Editor’s Notes: A new life outside of mines
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Taken out of context or not, when a politician makes a comment along the lines of putting a lot of coal miners out of work, it touches a nerve in West Virginia. The reality of our evolving economy here in the Mountain State has meant it is up to all of us to figure out what comes next for those -- perhaps some of whom come from a long line of miners and believed they would finish out their careers in the same way -- who find themselves jobless.
A report by CBS News caught my eye, when I saw a headline about restoring hope. Jacob Israel Hannah is CEO of Coalfield Development, a nonprofit that teaches job skills -- such as construction, agriculture or solar installation -- and personal skills -- such as how to conduct oneself in a job interview -- to those who are no longer employed by the coal industry.
According to CBS, participants get paid for up to three years to learn all the skills Coalfield Development can teach.
What a wonderful hand up to proud workers who know all they need are the training and resources to move into a brighter future.
Before you give Hannah all the credit for the program, which was started in 2010, it is important to understand Coalfield Development receives approximately $20 million in federal grants. That kind of money is making a difference.
"That was a big part of my identity, was being a coal miner," said James Damron, who was laid off from his mining job two years ago. "And leaving that, like, I kind of had to find myself again, I guess…I absolutely have."
Damron told CBS that once he'd had a chance to examine his options, he knew he "didn't want to go back in the deep mines."
Meanwhile, others find it hard to leave behind the mines, but because of Coalfield Development, they are going to work for a different purpose.
"Now I've kind of got a career out of this," Steven Spry told CBS. "I can weld. I can farm. I can run excavators."
Because of what he learned in the program, Spry now works to reclaim an abandoned strip mine.
"We want to make sure that you have all the tools in your toolkit ..." Hannah told CBS.
West Virginians tend to be intelligent, hard workers who can get done just about any job, if they are given those necessary tools.
They are proud of their heritage and traditions, too.
Perhaps that makes it all the more fitting that, just as their ancestors did for generations, they are now doing what they must to better themselves and the prospects for their families -- this time after they have walked away from the mines, rather than walking into them.
"Hope is only as good as what it means to put food on the table," Hannah said.
That's what programs such as Coalfield Development give those who love their state, love their families and want to keep working hard to put food on the table HERE.
It's an exciting idea, but one that shouldn't be much of a surprise. We've always known Mountain State workers are capable, and not defined by what got us here. How wonderful to imagine -- because some of them have found a new reason to hope -- where they will take us.
Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com