A one-stop resource center in rural Sandy Hook (Elliott County, Kentucky) helps local women find the confidence to move from welfare to work. The center provides adult-education classes; assistance with housing, transportation, and child care; and classes in life skills that build self-awareness and self-esteem. Three women's success stories are…

Describes the YouthBuild program in Fayette County, West Virginia, a federally funded program administered locally by the Southern Appalachian Labor School. Participants are unemployed youths aged 16-24, mostly school dropouts, who alternate between 1 week of training in repairing and building houses and 1 week studying for a GED or preparing for…

Rural Marion County (Tennessee), the town of Kimball, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and a local community college founded a regional skills center. The center offers a 2-year associate of science degree and classes in GED preparation, parenting, drug abuse prevention, cosmetology, and air conditioning and refrigeration. It has expanded…

The Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center and the Mount Rogers Regional Adult Education Program (Virginia) cross-train and upgrade workers' skills to adapt to changing workplaces and keep companies and communities competitive; customize curriculum to meet employers' needs; and provide GED and other adult education programs. (SAS)

The Appalachian Regional Commission voted its commitment, including $1 million funding, to help states upgrade employment/basic skills to address current labor market needs, create new jobs in the region, and increase productivity. Also voted to support extension of the Vocational Education Act. Research priorities included modernizing vocational…