Pikeville High School is so excited to be part of the Healthalacia Hackathon focusing on the Opioid Crisis in our local communities. We have been awarded $1,000 to implement our innovation.

I wanted to share our innovation, and how we hope it will make a difference. Please contact me if you have any questions, thoughts, concerns or anything.

When asked the question, “What does this work look like to you?” We would like to answer, “It looks like we care about our community and the future of this community.” The members of our team have spent many hours researching and collaborating to find the best possible solution that can be implemented effectively and quickly and with measurable outcomes that will hopefully show success in our innovation.

The team will be working to compile all the needed information for the app and the website. Bitsource will be contracted to create the app and be ready for download by March 1, and the website will be created by the team. The team will also be looking at and evaluating various sources and types of addiction curriculum that will be implemented in the Biology classes. As a culminating program to the addiction curriculum, the school will hold an assembly open to all students, parents and community members to showcase the work from the curriculum. We envision projects, such as skits, videos and public service announcements. The assembly will also be a time for a panel discussion that consists of recovered addicts, law enforcement, pharmacists, counselors and others. This will be a time of question and answer and sharing of knowledge. The Pikeville Police Department will be partnering with the leadership clubs of our school to help implement the Buddy Program as they work with the 5th and 7th grade classes. Our vision is for the high school students to partner with the younger students once every nine weeks to not serve as a mentor but as a friend to the younger students.

This team will also be partnering with local television, radio and newspapers to increase the community’s awareness of the innovations we are implementing. We will also be evaluating the success of this program using statistics to verify if the innovations we put into place are helping to make a difference.