Morehead State University and Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR)Education and Retraining Working Group will host a public listening session Thursday, July 24, in the Crager Room of the Adron Doran University Center.
The event will be held from 6-7:30 p.m.
Dr. John Ernst, executive assistant to the president, will facilitate the session.
Jeff Whitehead, executive director of the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP) serves as chair of the working group. Whitehead, along with 16 working group members, is working to develop three to five plans of action that will be presented to the SOAR executive committee this fall.
The sessions will give the public a chance to deliver input on these plans of action and ensure the suggestions are supported across the region
The Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) Education and Retraining Working Group has launched an online public survey to rank education and retraining action ideas aimed at improving the region’s ability to support and attract new and existing industry, create and foster innovation, and support an entrepreneurial movement throughout the region. (Note: Survey instructions should be closely followed so that individual responses will be accurately recorded.)
If you can’t attend, participate in the survey: www.surveymonkey.com/s/soaronlinesurvey.
The SOAR initiative was launched by Gov. Steve Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers in late 2013, after a stunning downturn in the coal market exacerbated historic challenges in Eastern Kentucky related to unemployment and poverty.
More than 1,700 Kentuckians attended a one-day SOAR summit in December. SOAR is intended to help the region develop and put into action new locally-oriented strategies to attack those persistent challenges.
Additional information is available by calling Dr. Ernst at 606-783-2022.
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