POWER

100 Days in Appalachia: ARC funds focus on addiction recovery, broadband

03.11.19

Image from WV Sober Living’s Facebook Page, recipient of a POWER grant

BY ASHTON MARRA FOR 100 DAYS IN APPALACHIA

If Appalachia were on the stock market, Federal Co-Chair for the Appalachian Regional Commission Tim Thomas says he’d invest in it.

“There is a bright future for Appalachia,” Thomas said. After traveling the region for four workshops, he’s convinced there are innovators in Appalachia who will help businesses and workers here overcome their most recent setbacks. Those innovators just need support.

The Appalachian Regional Commission is offering that support through $45 million in federal grant funding in 2019. The grants are tied to the Congressionally-approved POWER Initiative, which stands for Partnership for Opportunity and Workforce Economic Revitalization…

Read the full story on the 100 Days in Appalachia site »

ARC POWER funding proposals open

01.15.19

BY EMMA PEPPER, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS, THE HUB

Last week, the Appalachian Regional Commission announced that they are accepting the next round of POWER (Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization) funding proposals beginning February 1.

Since 2015, the ARC has invested $120 million in 149 projects—including 42 projects in West Virginia—through POWER.

From the ARC:

POWER is a congressionally funded initiative that 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.
The current request for funding proposals makes an additional $45 million available for regional, strategic, and transformational undertakings spurring long term economic revitalization in Appalachia’s coal-impacted communities and regions.
The 149 POWER investments [to date] are projected to create or retain almost 14,000 jobs, leverage an additional $403 million in investment, and prepare thousands of workers and students with globally competitive skills and opportunities in the Region’s manufacturing, technology, entrepreneurship, agriculture, and other emerging sectors.

The ARC is hosting four workshops across the region to teach prospective applicants about the initiative and proposal process.

The West Virginia workshop is set for March 6 in Morgantown.

Find out more about the funding opportunity »

Got a POWER Grant? Want a POWER Grant? Join us on April 4th in Charleston!

03.13.18

The POWER Convening

BY STEPHANIE TYREE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE HUB

The Hub is joining together with the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to host a workshop on April 4 to support WV projects that have received federal POWER funding, as well as project teams that are considering applying for funding before the May 1 deadline.

All across the state we see projects that are building a stronger diversified economy for West Virginia.

ARC POWER funding has supported many of these projects with grants over the past two years. These projects range from building beekeeping collaboratives, to developing entrepreneurial ecosystems in local towns, to supporting business development along the Hatfield-McCoy trail and dozens of others. What they all have in common is a big vision of what a stronger economy looks like for West Virginia, and public and private investment that is helping to make that vision a reality.

Every quarter, The Hub works with our partners to convene a workshop for POWER grantees to help project leads tackle continuing challenges they are having in their projects, to connect with other projects in their sectors, and to connect projects that are working in the same county or region. The goal of these workshops is to help your project achieve the highest level of success possible.

This upcoming workshop will have two primary focuses.

First, participants will be getting connected with grantees that work in the same geographic region to understand what projects are in progress across the multiple sectors supported by POWER funding. Grantees will be encouraged to connect with other projects happening nearby, to share resources and to learn how each project is placed within the larger pipeline of diverse rural economic development. Significant time will be provided for project sharing, networking and resource and support needs identification.

Second, the workshop will provide space for participants who are planning on applying for a POWER grant in 2018 to see how their grant project fits in with current WV projects, to find potential new partners, and to think about how they can frame their project as an essential element of the economic diversification pipeline in West Virginia.

2018 POWER grants will be highly competitive – particularly for grants based in West Virginia as our state has received a significant portion of the federal funding. How can you make the case that limited federal resources should go here instead of to another state that has received less funding in previous years?

Join us on April 4th to help take your current project to the next level or to help build a stronger proposal for a new project – or both!

Space is limited. RSVP here by March 30th.

