Published: March 21, 2022 |

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Pennsylvania organizations, including many in the Pittsburgh region, will receive nearly $4 million in federal grants through the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to build up communities that have been impacted through the decline of the coal industry.

The six programs being funded are part of a $21 million package ARC, through its POWER Initiative, is giving to diversify the region’s economy across the Appalachian states. They were announced Thursday morning at a news conference in Youngstown, Ohio.

The largest grant in Pennsylvania is $1.12 million going to the Tri-County Workforce Investment Board Inc. in Butler County for a Steamfitters Local 449 advanced employment and training program. That grant will provide customized training at Steamfitters Local 449’s Training Center to help workers in 16 coal-impacted counties.

The other grants are:

Somerset County Foundation for Higher Education, $845,043 for the Opioid Education for Allied Health Professionals. It will provide continuing medical education to hundreds of nurses, nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants in the region who will learn about alternative methods of pain relief and intervention strategies for opioid misuse, among other things.

Westmoreland Community College, $669,625 for Tristate Pathways 2.0: Connecting to the Right Skills and to Jobs (Team Pathways 2.0). The funding will go to training for minority and former coal industry workers primarily into energy and advanced manufacturing jobs. The program, which has been funded by ARC in the past, will now expand to include 45 counties and 10 community colleges in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.

Alleghenies Marketplace, $509,948 to the Southern Alleghenies Planning & Development Commission in Altoona. It will build an online store for goods for Startup Alleghenies entrepreneurs in six counties in the coal region: Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon, and Somerset.

Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Program, $500,000 to the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. The organization, along with Bridgeway Capital of Pittsburgh, will be working with entrepreneurs in the creative arts in coal communities.

Applied Data-Driven Methods (ADDM) Certificate at University of Pittsburgh School of Computing & Information, $490,487 to the University of Pittsburgh that will provide tuition for low-income students from Fayette and Westmoreland counties for an applied data-driven methods certificate that will also have internships at several local employers including PPG Industries, Federated Hermes, the Naval Nuclear Laboratory and ARGO AI.

Gayle Manchin, federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, said ARC’s goal is to achieve economic parity between the Appalachian region and the rest of the country. She said that the grants bolster infrastructure, re-employment, and creating jobs in the coal communities.

U.S. Economic Development Administration Assistant Secretary Alejandra Castillo said during the awards announcement that the funding is not just for the short term but for where Appalachian should be 50 to 100 years from now.

“These are truly dollars to do transformational investment, to think big, to dream big,” Castillo said.

“Supporting the coal-impacted communities in Pennsylvania is vitally important; the success of the Appalachian Region impacts the entire commonwealth,” said Gov. Tom Wolf.

“The six projects receiving funding from ARC will generate new economic opportunities to help improve the quality of life for the region’s residents and further strengthen Pennsylvania’s reputation as the best place to live, work, and play,” added Wolf.

Source: Pittsburgh Business Times

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