Beacon Revival Co. gives Hazard recovery graduates jobs, skills, hope

A former trophy-and-T-shirt shop in Hazard has been remade into a recovery workplace, giving people leaving treatment a place to earn money, learn routine and build job skills in Perry County.

Beacon Revival Co. grew out of Beacons of Hope and Primary Care Centers as a way to help people in recovery bridge the gap between treatment and the next paycheck. The shop is managed by Karah Combs, whose family once ran Sports City for decades. The old business closed after her brother died, but the name and the storefront have returned with a different purpose: helping people get back on their feet after substance-use treatment.

That mission fits a county where addiction recovery and employment are closely linked. Perry County’s unemployment rate was 5.6% in 2024, and Kentucky recorded 1,410 resident overdose deaths that year, a 30.2% drop from 2023 but still a number that underscores how much work remains. A job-based recovery model matters because it gives people structure, responsibility and a paycheck at the same time.

Beacons of Hope said it was founded in 2021 to foster family-oriented addiction assistance programs. It operates in Hazard and Vicco and provides services for substance use disorder, behavioral health and co-occurring disorders. Its Hazard outpatient program serves the Kentucky River region, and its services include a Quick Response Team, residential treatment, outpatient care and intensive outpatient programming.

The new shop also fits into a broader state push. Kentucky launched the Recovery Ready Communities program in 2022 to encourage counties and cities to offer transportation, support groups, recovery meetings and employment services at no cost to people seeking treatment. Gov. Andy Beshear later designated Perry County a Recovery Ready Community in September 2023, citing efforts to reduce barriers to work for people in recovery.

For Hazard, Beacon Revival Co. is more than a storefront. It is a small-business answer to a large public-health problem, built around local history and local need. Instead of asking recovering residents to jump straight from treatment into a normal job market, the shop gives them a place to practice showing up, serving customers and handling responsibility in a setting that understands what stability looks like one day at a time.