The search for a solution

How PRTC broadband helped one family stay connected

Looking back on the weeks and months surrounding March 2020, Rebecca Bray shakes her head at the life-changing events that came her way. “Up to that point, everything was kind of normal — great, even,” says Rebecca, a Jackson County resident and founding partner and executive director of RRJ Solutions, a counseling agency. “Then, everything changed.”

Her London, Kentucky-based partnership had recently opened its fourth office in Russell Springs — only a few months after the third location had opened. The business was growing fast, and it required a great deal of focus. Still, that was a good problem to have. RRJ Solutions was filling an important need in Eastern Kentucky by helping people dealing with mental health issues and substance use, and Rebecca and her partners were determined to serve their communities well.

By the end of March 2020, life grew far more complicated. The president officially declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency, and state governments across the country began closing schools, issuing stay-at-home orders and closing various businesses to the public. To top it off, one of Rebecca’s partners passed away unexpectedly from an illness not related to COVID. Her husband’s job went fully remote, and their children needed supervision while schools were closed.

Nearly every aspect of her life required a new level of focus and concentration. “At work, we had to be even more intensely involved with the people who were struggling because they needed support more than ever,” Rebecca says. “Everything switched to telehealth, so internet connection was important. But we also had to train our clients in digital literacy and how to engage and connect.”

There was more for Rebecca’s family, too. “We had also just ended our lease on the place we were living at in Lexington and had applied for a loan to buy a house,” she says. “It added another layer to everything that was already happening.”

Moving Target

When she looks back on those days, she has to laugh. But it wasn’t funny at the time. Not only were they dealing with a shortage of the most basic of needs — toilet paper — they were also trying to manage increasing workloads and a housing market that had somehow exploded at a time when everything else stood still. “It had been our goal before we even knew about the pandemic to buy a house in 2020,” she says. “We needed to relocate from Lexington, so we could split the travel to our jobs.”

But as soon as she and her husband, Matt, would find a new home that fit their needs, someone would buy it before they could even look at it. “We’d pull up in a driveway to look at a house, and the Realtor would call us to say it had been sold,” Rebecca says. “We found out there were people buying homes sight unseen from all over the country — California, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio and just about everywhere else.”

Eventually, the couple decided to reexamine their priorities. While location and safety were still at the top of the list, they realized the next nonnegotiable need was fast and reliable internet service.

“Matt works in technology, and he has to be able to download and upload things quickly,” Rebecca says. “Also, our children had to be connected for school and homework, and I had to be connected for work. This meant all of our other priorities needed to move down the list. That’s how we decided on Jackson County.”

Solid Foundations

When Rebecca’s family discovered the Annville property where they now live, they were a little surprised. They had no idea they’d be able to get a powerful internet connection in the rural setting Matt craved.

But thanks to PRTC’s fast fiber broadband service, that was the easiest part. They still struggled with home building because of COVID-19 restrictions and supply chain issues, but they never had to worry about their internet connection. “Everything was going wrong, but in the end, we were always connected,” Rebecca says. “There was never this added layer of stress that other people in other communities were having to deal with.”

That’s when she really came to appreciate PRTC for bringing a cutting-edge fiber network to the region long before many companies had even thought of it. “During the pandemic is when everybody finally understood that people had to be connected to the internet, I think,” she says. “I know I saw it in a different light. I mean, aside from all the other ways we were using the internet, we were also doing things like ordering groceries online.”

Little things like that ended up helping in larger ways, too. “I still have tons of appreciation for PRTC for that,” Rebecca says. “Other places hadn’t made that investment, hadn’t created that opportunity. But PRTC did. It was done and ready to go.” 

RRJ Solutions

RRJ Solutions offers mental health counseling, substance use counseling and targeted case management for adults and young people in Russell, Whitley, Knox, Laurel, Clay and Leslie counties. The program offers a common-sense approach for clients to achieve their goals. For more information, visit rrjsolutions.com.