Demand for the Hatfield-McCoy ATV Trail Brings New Business Opportunities

07.17.17

from the Hatfield-McCoy Trail Facebook page

Over the past year plus with our work helping to foster entrepreneurship in communities throughout West Virginia here at The Hub, we’ve seen energy around new business in the recreation and tourism sectors skyrocket.

This has been due in large part to the Hatfield McCoy ATV trail. As people come to ride the trail, they are also looking for other recreational activities. So, communities with natural assets like waterways are creating these recreational opportunities for visitors in places like Lincoln County. We have also seen land-based trail projects around hiking and biking from our previous Innovation Acceleration program in communities from Boone County to Wyoming County.

There are also economic opportunities directly related to the Hatfield McCoy trail itself, and one of our top partners, Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, is working to help people in southern West Virginia take advantage of those opportunities.

Last year, they launched a Powersports Technology program to teach students to service, repair, and maintain a variety of powersports equipment like motorcycles, ATV’s UTV’s and personal watercraft. Program graduates are prepared to be entry-level technicians and most often work as service technicians, but may also find employment as service writers, parts department personnel and sales staff.

For more information about this program, reach out to technology@southernwv.edu.

With an uptick in resources available to communities as well through things like the Appalachian Regional Commission’s POWER program, which has put $92 million within the past year into the region for economic development, it is important for residents here to know about what is available and be able to connect with these opportunities to grow not only their local economy but their own prosperity.

Just last month at a convening of POWER grantees in Huntington, Jeff Lusk, director of the Hatfield McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, which operates the Hatfield-McCoy Trails system, said the ARC’s $1.3 million POWER grant to their organization will be used to help expand tourism-related business opportunities along the Hatfield McCoy Trail.

We look forward to seeing what additional helpful resources are on the horizon for our region when it comes to growing our recreation and tourism economy.

In Southern West Virginia, Abandoned Rail Lines Emerge As New Tourism Opportunity

06.13.17

Photo: www.facebook.com/railstotrails/

Hey southern West Virginia! Does your community have abandoned rail lines?

Well, now might be the time to look at convert those unused rails into valuable recreation and tourism assets.

And, if you are already pursuing a rail-trail plan, now is also the perfect time to connect with other people in southern West Virginia to share ideas and information, and explore the possibility of a connected rail-trail network.

Rail-trails are an available and affordable way to diversify the local economy, build communities and improve health.

A new working group is looking to see if there is interest in forming a southern West Virginia rail-trail organization, and they have a survey that you need to take. Here’s the survey link: https://goo.gl/forms/Ta4gvrVzRcbC3uTv1

They are looking for partners across the more than 13 counties of southern West Virginia that are interested in building a vibrant network of folks who care about trails, are building trails, and will advocate for trails.

Rail-trails are an available and affordable way to diversify the local economy, build communities and improve health.

The decline of coal will result in the discontinued use of numerous railroad corridors in southern West Virginia, providing a great opportunity to preserve our railroading and coal mining heritage.

The Industrial Heartland Trail Coalition, which extends into northern West Virginia, illustrates how building extensive networks can enhance trail acquisition, development, and promotion. Working collaboratively, rather than competitively, across southern West Virginia will be more productive and will encourage shared resources and collective marketing.

Please take this simple first step by filling out the short survey: https://goo.gl/forms/Ta4gvrVzRcbC3uTv1

WVAlways: Abandoned Mine Lands Could Host Groundbreaking New Solar Projects

04.12.17

Photo by Solar Holler

By Kathryn Ghion/WVAlways.com

A recent study by environmental consultant Downstream Strategies found a new way to bring solar energy to the Mountain State.

It would do so, without taking away land for infrastructure development or green space.

“One of the arguments against integrating large amounts of solar resources in West Virginia is that our flat land in West Virginia is prime development,” said Joey James, Project Scientist with Downstream Strategies.

There is other land in West Virginia that Downstream Strategies has identified as a prime spot for large-scale solar.

