Eight teams make final round of innovation challenge

Two West Virginia counties are among the eight winners of the final round of NACo’s Innovation Chal­lenge for Coal Reliant Communities. They will join teams from Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Virginia for a three-day training workshop in Charleston, W.Va. in mid-November.

NACo and the NADO Research Foundation (National Association of Development Organizations), with support from the U.S. Econom­ic Development Administration, sponsor the Innovation Challenge for Coal-Reliant Communities program, which assists county and regional leaders with retooling local economies to be more resilient to changing conditions.

The winning teams are led by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, representing Monroe County and Wayne County; West Michigan Shoreline Regional Devel­opment Commission, representing Muskegon County; Northwest New Mexico Council of Governments, representing Cibola, McKinley and San Juan counties; Armstrong County, Pa.; New River Valley Regional Commission, representing Giles County, Va.; New River Gorge Regional Development Author­ity, representing Fayette, Nicholas, Raleigh and Summers counties, W.Va.; Kanawha County, W.Va.; and Mason County, W.Va.

At the training workshop, the eight interdisciplinary teams will receive tailored technical assis­tance before and after the event to help them implement a variety of strategies and projects related to eco­nomic diversification, asset-based development, cluster development, workforce training, broadband, recreation and tourism, and entre­preneurship.

This is the third group of teams to be selected for this program. Previous rounds included a group of seven teams that attended a training workshop in Pikeville, Ky. in April and a group of eight teams that participated in a similar event in Grand Junction, Colo. in September.

More information and materials related to those rounds are available at http://www.naco.org/innovation­challenge. Additional resources for counties and regions seeking sup­port with economic diversification, job creation, workforce training and related topics can be found at http://diversifyeconomies.org/.