November 29, 2023
Since 2015, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has invested $421.6 million in 507 projects touching 365 counties across Appalachia through the POWER Initiative. Together, these investments are projected to create or retain over 53,000 jobs, leverage more than $1.81 billion in additional private investment into Appalachia’s economy, and prepare over 142,000 workers and students for opportunities in entrepreneurship, broadband development, tourism, and other industry sectors.
The Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative targets federal resources to help communities and regions that have been affected by job losses in coal mining, coal power plant operations, and coal-related supply chain industries due to the changing economics of America’s energy production. Read more about the ARC’s POWER initiative here.
In October 2023, ARC awarded its latest round of investments – nearly $54 million – to projects that will leverage entrepreneurship, workforce development, and infrastructure to bolster re-employment opportunities, create jobs in existing or new industries, and attract new sources of investment.
The Appalachian Regional Commission sees opportunity for economic revitalization in our region. For the people of the region, there’s no reason why good work can’t be done in their hometowns and cities. The ARC’s POWER grants aid with bolstering community, infrastructure, and educational programs to help Appalachia close the gap within the region.
See how these POWER Grants affect the Ohio River Valley region of Appalachia below:
Kentucky
The Eastern side of the State of Kentucky is awash with natural beauty and abundance. The graceful Appalachian Mountains glide gently upward out of the Cumberland plateau, making for vistas that rival the Rockies for sheer splendor. The region’s immense reserves of bituminous coal powered the industrial revolution both in the United States and abroad with cheap, convenient (and dirty) energy. However, as the world economy does its best to shift away from pollution-heavy coal as a primary source of energy and the mines shut up shop, they take the prosperity that powered a way of life away with them. In recent decades the people of Eastern Kentucky, as rugged and tough as their homeland, have struggled with how to adapt to the ever-changing globalized economy. The Appalachian Regional Commission is doing what it can to help Eastern Kentucky position itself in a more opportune place to meet the needs of its people and prepare them for the days ahead.
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HOW KENTUCKY BENEFITS FROM POWER GRANTS:
The ARC’s Partnership for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Development Revitalization Initiative (Power) will be investing over $7.5 million into the region in the form of grants for the fiscal year 2023. These investments will be awarded toward community, educational, and infrastructural projects, applied for by local organizations in the region.
Roughly $2M of the $7.5M received in POWER grants this year will go towards community-oriented projects. The Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) will receive $1.5M in funding towards their project for Economic Development for Those Who Need It Most. This program will create a small business lending program for local entrepreneurs, as well as providing technical assistance and education on clean energy, accounting, and web design. MACED estimates that this grant will benefit over 200 businesses and leverage more than $3M in private investment over the next two years.
Likewise, Red Bird Mission of Beverly, KY will receive $50,000 for a feasibility study to determine the feasibility of a community center in Laurel County, containing workspaces for telework, a makerspace for entrepreneurs, job training classrooms, and a cultural space. These grants will play a part in helping a community reeling from economic neglect find its feet and voice once again.
With economic downturns come inevitable underinvestment in essential infrastructure. Several of the POWER grants awarded to the region by ARC focus on rebuilding essential and protective infrastructure. For example, Hazard, KY will receive $1.5M to rebuild a water transmission line, replacing an 8in PVC pipeline with 43,850 linear feet of DR11 HDPE transmission line. This will increase water capacity to the Coalfields Regional Industrial Park, as well as serving 1,198 households in Hazard and the surrounding areas.
On the topic of water moving from one place to another, the Kentucky River Area Development District will receive $50,000 towards helping underserved governments and nonprofits affected by recent historic flooding.
The bulk of grants awarded by ARC to organizations in Eastern Kentucky focus on Workforce Development and Education. These grants will help the region compete for jobs, investment, and provide essential services to underserved communities. Medical education is an emphasis. $1.5M is going towards helping Big Sandy Community College move their nursing education program into a new 12,300 square foot facility. Another $1.5M is going to the University of Pikeville to support a new college of dental medicine, which will graduate 60 students annually while providing dental care to underserved areas.
