Every grant matters, but sometimes the real payoff comes from what you build when you bring them together.
In 2025, KRADD had two preparedness grants in hand. One was a $250 Community Mitigation Grant from the Kentucky Association of Mitigation Managers (KAMM). The other was a separate FEMA-funded project that provided 631 pre-programmed NOAA Weather Alert Radios. Each was valuable and appreciated, and each could have made a useful difference on its own. But we saw a chance to make them something greater than the sum of their parts.
Regional Disaster Coordinator Tim Koogler worked with Aging Services Director Stacie Noble and the Aging & Independent Living team to turn the two grants into a single, coordinated outreach effort for older adults across all eight counties in our region: Breathitt, Knott, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Owsley, Perry, and Wolfe.
The KAMM funding paid for posters and cards printed with emergency information, which were given to seniors throughout the region. The FEMA-funded radios put a reliable source of severe weather alerts directly into their homes. Staff then visited all eight regional senior centers, where they led preparedness workshops, showed seniors how to use and maintain their radios, and walked through emergency plans, essential supplies, and the important documents everyone should have ready. As of our FY2026 Annual Impact Report, 294 radios had been distributed, and distribution is still ongoing.
The result was more than equipment. Seniors received practical instruction and built stronger connections with KRADD staff before the next disaster arrives, when those relationships and that knowledge matter most.
That work has now earned KAMM’s continued support. KRADD was recently awarded a second Community Mitigation Grant from KAMM, this time for $1,000. We look forward to putting it to work in our continued effort to prepare our region’s most vulnerable residents for whatever comes next.
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