The White House announced awards for 29 economic and workforce development projects totaling $38.8 million for workers in the Appalachian Region hit hard by the reduction of coal mining.

The Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative is a coordinated Administration effort, involving ten federal agencies, with the goal of effectively aligning, leveraging and targeting a range of federal economic and workforce development programs and resources to assist communities and workers 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 sector.

The POWER Initiative is the primary economic and workforce component of President Obama’s broader POWER+ Plan, part of his FY 2017 budget request to Congress. The POWER+ Plan proposes more than $9 billion of investment to support economic diversification in coal communities; employment and training services for workers displaced from the coal economy.

POWER Implementation Awards of note:

$2,022,133 ARC grant to the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) in Berea, KY for the Economic Transition for Eastern Kentucky (ETEK) Initiative. The ARC award will expand fast-track retraining and entrepreneurial technical assistance services targeted to dislocated coal workers; establish an intern program aimed at placing former coal workers in the energy efficiency sector.