Innovative life skills program, Foundations for a Better Life, receives $12 million in state funding to bring services to this region
A program that has seen extraordinary success in Northern Kentucky helping at-risk individuals earn, secure and sustain a better way of life through gainful employment will soon plant roots in Somerset and serve the Lake Cumberland region.
At a luncheon for community leaders on June 22, Life Learning Center President Alecia Webb-Edgington introduced her program and shared how a recent state funding appropriation will help expand the organization’s mission to Southern Kentucky. Life Learning Center is a non-Medicaid billing agency and is free to participants thanks to strong collaboration with 130 community partners and financial contributions from state and private funding sources.
During the 2024 General Assembly, legislators allocated $6 million for the next two fiscal years to the community-based services budget, which will be distributed to Life Learning Center. The funding will support treatment, rehabilitation, and community reintegration for the region’s at-risk population in partnership with Odyssey Inc. (comprehensive medical care and spiritual direction) and OakPointe Centre (Somerset-based life skills and resources provider).
Future plans are for Life Learning Center to locate its services inside OakPointe Centre, the former Palm Beach Factory building that God’s Food Pantry purchased and is renovating in downtown Somerset. Until that construction project is complete, Webb-Edgington said she intends to begin serving southern Kentucky in the next six months and is looking for a physical location.
“Life Learning Center brings the life skills and workforce development expertise,” Webb-Edgington said. “You, Somerset elected officials and community leaders, bring the expertise of the region and the community in which we will serve. Collectively, we are going to succeed.”
Life Learning Center, established in 2005, delivers a holistic, integrated continuum of educational programming and care built on five pillars of life — physical, financial, emotional, relational and spiritual. It helps equip vulnerable and marginalized individuals with the skills they need to not only readjust to normal life but to thrive. Through life skills training, career readiness programming and placement, support resources, and programs like Dignity Dollars — where participants are rewarded for positive lifestyle choices — Life Learning Center empowers people trapped in cycles of substance use, poverty, and reincarceration to change the trajectory of their lives.
And it’s working: The program has an exceptionally low 6.2 percent recidivism rate as compared to the national average (83 percent) and has lowered turnover rates for employers hiring these participants by as much as 25 percent.
Somerset Mayor Alan Keck first witnessed the program in action in 2022 during a visit to Northern Kentucky. He said he was blown away by the approach, which seemed to be reaching participants on a very human level.
“All anyone has to do is witness a Life Learning Center participant using the Dignity Dollars they’ve earned to feel the impact this program is having on Kentucky’s at-risk population,” Keck said. “My experience touring Life Learning Center was transformational. I left with tear-filled eyes, having finally witnessed a comprehensive recovery-to-redemption story. This is the answer to Kentucky’s drug and workforce crises. Lives are changed during recovery, but seeing folks write a new chapter by leaving Life Learning Center with a job is the secret sauce that makes this program unique and sustainable. I am grateful to Alecia Webb-Edgington and her board for their vision and work and to the General Assembly for believing in this mission and our community. I couldn’t be more excited for the life-altering work that has been happening in Covington to start taking place in Somerset.”
Keck then introduced the program to Somerset-Pulaski Economic Development Authority (SPEDA) President and CEO Chris Girdler, the SPEDA board of directors, and God’s Food Pantry / OakPointe Centre Executive Director Brenda Russell. Together, Girdler and Russell made the trip to Northern Kentucky, and upon touring and experiencing the program, they knew there was potential for partnership. Life Learning Center’s mission and curriculum closely align with Russell’s vision for OakPointe.
“If you spend any time at all with the at-risk population, you will soon realize that our current social help programs aren’t working,” Russell said. “Just providing them with their day-to-day needs only helps for the moment but doesn’t elicit long-term positive change. Handouts are only a temporary fix. What we need are programs that offer a hand-up and require active engagement from participants. When we laid out our plans for OakPointe Centre, we knew that life skills and life education would be key factors in seeing success in helping individuals be self-sufficient. We looked at a couple of different education models as possibilities. Upon meeting Alecia and learning about Life Learning Center, we knew it would be a perfect fit. Their program, in addition to the wraparound services at OakPointe Centre, will truly be life-changing for so many.”
Girdler applauded state legislators’ forward-thinking approach to improving the workforce and expanding the skillsets of employable individuals in this region and across Kentucky with this appropriation. He said when SPEDA sold the Palm Beach Factory building to God’s Food Pantry at a reduced price in 2020, he knew transformative things would happen there. But this partnership has exceeded his greatest expectations.
“Life Learning Center’s holistic and transformational approach to recovery aligns so completely with the holistic approach we take in Somerset-Pulaski County to build a stronger economy and workforce by improving quality of life,” Girdler said. “By giving love, encouraging hard work, and instilling commonsense principles, Life Learning Center promotes accountability through a deliberate and successful method to help people rebuild their lives with purpose. We are so grateful to the state legislature for seeing the value in this innovative program and the need to expand it to the Lake Cumberland region, and to Alecia and Life Learning Center for collaborating and dreaming big with OakPointe Centre to make this a reality.”
Girdler said gaining support from the business community will also be key to the program’s success in Somerset and the Lake Cumberland region. Life Learning Center has 278 hiring partners in Northern Kentucky who provide jobs to the program’s participants. As a result, those employers have seen an improvement in turnover rates and reduced hiring costs.
Pulaski County Judge-Executive Marshall Todd also traveled to Northern Kentucky to tour Life Learning Center and learn more about the program. He was likewise impressed with the change it is making in people’s lives.
“There is dignity in work,” Todd said. “Hearing from Life Learning Center and knowing they are going to be investing in Somerset and Pulaski County, I am convinced that they are the answer to not just our diminished workforce, but they are also the answer to helping people that need it the most find their way. They are invested in community transformational change and their program follows people through their entire lives, not just 30 days.”