Historically, studies have shown that Black individuals are less likely to seek and accept mental health care due to concerns regarding stigma as well as mistrust of professionals caused by documented racial inequities in treatment.
In Lexington, the Black population represents approximately 15% of residents, but in 2020, Black people represented only 7% of the population receiving community mental health services in Kentucky’s Bluegrass region.
The Neighborhood Healers Project, a new pilot project led by University of Kentucky researchers, aims to reduce this equity gap by addressing the stigma and helping Black Lexingtonians access the mental health services they need.
Candice Hargons, Ph.D., the study’s principal investigator (PI) says the five-year project, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), will create a support system of “first-responders” within Lexington’s Black community who are trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health crises and connect people to needed resources.
Hargons, a licensed psychologist and associate professor in the UK College of Education’s Department of Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology, appears on this episode of "Behind the Blue" to discuss how this project will impact the Lexington community and beyond.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of "Behind the Blue" can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.
During the month of June, Americans come together to celebrate Pride Month.
A commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising that took place in June of 1969, Pride is about many things: acceptance, tolerance, equality and raising awareness of issues that have and continue to impact the LGBTQIA+ community.
At the University of Kentucky, acceptance, tolerance and equity are at the core of everything we do. With resources like the Office for Institutional Diversity and the Office of LGBTQ* Resources, housed in the Office for Student Success, the university works diligently to be a welcoming environment — a campus that celebrates individuals of all backgrounds, identities and perspectives.
While the university commemorates Pride Month in April during the school year with a week of events, during June UK takes the month to reflect and acknowledge the important and ongoing work taking place to achieve equal justice and opportunity for Americans who identify as LGBTQIA+.
Recently, the university hired a new director of the Office of LGBTQ* Resources, J’Lissabeth Faughn (she, her, hers). Faughn brings a rich history of advocacy and community building from similar roles in California, Iowa and Missouri. With a passion for social justice and student development, Faughn hopes to continue the office’s legacy of creating a safe, open environment for all.
In honor of Pride Month, on this week’s episode of "Behind the Blue," Faughn talks about how her journey of providing support to students led her to UK, her plans to continue the center’s legacy of creating a safe, open environment for all, and more.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of "Behind the Blue" can be downloaded from the show’s blog page. You can watch a video version of this podcast here.
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.
Sunday, June 19, 2022, will mark the second year of the federally celebrated holiday, Juneteenth.
Long celebrated in the Black community, Juneteenth marks the day U.S. Army Gen. Gordon Granger announced to the people of Galveston, Texas, that slavery was over — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
In recent years, we as a country have pushed for more. More discussion, more acknowledgment, more reform. With that has come more recognition of African American history that has been largely marginalized.
As the country continues to progress, so does the University of Kentucky, who made Juneteenth an academic holiday in 2020. The announcement came after the release of a multi-step action plan to increase the commitment to — and investments in — access and opportunity for Black students and communities of color on the UK campus.
“Juneteenth is an opportunity to reflect on our nation’s history,” said UK President Eli Capilouto. “While we choose to remember the truth of our past, we must also not forget that this day is more than a celebration of freedom. It’s a reminder that inaction delays freedom, negligence furthers oppression and passivity cultivates cruelty.”
A celebration of the rich tapestry that is the heritage and culture of African Americans who refuse to accept anything less than a full expression of freedom, Juneteenth gives Americans an opportunity to continue to strive for the full expression of freedom for all people.
On this episode of "Behind the Blue," Anastasia Curwood, Ph.D., director of the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies (CIBS) and African American and Africana Studies (AAAS) at UK, discusses the Juneteenth holiday, from her personal feelings and reflections on the significance of the day, to the importance of observance of the holiday by the university and more. You can listen to the full conversation in the embedded media player above.
For those looking for ways to celebrate Juneteenth over the next few days, many local and regional events are taking place. This includes the Juneteenth Independence Day Celebration Affrilachian Poets Literary Event at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center in Lexington. UK faculty members Frank X Walker and Crystal Wilkinson will host this poetry reading at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 19. The event is free, but registration and e-tickets are required for entry. Reserve your tickets at https://lexingtonlyric.tix.com.
The UK College of Health Sciences will also host "A Juneteenth Celebration: From June 19, 1865, to Today” from noon-2 p.m. Tuesday, June 21, in room 415 Charles T. Wethington Building on UK's campus.
For a full list of events UK and community members are invited to attend in celebration of Juneteenth, click here.
For more information about CIBS, including ways you can support, visit https://cibs.as.uky.edu/.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of "Behind the Blue" can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.
