ARC awards $26 million for economic diversity

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) announced $26 million in awards to expand and diversify the economy in coal-impacted communities in five states. This adds to the $47 million ARC has invested since 2015 through the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative. The 31 awards that were announced in late January are projected to create or retain more than 2,500 jobs and leverage an additional $32 million from public and private investors.

The POWER Initiative is a congressionally funded, multi-state strategy to bring federal resources to coal-impacted regions that have been negatively affected by changes in America’s energy production. The awards are intended to better equip workers and students in the Appalachian region with skills and opportunities in manufacturing, technology, entrepreneurship, agriculture, and other emerging sectors.

A sampling of the 31 grantees include:

• $3.5 million to Big Sandy Community and Technical College in Prestonsburg, KY, for the Eastern Kentucky Coal County Transformation project. The award will enable three eastern Kentucky education institutions — Big Sandy, Hazard Community and Technical College, and Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College — to launch an employer-driven workforce development program focused on building the digital economy and strengthening digital innovation and entrepreneurship across a 16-county region in eastern Kentucky.
• $1.92 million to Bevill State Community College in Jasper, AL, to create a new Rapid Training Center at Bevill State’s Jasper campus that will serve as a regional workforce training and job placement hub in northwest Alabama.
• $1.5 million to Hazard Community and Technical College (HCTC) in Hazard, KY, for the Intergenerational Training Center. ARC funds will be used to construct a 14,700 square foot facility at HCTC’s Lees College Campus in Jackson, KY, that will deliver job training and credentialing courses focused around four emerging regional career clusters: information technology, telemedicine and health sciences, mechatronics, and eco-tourism/small business development.
• $1.3 million to the Southwest Virginia Alliance for Manufacturing, Inc., in Abingdon, VA, for The Heart of Appalachia Economic Transition Project. The project will align the grantee — a non-profit industry association of manufacturers from southwest Virginia — local workforce development boards, and the Virginia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Center to deliver business technical assistance to coal supply chain manufacturers in an effort to return them to profitability.

There were also several technical assistance awards as part of the total funding, including $100,000 to the Northwest PA Regional Planning and Development Commission in Oil City, PA, to develop a feasibility study for broadband access in the Northwest Pennsylvania region. A complete listing of award winners is available here.