Non-medical professional training is also addressed, with $1.5M going to Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) to create a tech-focused entrepreneurial ecosystem in EKY. This project will offer a speaker series, workshops, funding matchmaking, and workshops on startup practices. The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky will also receive $50,000 towards strengthening work-based learning programs in Kentucky Promise Zones. If Eastern Kentucky wishes to retain its character, the only way forward is to adapt, and POWER grants from ARC are helping to make this happen.
Ohio
The state of Ohio is currently a place of grand contrasts and contradictions. While locales like Shaker Heights, Oakwoods, and Madeira are becoming swanky areas of refuge for urbanites the country over to enjoy treelined suburban placidity without the high costs of NYC, Chicago, or LA, not far off, a different story is told. While Colombus and Cincinnati enjoy their rebirths, now home to young professionals and hosting tech startups and corporate HQ’s aplenty, it is easy to forget the Ohio that is left firmly in the quagmire of economic contraction. The Appalachian Regional Commission has issued a series of grants to the Appalachian Ohio region through their Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization Initiative (POWER) program with the aim of encouraging community, educational, and infrastructure development.
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HOW OHIO BENEFITS FROM POWER GRANTS:
Grants tackling infrastructure and access to internet take center stage for ARC, with a combined $5M going to Morgan County and Ashtabula County for projects that will provide broadband internet speeds up to 1 gig per second, affecting nearly 3000 households and 110 businesses in the area. Morgan and Ashtabula County businesses and individuals will now be able to compete for 21st century jobs. Tuscawara County has also received a grant of $1.07M towards the construction of six fixed wireless telecom towers, providing speeds of over 100mb/s to over 10,000 households and 200 businesses in 19 underserved communities. Finally, New Lexington Schools has received $50,000 to develop a broadband development plan for themselves and five surrounding communities. Access to modern internet infrastructure will be critical for these counties if they wish to keep pace with an ever-changing and digitalizing economy.
Appalachian Ohio has always been a region blessed with a rich cultural and community heritage. Several community-oriented projects are provided for in ARC’s grant program. The City of Portsmouth will receive $1.5M towards the renovation of their 78-year-old cobblestone boat ramp on the Ohio River. The project will also add a parking lot and access road, position Portsmouth to take in more tourist dollars. Other community efforts, like the Ohio Folk Centers effort to develop a plan for opening three community centers in Meigs, Athens, and Perry counties, as well as Ohio-WV Youth Leadership Associations plan to create training programs for young people will be supported with $50K grants.
The $1.5M received by the Steubenville Historic Landmarks foundation for the restoration of the Steubenville Grand Theatre will go a long way towards the propagation of regional cultural productions in the region. The Grand Theatre, a masterpiece of 1920’s architecture, has long sat vacant and decaying. Now, with the help of ARC’s grants, this stunning playhouse’s limelight will shine again.
Like with other states, in ARC’s grant program, the need for modernized jobs training and education is keenly felt in Appalachian Ohio. Without the tools and skills to compete for the vocations of the 21st century, residents will be more likely to end up economically disadvantaged. ARC has distributed several grants to educational organizations this year, including $1.3M to GROW Appalachia, which will develop a manufacturing support center for Southeastern Ohio, which will help train 225 workers and 175 students annually, providing local businesses with skilled employees. The Mid-East Career and Technology Center in Zanesville received another $1.3 to expand CDL training services in 7 counties. Lastly, Astronaut John Glenn’s alma mater Muskingum University will receive $50,000 towards the creation of a strategic plan to support healthcare, education, hospitality, and computer science education the region to support the growth of a sustainable, modern economic zone.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is the most populous of the Appalachian states and the most economically diverse as well. However, this does not exclude PA from the issues experienced by other Appalachian states. Deindustrialization, a shrinking population, and underinvestment in large swaths of the state have left communities in PA vulnerable to economic decline and blight. The Appalachian Regional Commission sees a different story to be written. With a skilled workforce, major population centers on both sides of the state, and abundant natural resources, Pennsylvania is well positioned to take on the challenges of this coming century and beyond. All that is needed is a cohesive vision (with funding, of course) for a prosperous future for the Keystone State. The ARC’s POWER Grants program helps to provide that vision and investment.
