In Kentucky, the AEP Foundation has pledged $300,000 to help fund expansion of the University of Pikeville College of Osteopathic Medicine to increase training capacity for physicians and other medical personnel with a concentration on primary care to serve the eastern Kentucky and Appalachian regions.

Also in Kentucky, a non-profit organization in Pike County that serves adults, adolescents and families received a $75,000 AEP Foundation grant to help convert a vacant school building into the region’s first residential substance abuse facility for women and their dependent children. The funds will be used to create a library/education area for the women and their children. WestCare Kentucky’s Lookout School will serve 29 counties in eastern and southeastern Kentucky.

In neighboring southwest Virginia, the Caring Hearts Free Clinic in Stuart is able to provide regular, part-time medical care by a doctor or nurse practitioner and supporting staff because of an AEP Foundation pledge of $48,480. The clinic partners with local medical professionals to provide medical services two mornings each week and one evening every other week to a growing number of residents who do not have medical insurance in the economically struggling rural county.