Tracking Success: CTTS named as finalist forInvest 606 business accelerator contest

A Corbin-based company, which is utilizing technology to help prevent drug relapses, has been named as one of eight finalists for the Invest 606 Accelerator and Pitch Contest.

Community Treatment & Tracking Solutions (CTTS) is described on the Invest 606 website as a technology centered company combining best practices in rehabilitation and compliance. Its unique inexpensive smartphone app has achieved 100 percent employment & sobriety for graduates.

Company President Raenae Moore said her motivation for creating CTTS came from losing a stepchild to substance abuse.

“Young people interact with their phones. I wanted to find a way to reach young people so no one would have to die. That is what lead me to want to partner technology with treatment. RRJ Solutions being our treatment provider, we have been able to grow and just keep taking every challenge and make great successes. We have so many success stories it is amazing,” Moore said during a recent interview.

Invest 606

Invest 606, a business accelerator serving Eastern and Southern Kentucky, was launched in 2019, and provides support to the businesses with six months of training and services. A $15,000 grand prize, $7,500 second prize, and $3,500 third prize will be awarded to the eight finalists completing the accelerator, along with thousands of dollars in other cash and in-kind prizes. To be eligible to apply, the finalists had to be based in the 606 area code.

The selection process for the contest involved a competitive review among a panel of judges that are business and economic leaders in the state and region.

The eight finalists are based across eight different counties in the region including Carter, Floyd, Greenup, Laurel, Lee, Mason, Whitley, and Wolfe.

Over the next six months, the finalists will complete an individualized and flexible training plan. They will present their business to the public at a demo day on Jan. 16, 2021 in Pikeville. The final pitch contest will be held April 17, 2021 in Williamsburg.

Invest 606 was founded and led by Dr. Geoff Marietta with the mission to catalyze business growth in the 606 area code by connecting entrepreneurs with the resources they need to succeed today and grow tomorrow. Marietta is an entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of the Cumberlands, which also serves as the home office of Invest 606.

Moore said she watched the Invest 606 Accelerator and Pitch Contest last year with great interest because there were a lot of local companies involved.

Moore said that she and RRJ Solutions Program Coordinator Rebecca Bray discussed the best way to move forward and decided to pursue the Invest 606 contest in order to bring more attention to the technology they are using.

Just by being a finalist in Invest 606, has helped her company, Moore said.

Moore noted that she has been contacted by someone with Kentucky Highlands, who is helping her develop a website, which is something she doesn’t have.

“I already have resources sent my way to help me to grow my business and make it more sound and better. Even though this is a competition, everyone – who got picked as a finalist – we are all winners,” Moore said noting that just the announcement of it has drawn more people to her Facebook page and asking how they can help her.

What is CTTS?

“What we specialize in is partnering with treatment companies so that we are pairing treatment with tracking,” Moore said. “The goal is not to just pair with one treatment organization. It can be used with multiple organizations and courts.”

CTTS’s home incarceration monitor is significantly smaller and lighter than other devices that are in use. It pairs with a special phone, which tethers to the device.

The phone is a Google Pixel phone, which has two-way video that is HIPPA compliant for telemedicine or in CTTS’s case virtual field visits.

The phones feature the The Air Check-In App, which can do many things from reminding clients about upcoming court appointments, counseling sessions or doctor’s visits.

For instance, Whitley District Court Judge Fred White will frequently order people with several public intoxication arrests to attend two Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous meetings per week as part of their court sentence.

The Air Check-In App uses GPS data to not only remind clients that they are supposed to attend the meetings, but will also show clients where the closest Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are to their location on given dates and when those meetings take place.

If you are supposed to be at a meeting at First Baptist Church every Saturday night at 7 p.m., then the app will override the phone at that time and require defendants to take a selfie at that location. This selfie pairs with the phone’s facial recognition feature and GPS data to ensure that the person is actually at the required location at the required time, and stays there until after the meeting is over.

After leaving the meeting, users have a set amount of time to complete a scheduled recovery journal, which prompts the user to write what meeting they attended, and three things that they identified with in regards to the meeting, and three things that they are grateful for.

Clients in treatment service get assigned daily triggers and avoidance reports to complete that help them identify what their attitude is, their triggers, their behaviors and how to change them, Moore noted.

Research shows that if you work on those through what is essentially Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, then within a certain amount of time you start recognizing those triggers and how to avoid them.

Many of the features of the phone can also be utilized using the app on other smart phones for people in more advanced stages of their recovery.

The company works with courts in Whitley, Laurel, Knox and Russell counties.

In Russell County, the county attorney will often ask the judge to make use of the app’s treatment services a requirement of bond conditions for people with a drug problem, who can’t afford the phone, Moore said.

“We’ve had great success,” she noted.

The app alone doesn’t just do it. You have to pair it with treatment, which often includes counseling, case management, and intensive outpatient, Moore noted.

Moore said that she hopes to be able to expand the program and treatment into other counties, which are even more isolated than they are here.

“If they can get a phone signal and they can utilize that app, it is like everything they need in one. They have access to our whole team,” Moore said.