Funding for UK program helping low-income parents ends, workers laid off

The University of Kentucky is gutting its arm of a statewide program that helped low-income parents facing mental health or family challenges because funding for the program has ended.

The end of UK’s Targeted Assessment Program also means layoffs for 36 employees, according to a termination notice sent to staff on April 29, from Dr. Carl Leukefeld, the program’s principal investigator and faculty member of UK College of Medicine.

The program was an integral part of child welfare prevention, according to Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

It offered “comprehensive assessment and intensive case management services” to parents with “mental health issues, substance use disorders, intimate partner violence, learning problems, disabilities, or deficits,” the Kentucky Department of Community Based Services said.

The program’s associate director, 30 targeted assessment specialists and five community-based service managers will be terminated, and their positions will be “eliminated” on June 30, the notice said.

“The position eliminations are expected to be permanent,” the letter said.

The cuts were due to “restructuring” at UK, according to the layoff notice.

The assessment program worked under the College of Medicine’s Department of Behavioral Health, which will still exist, according to Lindsay Travis, a spokesperson for UK.

It’s unclear if the parent support program will reemerge in another format or if UK will rehire the affected employees after June 30, when their positions are eliminated.

Grant funds have ended for that program, as well as for a statewide HIV/AIDS services initiative called the Kentucky Income Reinvestment Program, according to Jay Blanton, a spokesperson for UK. Its staff of 61 people will also be terminated on June 30.

“That funding has been discontinued, resulting in this action,” Blanton said of both programs.

“The University is working with those impacted by the loss of this funding and the positions about whether there are other job opportunities with the University or whether they prefer to find employment elsewhere,” he said.

The ending of grant funds was unrelated to UK’s centralization efforts, which are impacting other areas of the university like food and concessions, according to Blanton.

Over 900 of UK’s dining workers, who are employed by Aramark, will also be terminated on June 30, but a new company will try to rehire them in “the very near future,” Blanton said. The university is reviewing quotes from companies to oversee those employees, as well as maintenance and custodial staff, who currently work for UK.

Leukefeld did not respond to the Herald-Leader’s requests for comment and Blanton did not immediately respond to further questions prior to publication.