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Appalachian Pennsylvania’s needs for updated infrastructure, especially for internet infrastructure, has long gone unmet. Fortunately, ARC’s has issued grants to two projects that will help to alleviate this situation. Firstly, Washington County will receive $2.5M towards their East Finley broadband expansion project that will bring high speed internet to underserved areas of the county. Currently in Phase III of the project, 800+ households and 50 businesses stand to benefit from this increase in internet bandwidth. Lycoming County has likewise received $50,000 towards a broadband engineering readiness plan, which will assist in future prioritization of focus areas for fiber deployment. Twenty-two communities will be consulted as part of this project.
From the Pennsylvania Deutsch regions to the food scenes of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and the massive snack food industry, Pennsylvania’s culinary culture and industry in famous nationwide. To help keep PA on the top of the pile, ARC has issued several grants aimed at improving employment accessibility into the retail food industry. The Venango County Economic Development Corporation has received $1.45M towards the “Venango County Restaurant and Retail Food Accelerator.” This project will renovate $15,700 sqft of retail space in the Oil City National Bank, aiming to re-activate historic commercial spaces and lower barriers to entry for the retail food sector. The Community Kitchen – Pittsburgh received $700,000 towards providing paid culinary and vocational training in the greater Pittsburgh area and hopes to give 450+ workers the skills they need to find good paying jobs in the industry. Lastly, Edinboro Market will use their $660,000 grant from ARC to renovate an additional 3,500 sqft of their space for a farmers’ market, additional retail space, and a café – as well as expanding their programming on cooking, nutrition, and farming for all ages.
The opioid crisis found in Pennsylvania an easy victim. Struggling with deindustrialization and a shifting demographic landscape, many Pennsylvania residents have found themselves hooked on opiates. Predatory prescribing practices pushed by pharmaceutical companies like Purdue helped matters much. ARC is very aware of this ongoing epidemic and has granted $1.5M to the Pennsylvania Peer Support Coalition in Lancaster, PA. The grant funds will go towards helping bring more substance use disorder (SUD) professionals to the 52 coal-impacted counties of Pennsylvania.
The world economy has never stood still and shows no signs of doing so any time soon. With the flight of heavy industry overseas, the Appalachian counties of PA must grapple with how to educate their workforce to compete in the current economic climate. ARC’s support of professional and vocational training enables municipalities and organizations to better prepare their residents for the here and now.
The Keystone Community Education Council of Oil City will use their $1.5M grant from ARC towards a four-step workforce improvement plan. The four steps being partnering with local employment groups to identify workforce issues, promoting skilled trades in middle schools, offering college-level certificates and pre-apprenticeship programs, and identifying local industries who are understaffed. The Trade Institute of Pittsburgh has also received $1.5M towards their program to provide additional paid workforce experience for trainees who have completed the masonry program and are still having trouble finding employment.
Staying in Pittsburgh, Rivers of Steel Heritage Corporation will build local leadership, provide career opportunities in historic trades, and invest in the future economic growth of Pitt’s cultural heritage assets with their $1.4M grant from ARC. Other programs, like the Tri-County Investment Board’s modern vocational training programs and PA Cybersecurity Center’s training and placement program received a combined $2.5M in funding. Appalachian Pennsylvania struggled with many of the same issues that other Appalachian states have faced. Addiction, unemployment, depopulation, and economic contraction. These problems will never fully evaporate, but with strategic investment and development of Appalachian economies, we can help to reverse course and put Western PA back on track. ARC is committed to ensuring that every state in the region has the resources they need to ensure prosperity for our communities in the 21st century.
West Virginia
West Virginia is perhaps the most “iconic” of the Appalachian States. The only state located entirely within the mountain range that gives Appalachia its name, West Virginia is simultaneously known for its coal extractive industries, breathtaking natural splendor, rich cultural history, and organized labor. WV punches far above its size when it comes to presence in the American psyche. Infinitely eulogized in prose, song, and verse by some of America’s greatest literary and musical titans (See: John Denver), it seems redundant to heap any more praise on it. I’ll leave that to the masters.
