UK partnership helps bring people, opportunity home to Eastern Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 30, 2026) — One of the University of Kentucky’s strongest commitments to Eastern Kentucky is through its partnership with the Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) program, a nonprofit initiative serving the 54 Appalachian Regional Commission counties of Eastern Kentucky.
Born from the economic fallout of the coal industry, SOAR’s mission today is to solve the deep-seated issue of population retention and growth in Eastern Kentucky,
To address the loss of jobs and significant drop in economy due to the decline in the coal industry, SOAR launched Eastern Kentucky Remote (EKY Remote) in 2022. The program was established as part of a strategic initiative to deploy digital equity and broadband-related opportunities throughout Eastern Kentucky. To expand nationwide marketing efforts and scale its recruitment of remote workers, SOAR subsequently formed a partnership with the relocation platform MakeMyMove in 2023.
The story is not uncommon. A son or daughter graduates from high school. They leave for college or their first job. They build a successful career somewhere else because that’s where opportunity took them.
Returning home to Eastern Kentucky often meant giving up the career they had worked so hard to build. Today, that’s beginning to change.
Pike County native Latasha Friend is leading the charge for that change. After graduating from Big Sandy Community and Technical College and attending the University of Pikeville, she was offered a job opportunity at the University of Kentucky College of Social Work, a job she says prepared her well for the opportunity that awaited her back home in Eastern Kentucky.
After four years with the UK College of Social Work, an opportunity with SOAR opened with the business and innovation team, a natural fit for Friend who, as an entrepreneur herself, had operated a bakery business for more than 10 years. She had the desire to help other Eastern Kentucky entrepreneurs build their dream and businesses.
“There is something magical about being raised here and being able to invest back into the community that built you,” she said.
“Piloting EKY Remote initially was really interesting," Friend said. “We started out in four counties in 2023. We received 1,500 applications rather quickly, and we realized that we may have something here. We all know why we stay here in Eastern Kentucky; we were raised here and there’s a purpose and a resilience and magic in these mountains. I always say the mountains are like magnets. They draw you in.”
Friend took over as manager in 2024 and recently was made director of EKY Remote. Since the program began, it has received almost 13,000 applications with 88 families relocating, and hundreds of applications are still being considered.
SOAR’s EKY Remote program is helping remote workers relocate to communities across the region. So far, EKY Remote has welcomed:
- 258 new residents, including 78 children
- Families from 30 states relocating to 30 Eastern Kentucky counties
- More than $8.6 million in new annual wages
- More than $12.5 million invested in homes across the region
Earlier this year, EKY Remote was recognized as the second-best Remote Worker Attraction Program in the nation, and Eastern Kentucky was named one of only six Most Welcoming Communities by MakeMyMove, a marketplace for relocation services in 2024. They have been recognized by major media outlets like the Wall Street Journal and Education Week. This national attention is helping shine a new light on Eastern Kentucky — not only as a place to visit, but as a place where people can build a career and raise a family.
Over the next two years, SOAR is focusing on people who already have a connection to Eastern Kentucky. Many of them are working remotely. And for the first time, they may have the opportunity to choose where they call home.
One of Friend’s clients moved from Colorado to Eastern Kentucky in 2025 as part of the EKY Remote program.
“Having personal contact and conversation with Latasha, a real live human who spent her life int the area, was so refreshing,” the client said. “I was not speaking to someone on the other side of the country who was reading from a script. I was speaking with someone who truly lives in and loves the area we were starting to look into.”
SOAR is a member of UK’s Advancing Kentucky Together (AKT) Network. The AKT Network is a statewide partnership that unites UK’s research, service and learning capabilities with partners to co-create solutions that expand opportunity, strengthen communities and improve well-being across the Commonwealth.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and healthcare. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $1.02 billion research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.