The Appalachian Regional Commission awarded $68.2 million for 65 projects to aid economic revitalization in the U.S., including $18.5 million for programs in Pennsylvania to advance training for workers in robotics, advanced manufacturing and nursing.
The grants are through ARC’s Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization initiative, which is designed to improve job training and attract investment in Appalachian towns hurt by the downturn in the coal industry, including 52 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
This year’s POWER awards were the biggest for ARC since the program began in 2015, according to the Washington-based federal-state partnership that serves parts or all of 13 eastern states.
Gayle Manchin, ARC Federal Co-Chair and wife of Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, said rural Appalachia’s natural resources continue to power urban centers, even though coal mining collapsed in many small towns long ago, leaving them hollowed out and distressed. The Appalachian region continues to need financial support to reach competitive parity with the rest of the U.S., she said.
“We’re talking about communities that turned on the lights in the country and continue to keep the lights on,” she said at a Wednesday news conference at Mill 19 in Hazelwood, a sleek structural iron and glass reconstruction of a former coke-making complex.
“We are starting to see momentum. We’re starting to feel hope. We have to keep pushing.”
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Lawrenceville, former Allegheny County Executive and current Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission executive director, Rich Fitzgerald, and Petra Mitchell, president and CEO of Catalyst Connection, were among the other speakers.
Mill 19-based private nonprofit Catalyst Connection received a $2 million grant from ARC to build a pipeline of qualified workers for advanced manufacturing opportunities in 12 counties in southwest Pennsylvania. Some 60 businesses and 400 workers are expected to benefit from the project.
The Jewish Healthcare Foundation, a Downtown-based nonprofit, received $1.9 million for a training program that is designed to expand the long-term care workforce in an industry that has been struggling since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic to find enough nurse aides and other workers. A total of 478 workers or trainees will benefit from the program.
Independence Health System’s Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg will get $769,193 to expand nurse training programs in partnership with vocational and technical schools in Westmoreland and seven other counties. A total of 435 nursing students are expected to benefit from the program.
Pittsburgh Robotics Network, a Lawrenceville nonprofit economic development organization, will receive $750,000 to create a Robotics Leadership Academy, which will provide Allegheny and nine surrounding counties with workforce improvements that will expand job opportunities. Businesses, workers and students are expected to benefit from the project.
Other projects that received funding include:
- Saint Vincent College, $662,672 to fund medical equipment and other supplies needed in the college’s new bachelor’s degree nursing program.
- Indiana University of Pennsylvania, $452,326 to create opportunities for entrepreneurship in Erie and Crawford counties.
- Greene County Commissioners, $50,000 to develop an economic development strategy focused on attracting new businesses and workforce development in the county’s 26 municipalities.
- Downtown-based Center for Employment Opportunities, $50,000 to expand job readiness and skills training and opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals in Allegheny County.
- University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development, $49,751 to assess workforce training needs and improve literacy in Fayette County.
First Published: October 16, 2024, 1:00 p.m.
Updated: October 17, 2024, 6:53 p.m.
