Coalfield Development Corporation

Incubating and investing in employment-based social enterprises: we wholly or partially own a family of employment-based social enterprises designed to diversify the regional economy to be less dependent on coal. By "employment-based" we mean enterprises that exist for the purpose of advancing the well-being of its emplyees, which we do primarily through our personal and academic Development programming. Our enterprises' successes are measured according to a triple bottom line: people, planet, profit. Revenue from our social enterprises enables our organization to create hundreds of jobs and to be less grant-dependent and more financially sustainable. Our communitites are severely economically distressed as a result of over-reliance on the coal industry. Therefore, creating new businesses is critical to realizing our vision; otherwise, our trainees and graduates would often have nowhere to put their new training and credentials to use.

Leading and collaborating on community-based revitalization projects: as a licensed general contractor, Coalfield Development can advance bold, creative projects in deep collaboration with the communitites we serve. Our projects are designed and ultimately owned by the community. We keep a project pipeline full and advance projects through this pipeline beginning with predevelopment and financing, entering into construction, and then into operation as comminity assets. Our projects are mixed-use, mixed income, meaning they blend residential and commercial purposes for a variety of different income demographics, thus also contributing to economic diversification and opportunity cultivation. Our construction crew is also a social enterprise, having 33-6-3 crew members as carpenters, rejuvenating empty buildings or former mine-lands can be a major strategy for breathing new life into our communities, preserving cultural treasurers, attracting fresh investment, providing opportunities for entrepreneurship and creating quality, affordable housing.

Faciitating professional, personal, and academic Development for people facing barriers to employment: Coalfield Development trains unemployed people in modern workforce skills. Throughout the year, we facilitate dozens of learning opportunitites for community members. Our network of employers ensures our training is relevant to their needs. This waym graduates of our training can quickly find gainful employment and our local businesses can have an effective workforce with which to grow. Our most in-depth opportunity is for the personal and academic Development of our crew members who staff our social enterprises. Crew members work our 33-6 -3 model where each week they complete 33 hours of paid work, 6 credit hours of higher education, and 3 hours of personal Development mentorship. We make up to a three-year employment commitmentto crew members as they earn an associate degree or trade certification and gain traction on life goals. Prior to becoming a crew member, people must complete a six-month course called workforce readiness and professional success (wraps). Wraps trainees are paid for 33 hours of work and three hours of professional Development each week. Instead of pursing higher education at this stage, trainees identify barries to long-term employment success an dcan spend up to four hours of their paid time each week working with our human Development staff to address these issues. After six months, wraps trainees arebetter prepared to enter the workforces as a 33-6-3 crew member or to be a successful employee outside of Coalfield Development.

Designing and scaling new programs in sustainable sectors: it is important to help people imagine what a sustainable, diversified economy can look like and how it can function. Through our program and sector Development team we are designing and scaling programs that can tangibly demonstrate what a better economy looks like. Currently, we are incubating programs in sustainable and regenerative agriculture, clean energy, deconstruction and re-use and mine land reclamation. We are also working with nonprofit partners to help build their capacity and expand their place-based workforce training programs. At the same time, we are developing a network of employers who are eager to hire our emerging workforce participants and change their own employment behaviors to be more supportive and engaged in rebuilding the appalachian economy from the ground up.