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BUILD Will Focus On Ending Drug Epidemic

Hundreds gathered at Shiloh Baptist Church last night for a project BUILD meeting. The group focuses on recognizing problems in the community and working towards solutions to fix them.

More than five hundred people, representing two dozen churches in Lexington came together to spark change. Monday was the first of several annual meetings held by BUILD, which stands for Building a United Interfaith Lexington through Direct Action. Each congregation created a focus group and then voted on the issue they wanted the organization to focus on in 2018. The clear winner was drugs. Kabby Akers heads the BUILD team at her church.  “We found quite a bit when we listened to our people. Many families in many congregations don’t know how to deal with it. So many suffer with it and how do we help these people?”

Over the years BUILD has tackled issues like creating affordable housing and having stiffer regulations for check cashing businesses that they say prey on the city’s poorest citizens. The group will now spend time researching ways to combat Lexington’s rising drug problem. They meet again on December 11th