building purchase or construction, direct payments to individuals to enter or remain in treatment, legal services, and supplanting existing program funding are prohibited. Meals are limited to $10 per participant and may not exceed 10% of the total budget.
Deadline: Applications are due October 13, 2026 at 6:00 PM ET. Completed applications and proposal questions are directed to Gavin Posey, Grants Program Administrator, at the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
Atlas analysis: Atlas Opportunity Score 96/100. This is a strong Kentucky behavioral-health, overdose-prevention, treatment, recovery-support, and community-health opportunity with a clear current deadline and applicant requirements. N9+ Fit Score 10/100: the published program is centered on evidence-based overdose prevention, treatment, recovery support, outreach, and collaborative infrastructure, and the funder does not identify remote examination equipment as a priority. N9+ should not be introduced unless a specific applicant later establishes a legitimate, allowable clinical need under the controlling application and budget rules. Dr. Miltie direct-applicant fit is 0/100; the appropriate Atlas path is qualifying Kentucky applicant support.
Official source: Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky FREE Program.