New initiative to bring jobs and businesses to southern West Virginia
View this WV Hive story on The Register-Herald
Several organizations in a 21-county region in West Virginia are looking to obtain millions in federal funding to implement a coordinated economic development strategy in southern West Virginia.
Headed by the recently formed Appalachian Climate Technologies (ACT) Now Coalition, the group boasts that it will create 3,000 direct full-time and 15,000 indirect jobs, create 150 new businesses, expand 250 existing businesses and leverage upward of $250 million in private sector investment in designated climate technology sectors.
One local partner on this project which has already made a name for itself with its entrepreneurial coaching and technical assistance programs is WV Hive, which is also associated with the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority.
Included as one of eight projects the ACT Now Coalition plans to tackle, WV Hive is pursuing $3 million in federal funding in order to provide a new service to the businesses and entrepreneurs it serves. Incorporated in the $3 million project is a required 20 percent match.
The new initiative will be focused on providing targeted services on green business practices; new business development opportunities in the climate, technology and energy sectors; and group-based technical assistance in targeted growth sectors for the region.
In partnership with a counterpart in the western part of the state called Advantage Valley, which provides mirrored services of WV Hive, the program is part of the ACT Now Coalition’s WV Community and Business Resilience Initiative, which has a total budget of $11 million.
According to information provided by WV Hive Executive Director Judy Moore, the WV Community and Business Resilience Initiative will support the creation of 100 new businesses, the expansion of 450 current businesses and the creation of 250 new jobs in the southern West Virginia coalfields.
With projections like that, Moore said it’s hard not to be excited about the program.
“This will add another layer of services that fits right in to the work that we already do,” Moore said.
WV Hive was created in 2017 and has served more than 300 businesses, been instrumental in the startup of 49 new businesses and helped to create 161.5 new jobs, according to statistics Moore gave in November during an economic summit.
Moore said this intitaive, coupled with the seven other major initiatives the ACT Now Coalition plans to tackle, will go a long way in filling the gap left in many southern West Virginia communities following the decline in coal.
“We know that there has to be other energy sources out there, not to replace coal, but to supplement where the coal used to be and is no longer there providing the number of jobs that it did, especially in southern West Virginia,” she said. “…There have been many families devastated because the jobs they had built their whole livelihood around just disappeared. This initiative will help bring back jobs that will be good-paying jobs, that are not reliant upon the coal industry.”
At the core of this initiative is a huge workforce component, which Moore said will help to bring in new businesses, which WV Hive and Advantage Valley can take under their wings and provide training for.
“There’s specific businesses that are coming online as part of this initiative, but then there’s a huge workforce component that will be training people to actually work in these new industries that they’re bringing online, like solar technology,” she said.
“And then we will be working with those individuals being trained to actually bring some of them online as business owners, that will then be developing the businesses to support these technologies. They’ll have to be technicians that will install and maintain and it’s just a ripple effect as to what comes about from that influx of money to get these businesses started up.”
The ACT Now Coalition is being led by the Coalfield Development Corporation, in conjunction with the state’s two largest cities Charleston and Huntington, its two leading academic institutions West Virginia University and Marshall University, the Nature Conservancy, the WV Brownfields Assistance Center, and key economic development organizations Advantage Valley, Generation West Virginia, the West Virginia Community Development Hub, Grow Ohio Valley, and a network of private sector businesses to diversify the regional economy with green technologies and a climate-resilient workforce.
Moore said none of the programs she’s describing would be possible without the numerous organizations that have agreed to be part of the coalition.
“What’s really huge about this is that it is bringing together a number of programs, to create stronger partnerships and work alongside of each other to actually reach the goals set with this redevelopment,” she said.
Moore said the funds being sought after are from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and chosen recipients will be notified later in the year.
Moore said she expects the competition for these funds to be fierce but is confident all the ACT Now Coalition initiatives will be funded because of all it expects it brings to the table.
“All of the partners that have been brought together, I mean, there’s not a weak link at all,” she said. “All of these partners that are coming together are highly recognized. The WV Hive, we are operating right now under U.S. EDA funds. Advantage Valley also has received U.S. EDA funds for their program and a lot of the other programs that are participating are already in excellent standing with the U.S. EDA. So it’s been orchestrated really, really well.”
Although the process to apply for this grant as part of the larger ACT Now Coalition has been time-consuming, Moore said she cannot overstate how transformative this project will be.
The other key initiatives included in the ACT Now Coalition plan include ReWire Appalachia, Mine the Sun Solar Initiatives, Abandoned Mine Lands to Sustainable Lands, Huntington Brownfields Innovation Zone, Kanawha-Charleston Sustainable Innovation Center, Climate Technology Training Academy and Climate Resilient Workforce Development.
Jack and Kathleen Taggart, owners of New River Farms Sawmill in Danese, made their home in West Virginia after Jack’s service in the United States Army to settle and start the business of their dreams.
Leaders of the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority (NRGRDA) and its entrepreneurial program – the West Virginia Hive – are seeking the community’s input by the end of the year on several aspects of a new Food Business Incubation Hub in Fayette County.
Leading local non-profit organizations — Forward Southern West Virginia and New River Gorge Regional Development Authority (NRGRDA) — are donating $10,000 each to help propel an education and training campaign, Project GRACE (Gathered Response to Address Child Exploitation), being coordinated by Just for Kids Child Advocacy Center serving Fayette and Raleigh counties.
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