Throughout March for Women’s History Month, the University of Kentucky is spotlighting Women Making History. These women are leading their fields of research, crossing traditional academic boundaries, and impacting Kentucky’s most pressing challenges including opioid use disorder treatment, aging and Alzheimer’s, water and air filtration, environmental impacts on health and suicide prevention.
They are mentoring the next generation of women scientists and scholars, curating stories and creating artworks illuminating who we are. Their work and voices shape the University of Kentucky.
The “Women Making History” series continues with this episode of "Behind the Blue" featuring Deirdre Scaggs, associate dean of UK’s Special Collections Research Center and director of the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center.
Scaggs takes us back in time to describe what life was like for women throughout the history of the University of Kentucky — from its infancy until today. You’ll be introduced to the many female leaders who pushed boundaries in their work as students, faculty members and administrators.
Scaggs recently collaborated with UK Libraries senior oral historian Terry Birdwhistell on the book “Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945.”
“Our Rightful Place” was published by the University Press of Kentucky in July 2020. Through yearbooks, photographs and other materials housed in Special Collections, the work explores the struggle for gender equity in higher education by examining UK’s first women undergraduates, faculty and administrators.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.
In the fall of 2020, the University of Kentucky announced plans to establish the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies (CIBS) — a multidisciplinary program designed to highlight UK’s growing research around issues of race and racism.
The interdisciplinary institute establishes research clusters across the campus and promotes the university’s growing research and scholarship on topics of importance in African history and African American history, such as slavery and the quest for freedom, racial discrimination and violence, and the long struggle for civil rights.
This year, the university announced continued annual funding of $200,000 through UK’s Office for Institutional Diversity — an important step forward in helping the institute achieve its goals.
On this episode of "Behind the Blue," Anastasia Curwood, director of CIBS and African American and Africana Studies (AAAS) at UK, talks about the continued mission of the institute, the connections that present day issues have to Black studies, a student body hungry for this kind of information, and more.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
For more information about CIBS, including ways you can provide support, visit https://cibs.as.uky.edu/.
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.
To listen to this episode, visit the UKNow link below.
'Behind the Blue': Honoring the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. With Kendriana Price and Jay AlexanderBy Ryan Girves, Meg Mills, Jenny Wells-Hosley, Steve Shaffer, and Kody Kiser
Monday, Jan. 17, 2022 marks the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday that honors the birth, life and dream of Martin Luther King Jr., and is also the only national holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage Americans to volunteer for opportunities to improve their communities in a variety of ways.
Here in Lexington, this year’s celebration will include a Freedom March and a virtual program directly following, featuring special guest U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. The theme of this year’s celebration is “Dr. King’s Beloved Community 2022: Facing A Time of Reckoning in An Age of Denial.”
On this episode of "Behind the Blue," two members of the Lexington-Fayette MLK Holiday Celebration Committee discuss the work that has gone into planning this year’s event. Kendriana Price, assistant director of diversity for the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, talks with Meg Mills and Jenny Wells-Hosley, and Jay Alexander, the programming and music director for WBTF-FM in Lexington, speaks with Steve Shaffer and Ryan Girves.
If you’re interested in more information regarding the Lexington-Fayette Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Holiday Program, visit uky.edu/mlk. The parade will take place at 10 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 17, with lineup beginning at 9 a.m. at the Lexington Central Bank Center in Exhibit Hall C. The program following the Freedom March will now be VIRTUAL ONLY, beginning at noon on YouTube. You can watch the stream live by clicking here.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of Behind the Blue can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.
At the University of Kentucky, the Disability Resource Center (DRC), housed in the Office for Student Success, serves more than three thousand students each semester. A number the director, David Beach, believes is underestimated by many.
“They don’t realize how many students we actually have,” Beach said. “Anywhere a student with a disability needs access is where we are. We are in the classrooms. We assist with testing, and we assist with making sure parking areas are accessible. We ensure that students that have mobility issues have an accessible path or accessible opportunity to get to class, we also make sure classrooms are accommodating and accessible.”
The DRC fosters an inclusive campus climate through education, service, collaboration and outreach. Partnering with qualified students with a wide range of disabilities, the office works to make sure all eligible students receive the appropriate accommodations on campus.
At UK, we consider accessibility to be a community effort; it isn't something that just the DRC considers but is something that the whole campus plays a role in. And with the office's growing numbers, it must be. From faculty implementing accommodations in their classrooms, to campus services ensuring allergen information is available at campus eateries, together — and only together — can we make campus accessible to all.
Starting this November, the DRC is working with UKNow on a series titled “Many People, Creating One Accessible Community,” which focuses on raising awareness surrounding the DRC, accessibility and how each of us on campus plays a role in disability services.