Unfortunately, banjo ballads and poetically rolling mountains aren’t the only story here. West Virginia was a byword for rural poverty even in its economic heyday, when those jagged mountains showed their bounty to the tune of 170,000,000 tons of bituminous coal per year. This was the coal that powered everything from the American Industrial Revolution to humming factories of the World Wars to the post-war prosperity that brought cheap, convenient power to homes the world over. The days of coal are nearly gone now. Though West Virginian mines still produce it, the demand has mostly dried up. With the disappearance of heavy industry has come a host of voids. Many communities in West Virginia suffer from poverty, underemployment, long-delays in funding for infrastructure and services that have left infrastructure crumbling. Fortunately, the mountaineers of West Virginia have never been the sort to let opportunities pass them by.
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For the West Virginia of tomorrow to match the economic might of the West Virginia of yesteryear, a concerted effort must be made to put workers in a place to succeed in the modern world. Just as the population was mobilized into heavy industry in the last two centuries, the people of West Virginia must now be prepared for the circumstances of the modernized economy. ARC has issued several grants towards that end – ranging from adult education to Pre-K programs proven to improve outcomes.
Secondary and Adult education stands to benefit greatly from ARC grants. $1.5 million has been provided to BridgeValley Community and Technical College in South Charleston, WV to provide credentialed, employer approved training for several high-demand positions. BridgeValley will offer training for CDL driving, electrical line management, telecom industries, and transportation infrastructure work – aiming to educate 625 students over the grant period. A further $1.5 million will be used by Mountwest C&T College in Huntington to provide cutting edge education for domestic construction in Cabell, Lincoln, Logan, Mason, Mingo, and Wayne Counties. Finally, Marshall University’s Advanced Manufacturing Center (Formerly Robert C. Byrd Institute of Industrial Sciences) will receive $1.1 million towards an advanced manufacturing training program aimed at preparing students not just for the jobs of today, but the manufacturing jobs of the future.
Adult education is not the only educational beneficiary, with Mountain State Montessori Early Childcare & Education, run by New River Gorge Learning Co-Op, receiving $50K towards their strategic plan for expansion. NRGLC seeks to expand their programs into seven more counties, knowing that children who take part in early childhood education see better outcomes in adulthood – earning higher wages, being incarcerated at lower rates, and having better health outcomes.
For West Virginia to turn an economic corner, we must learn from the mistakes of the past. One of the issues that caused the economic contraction was a lack of diversity in the economy. Extractive industry was so stunningly profitable, it made it easy to forget all the other opportunities West Virginians had available to them. In future economic development, it is imperative that the state diversify. ARC’s POWER grants have been received by a variety of industries towards this end.
In Buchanon, WV, Mountain Cap Inc. has received $50K toward a feasibility study on the creation of a glass and plastic recycling facility. Tamarack Foundation for the Arts in Charleston will use $40K on the creation of an arts accelerator program, including financial literacy workshops and small business education. West Virginia Food & Farm Coalition will use their $1.1 million grant to help provide healthy food to childcare facilities and provide nutritional and culinary training at their food hubs, which will also serve as entry points for small or beginner farmers, helping them scale up. The Elk River Trail foundation’s $1.3 million grant will go towards the creation of new water access points, trail heads, and urban revitalization in Elkview, WV to promote tourism. With greater economic diversity, aided by ARC’s grants, the state of West Virginia will be less susceptible to changes in the global economy.
With the disappearance of a staple industry (such as coal), state and municipal governments will inevitably struggle to make up income shortfalls due to reduced household income. Any projects that can be reasonably delayed will be, especially when it comes to infrastructure. ARC understands that infrastructure spending is vital to maintain a civilized society, issuing grants to the Wyoming County Economic Development Authority for broadband development and the Mingo County Commission for a strategic plan to upgrade their sewer systems.
West Virginia is a state with frightening economic and social problems, but it is also a state with potential. Blessed with natural resources beyond coal and featuring some of the most tantalizing vistas in the world, as well as featuring a population with a proven work ethic and ability to adapt, there is no reason why WV can’t return to her glory days. ARC understands this, and its POWER grants program has gone to great lengths to help the Mountain State edge back towards prosperity.