In a new study, funded by a grant from the Appalachian Stewardship Foundation, it analyzed degraded land, which includes abandoned mine lands and Brownfield sites, landfills, hazardous waste sites and more…

See the full story at wvalways.com

Daily Yonder: After The Coal Companies Have Fled, What To Do With Abandoned Mine Lands?

04.05.17

One of Appalachia’s many abandoned coal facilities. Photo by Zach Frailey/FlickrCC

By Bryce Oates/The Daily Yonder

Congress jumped into the coal-economy debate this week with two separate bills to create employment by freeing up federal reclamation funds. Groups that have promoted the approach prefer the bill that would tie spending more closely to economic development.

Kentuckian Sarah Bowling thinks Appalachia’s economic future is tied to coal, but not in the way you might think.

She’d like the federal government to stimulate jobs restoring mine lands, not making more of them.

“You go up the hollers in East Kentucky, there’s abandoned, rusty equipment all over the place,” said Bowling, a native of Pikeville, Kentucky. “Up the creek, there’s a sludge pond just sitting there. There’s waste all over the place.”

She’d like the federal government to stimulate jobs restoring mine lands, not making more of them.

She says that the signs of a contracting coal industry and the need for jobs to replace work in the coalfields are everywhere you look.

Bowling is part of a regional effort to accomplish just that. She’s a member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a grassroots organizing group involved with a regional campaign with hopes for economic development and diversification in the region’s coal-dependent communities.

Dubbed the RECLAIM Act, the package of policies seeks to direct mine reclamation resources toward new investments in jobs and opportunities…

Read the full story at www.dailyyonder.com

For West Virginia, a Friend We May Lose Just When We Need Her Most

03.21.17

Photo by Nicolas Raymond/FlickrCC

President Trump’s proposed federal budget for 2018, released last week, reduces funding for a number of agencies that have been critical in helping West Virginia and Appalachia in recent years.

One of the agencies at risk is the Corporation for National & Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps and VISTA programs, two programs that are extremely active in West Virginia and whose value is felt keenly in many communities around the state.

The Appalachian Regional Commission is also on the chopping block. Since its creation more than 50 years ago, the ARC has worked hand-in-hand with state governors and Congress to address large-scale, persistent poverty in the 13 Appalachian states (ranging from New York to Alabama and everything in between).

ARC has helped cut the number of high poverty counties in this region from 295 in 1960 to 84 in 2017.

We know that poverty hasn’t been eliminated in Appalachia. We work in communities that continue to address this continuing challenge every day.

But the ARC has helped cut the number of high poverty (or “distressed”) counties in this region from 295 in 1960 to 84 in 2017.

In West Virginia in the past 15 months, the ARC has provided funding for 55 projects, with more than $24.1 million invested in our state, generating a matching amount of nearly $25 million, expected to create 2,750 new West Virginian jobs.

Among federal agencies, ARC alone is committed to supporting and reinvigorating this part of America that continues to fail to thrive while the rest of the country’s economy grows.

The President’s budget is only a proposal, and merely a starting point for negotiations about what federal spending will look like in the coming year.

It is curious that the President would choose to eliminate one of the key institutions helping a region that has shown him so much support.

It is also a clear indicator of the Administration’s priorities in terms of investment. For this reason alone, it is curious that the President would choose to eliminate one of the key institutions helping a region that has shown him so much support.

The likelihood is that he could use some education about the critical importance of the Appalachian Regional Commission to the part of the country that he specifically pledged to help, both in terms of jobs growth and infrastructure development.

You can help do that, by reminding our Congressional representatives (Congressmen McKinley, Mooney and Jenkins) of what a critically important agency this is to our region, and by asking them to ensure that the agency stays within the 2018 budget, with at least equal funding to what it received this year.

The best and easiest way to outreach to each of them is to call their state and DC offices.

