Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Three Volunteer State projects were among 32 awarded a total of $11 million in the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Investments Supporting Partnerships in Recovery Ecosystems (INSPIRE) Initiative, which aims to address workforce gaps and economic challenges due to the impact of substance use disorder (SUD) in Appalachia.

ARC’s 2025 INSPIRE grantees will strengthen the SUD recovery ecosystem in 165 counties across nine Appalachian states — Georgia, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia — by providing community support to help individuals in SUD recovery enter or re-enter the workforce while maintaining their recovery. Twenty of the impacted counties are first-time INSPIRE award recipients.

1. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was awarded $492,043 for the Skill Up Tennessee Recovery Initiative, a project that will expand the University of Tennessee Extension’s existing workforce development and job skills training program to specifically focus on individuals with or at risk of substance use disorder (SUD). The program will focus on vocational and technical training, as well as workforce readiness across 21 Appalachian Tennessee counties. It will also provide SUD education for local employers to help them become Recovery Friendly Appalachian Regional Commission Workplaces. The project will develop expertise in the recovery ecosystems space among UT Extension Agents. Project outcomes will include 50 participants/worker trainees improved through obtaining employment, and 10 businesses improved by implementing recovery-friendly workplace strategies.
2. A second grant of $475,975 to Schools Together Allowing No Drugs (STAND) in Oneida for the Visionary Actions Leveraging Unified Employment (VALUE) project. The project will focus on Campbell, Claiborne, Clay, Fentress, Overton, Jackson, Morgan, and Scott counties to expand and scale STAND’s Correctional Career Pathways project to address substance use disorder (SUD) and support the successful reintegration of incarcerated individuals back into their communities. This project will prepare justice-involved individuals for the workforce through a rigorous, evidence-based curriculum, while also providing targeted job training, prevention education, and skill-building programs for individuals in SUD recovery. The project is anticipated to improve eight businesses, 40 workers or trainees, and eight communities by enhancing employment retention, reducing recidivism and SUD, increasing financial and community stability, and expanding the local labor pool.
3. The final grant, valued at $100,000, went to Recovery Soldiers Ministries (RSM) in Elizabethton for the Recovery Grundy project that will enable Recovery Soldiers Ministries to assess the substance use disorder (SUD) recovery ecosystem in Grundy County and create a detailed plan to enhance strategies for workforce entry/re-entry, wraparound services, and stigma reduction. The organization will conduct interviews with individuals in recovery, employers and behavioral health providers, and other stakeholders. This project will result in a report that clarifies objectives, informs resource allocation, identifies risks, establishes metrics, defines stakeholder roles, creates a communication plan, and builds an evaluation framework.

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