GRANTSVILLE, W.Va. — A Calhoun County nonprofit is getting a major boost with $5.7 million in federal money going to help train healthcare professionals.
The nonprofit 1982 Foundation has launched the Onward Upward Healthcare Workforce Accelerator after receiving a multi-million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.
The 1982 Foundation, founded by the Calhoun County alumni class from that year, is working to develop a community hub on the former high school property in Grantsville.
1982 Foundation CEO Crystal Mersh said the funding will go towards the accelerator program’s launch.
“We’re thrilled,” Mersh said on MetroNews “Midday” Tuesday. “We know that this is going to make a big economic impact on North-Central West Virginia, provide a lot of excellent employees, and great opportunities for local citizens to get into the workforce and improve their careers and improve their earning potential. We’re tremendously excited about it.”
That property has been renamed Avalon during the historic renovation of the building, originally built in 1921. The process has taken around four-and-a-half years, Mersh said.
Mersh said the Onward Upward efforts joining the Avalon project will do wonders for rural communities. She said it will boost healthcare with a pipeline into the workforce.
“Avalon is an economic hub that will house multiple different types of businesses and services to serve the community and to bring economic growth into the region,” Mersh said. “Onward Upward will be a part of that, and it will be one of our main economic anchors at Avalon.”
Mersh said this grant application “fell out of the sky,” as it hadn’t been on the foundation’s radar until eight days before it was due. She said that she made phone calls to Calhoun County Commission President Eric Lupardus and Minnie Hamilton Health Services CEO Steve Whited. They were quickly on board, she said, and a collaborative effort for the grant application was submitted a few days before the deadline passed.
Mersh said the foundation’s focus shifted with this opportunity.
“We had never considered really any sort of workforce development, even though the mission of the 1982 Foundation is to serve children and help children by improving their economic circumstances,” Mersh said. “When we started thinking about that, a workforce accelerator made a lot of sense.”
Mersh said that Onward Upward will eventually reach a 14-county footprint. She noted that the grant process was extremely competitive; only 13 grants were awarded nationally for a total of $81 million.
She said that $2.4 million of the $5.7 million that the foundation received will go towards students who enroll in their programs.
“It allows people who are currently working and can’t afford to leave a minimum wage job, it provides a stipend for them to come and earn while they actually learn and can get a better paying job,” Mersh explained.
She said that it was a true team effort to secure the funding.
“We got together, rolled up our sleeves, and made it happen,” Mersh said. “I think that it was just absolutely meant to be. We had not considered this as any part of this particular project, although we probably should have because it’s a great way to have an impact on children’s lives.”
Read more about the nonprofit here.