Congressman David McKinley

Wheeling Office (304) 232-3801
DC Office (202) 225-4172

Congressman Alex Mooney

Charleston Office (304) 925-5964
DC Office (202) 225-2711

Congressman Evan Jenkins

Huntington Office (304) 522-2201
DC Office (202) 225-3452

The outreach will take less than five minutes and is one way we can each continue to help moving forward the economic transition opportunities for West Virginia and the Appalachian region.

The ARC provides large-scale investments to the region for projects to build out infrastructure and seed innovative economic development. The purpose of the agency is, in part, to help provide the support to power the Appalachian region to come in line with the rest of the country.

Losing the ARC would mean losing millions of dollars of infrastructure and economic development funding.

In the past 15 months, this has taken the form of a major initiative to invest in innovative economic and community development projects that directly develop jobs and transition coal-related industries to new economic sectors to grow and diversify Appalachian communities.

The unique role of the ARC in West Virginia is that it is a partner with economic developers and community leaders on the ground, working directly with them to help identify and develop partnerships and projects that move forward innovation and economic development in a region that is in a multi-year shift.

Losing the ARC would mean losing millions of dollars of infrastructure and economic development funding.

The ARC has survived previous presidential budget proposals to eliminate it, including multiple proposals from President Nixon. It survives and continues to grow each year by showing its value and return on investment for our region, and by having strong champions in Congress who fight for its funding each year.

Please take a moment to remind Congressmen McKinley, Mooney and Jenkins that the ARC is a critical friend and partner to West Virginia, at a time when West Virginia needs it most.

Free Webinar Explores What Tools Are Out There To Help Your Town Rebound

03.16.17

Photo by Antti/FlickrCC

Time for the last free community development webinar from the The Hub’s Innovation Acceleration Strategy program, in collaboration with the International Economic Development Council.

For this final webinar, we bring you:

Maximizing the use of Federal and State Tools for Economic Development
Thursday, March 23
10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m

Take advantage of assistance readily available to you, while also learning how to influence and shape projects in your region.

You’ll hear how to partner with regional, state and federal authorities to accomplish your goals. This webinar will show you how to use available technical assistance that can help you advance your objectives.

Speakers include:

Christine Butterfield – Senior Management Advisor
David Myers, CEcD – Executive Director of the Ponca City Development Authority

Alderson Explores Feasibility of Vintage-Themed Downtown

03.13.17

Photo by OZinOH/FlickrCC

The people of Alderson have a lot of pride and belief in their community, which has been a terrific starting point for our Innovation Acceleration Strategy (IAS) work there.

But those leading the IAS effort in Alderson also understand they have work to do to fill up the businesses on their main street. Both of the IAS mini-grants we awarded them hope to bring new life into downtown.

Small Business

When we started conducting IAS meetings in Alderson, we began hearing about Jim Russel’s idea to create a vintage-themed downtown.

Jim envisions a town with vintage murals on buildings, period lighting along the street and a restaurant housed in a train car.

Jim envisions a town with vintage murals on buildings, period lighting along the street and a restaurant housed in a train car. His team has challenged him on the feasibility of this, which leads us to their mini-grant.

We have awarded Alderson $2,000 to conduct a market feasibility study. They believe they can use this study to sell the idea of opening a new business downtown to potential entrepreneurs. The team hopes this can be the first step to attracting more people to live and play in Alderson.

Community Beautification

Fawn Valentine understands the importance of aesthetics. She has a B.A. in Art, works on the planning commission for Alderson and is the leader of the IAS Community Beautification team.

This may seem a little off-base for an economic diversification program. But creating a more attractive downtown is almost always an important piece of the broader economic development process.

Valentine’s team has been awarded $525 to paint the former Ashland station. This station is the first thing anyone sees when they enter Alderson.

As a part of this plan, they are going to paint a mural on one of the windows, featuring the river. They hope this will create a visual emphasis on the flora and fauna of Greenbrier River that flows through their town.

Learn more about what our other IAS communities are doing to diversify their local economies
at The Hub blog.