Jump-starting the economic development potential of Kentucky counties – that’s the endgame for a voluntary government program called Work Ready Communities.
Not to be confused with the more controversial “right-to-work” initiatives popping up in counties across the state, Work Ready indicates a community has met six benchmarks in areas ranging from high school graduation rates to digital literacy.
At a Work Ready Summit in Versailles Wednesday, Lori Ulrich, Director of Economic Development for Fleming-Mason Energy, said her recently-approved county benefited from the often rigorous certification process.
"One of the things that we found in going through the process [is that] so many of the stakeholders in our community, whether it be schools, business, industry, and private individuals, we really didn't have a good grasp on what everyone else was doing in the community," she says.
And Work Ready initiative executive director Robert Curry says other are making that same discovery as the program continues to grow.
"We're real close to having half of our 120 counties in Kentucky certified as either Work Ready or Work Ready in Progress," he says.
Absent from that is Fayette County, which is listed as being in the “Formative Stage.”