This new series is a call to action. Over the coming weeks and months, UKNow will highlight different accessibility and disability issues and will give a step-by-step guide to readers on ways to ensure our campus is, as the title says, one accessible community.
“Reaching out to the community to understand accessibility, to understand empathy towards people with disabilities, equity, making sure that they see how their behavior could potentially impact those of others that are trying to get around in a community is what this series is about,” Beach said.
While UK is determined to continue building upon its missions of teaching, innovation, healing and service, we can only accomplish our goals when we take care of our people. Beach agrees with this sentiment.
“It is our responsibility not just to create an equitable environment, but to create the same environment of belonging that we seek for all of our students,” Beach said. “When you consider all student’s needs, you create an investment, then students begin to trust us more and feel like they belong at this university.”
On this episode of "Behind the Blue," Beach discusses the often unseen or unknown challenges students with disabilities face while accessing campus facilities, how students can access the resources of the DRC and what this new series means to the campus community as a whole.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of "Behind the Blue" can be downloaded from the show’s blog page. You can watch a video version of this podcast here.
To follow along with the “Many People Creating One Accessible Community” series, search #OneUKforAll on UK’s Facebook and Twitter.For more information on the DRC, visit its website. To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.
At the University of Kentucky, the Disability Resource Center (DRC), housed in the Office for Student Success, serves more than three thousand students each semester. A number the director, David Beach, believes is underestimated by many.
“They don’t realize how many students we actually have,” Beach said. “Anywhere a student with a disability needs access is where we are. We are in the classrooms. We assist with testing, and we assist with making sure parking areas are accessible. We ensure that students that have mobility issues have an accessible path or accessible opportunity to get to class, we also make sure classrooms are accommodating and accessible.”
The DRC fosters an inclusive campus climate through education, service, collaboration and outreach. Partnering with qualified students with a wide range of disabilities, the office works to make sure all eligible students receive the appropriate accommodations on campus.
At UK, we consider accessibility to be a community effort; it isn't something that just the DRC considers but is something that the whole campus plays a role in. And with the office's growing numbers, it must be. From faculty implementing accommodations in their classrooms, to campus services ensuring allergen information is available at campus eateries, together — and only together — can we make campus accessible to all.
Starting this November, the DRC is working with UKNow on a series titled “Many People, Creating One Accessible Community,” which focuses on raising awareness surrounding the DRC, accessibility and how each of us on campus plays a role in disability services.
This new series is a call to action. Over the coming weeks and months, UKNow will highlight different accessibility and disability issues and will give a step-by-step guide to readers on ways to ensure our campus is, as the title says, one accessible community.
“Reaching out to the community to understand accessibility, to understand empathy towards people with disabilities, equity, making sure that they see how their behavior could potentially impact those of others that are trying to get around in a community is what this series is about,” Beach said.
While UK is determined to continue building upon its missions of teaching, innovation, healing and service, we can only accomplish our goals when we take care of our people. Beach agrees with this sentiment.
“It is our responsibility not just to create an equitable environment, but to create the same environment of belonging that we seek for all of our students,” Beach said. “When you consider all student’s needs, you create an investment, then students begin to trust us more and feel like they belong at this university.”
On this episode of "Behind the Blue," Beach discusses the often unseen or unknown challenges students with disabilities face while accessing campus facilities, how students can access the resources of the DRC and what this new series means to the campus community as a whole.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of "Behind the Blue" can be downloaded from the show’s blog page. You can watch a video version of this podcast here.
To follow along with the “Many People Creating One Accessible Community” series, search #OneUKforAll on UK’s Facebook and Twitter.For more information on the DRC, visit its website. To discover what’s wildly possible at the University of Kentucky, click here.
Crystal Wilkinson is an associate professor of English at the University of Kentucky and an award-winning author. Her novel, "The Birds of Opulence," was the winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. She is also the author of "Water Street" and "Blackberries, Blackberries." She also has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in Oxford American and Southern Cultures.
Most recently, she was named the state’s poet laureate for 2021-2022, the first time a Black woman has been appointed to the prestigious post.
In this episode of "Behind the Blue," Wilkinson discusses growing up in Appalachian Kentucky, her love of writing and teaching, and what she is focused on now in her creative work.
"Behind the Blue" is available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. Become a subscriber to receive new episodes of “Behind the Blue” each week. UK’s latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists and writers will be featured, along with the most important news impacting the university.
For questions or comments about this or any other episode of "Behind the Blue," email BehindTheBlue@uky.edu or tweet your question with #BehindTheBlue. Transcripts for this or other episodes of "Behind the Blue" can be downloaded from the show’s blog page.
