Eastern Kentucky getting $1 million grant as part of SOAR program
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The Independent
Ashland, Kentucky
July 8, 2014
Eastern Kentucky getting $1 million grant
By ADAM BEAM
Associated Press
FRANKFORT — A national community service organization is investing $1 million in eastern Kentucky to help the region recover from the downturn in the coal industry...
...It is one of the first initiatives of the Shaping Our Appalachian Region - or SOAR - a program established by Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers to help eastern Kentucky. Beshear and Rogers also announced Monday $312,000 in technical assistance from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
Eastern Kentucky has lost more than 7,000 coal mining jobs since Jan. 1, 2012. The 54-county region has an average household income of less than $30,000 and an average unemployment rate of nearly 11 percent, according to a report from the Rural Policy Research Institute.
The $1 million grant will pay 52 full-time workers a "living stipend" of $12,000. After one year, they will be eligible for a college scholarship of $5,600. The workers will be based in 11 counties, but they will provide services for all of the 54 counties identified as eastern Kentucky by SOAR....
MORE at http://www.dailyindependent.com/local/x1760123998/Eastern-Kentucky-getting-1-million-grant
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