This article was produced by Resource Rural.
Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for West Virginia News Service reporting for the Resource Rural-Public News Service Collaboration

When asked, Lindsey Crittendon describes Huntington, West Virginia as “home.” She uses that word to orient her from a geographical perspective, but also to convey the general feeling of the small city that sits on the Ohio River, at a point where West Virginia connects with neighboring Kentucky and Ohio. 

“Everybody knows everybody,” she said of her hometown. “It’s a very tight-knit community…I think it’s the most beautiful place on Earth.”

Huntington’s position among the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains certainly offers a scenic backdrop for a city supported by a diverse economy, including the country’s second-busiest inland port, a strong manufacturing sector, as well as robust healthcare, education, and transportation industries. Even with all of its strengths, Huntington — and West Virginia as a whole — is often misunderstood by those who don’t live there, according to Crittendon. She said their capabilities are often underestimated or pegged to certain blue-collar industries.

“When I was growing up, whenever I would talk to someone that wasn’t from here, I would get questions like, ‘Do you all wear shoes?’” Crittendon said. “I think maybe there are a lot of misconceptions about West Virginia and its people.”

But those who live here know the real story of hardworking communities looking to build a life in the state they love. To provide hometown opportunities for a local population that sometimes has to look beyond state lines for employment, NewForce, a fully remote and tuition-free coding school, is investing in training a budding West Virginia tech workforce. The six-month program is part of Generation WV and utilizes funding from the Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities initiative and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a federal stimulus package approved by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Crittendon, a former social worker, is a graduate of the program. She landed a job right out of the academy and has since progressed to become a lead software engineer with a different company, Booz Allen Hamilton, a management consulting services company based in McLean, Virginia with an office right in Huntington.

“The NewForce program has drawn a lot of attention to the talent that’s in the area and has actually brought jobs here,” Crittendon said, using her experience as an example. “I can really see West Virginia becoming a second Silicon Valley. We have a lot of underappreciated, undervalued talent that I really think translates really well to tech.”

It is the hardworking spirit of those living in West Virginia that Crittendon believes acts as a valuable foundation for tech-based careers. From coal miners to farmers to steel workers, Crittendon said West Virginians have a unique discipline and an enviable drive to do a job and do it right.



“If I could describe West Virginians in one word, it would be ‘tenacity.’ So, absolutely, when I think of West Virginia, I think of hard workers,” she said.

Part of the novelty of the NewForce program is the mock-work environment it establishes for its students. To best prepare the students for the current tech workforce, the program has students build applications for a pretend company. At times, they work in teams, and despite being remote, they move through the program as a cohort — engaging in a virtual classroom for seven hours every weekday over the six-month program. 

Once they graduate, they’re qualified to work as web developers or junior, full-stack software developers, and they receive assistance with job placement, which is how Crittendon discovered her first opportunity in the field. 

For Crittendon, the transition from social worker to software engineer has similarities despite sounding like a drastic departure. With social work, she loved solving people’s problems and helping them navigate solutions. As a software engineer, she feels like she’s doing the same thing in a new way that allows her to give back and continue to live in the community she loves.

“It gives me a strong sense of pride,” Crittendon said of being able to donate her newfound skills to an organization within her community that supports underprivileged children. “If I can use my skills that I have developed to benefit my community directly from my home, rather than fleeing from it, I have a lot of pride in that.”


This article was produced by Resource Rural.


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The American Postal Workers Union is pushing back against proposed changes to the Postal Service they said would slow delivery.

Among other things, the proposal aims to cancel afternoon deliveries and pick-ups for areas more than 50 miles from a regional hub. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said elimination of night pickups could save the post office more than $3 billion a year.

Daniel Cortez, director of industrial relations for the Oregon Postal Workers union, said reducing services does not make sense financially.

"To think that eliminating services, reducing standards, basically providing the American people with less reliable service is somehow going to make money, it's nonsense," Cortez contended.

The charges are the most recent in a series included in Dejoy's 10-year "Delivering for America" plan. The union said DeJoy, who was appointed under President Donald Trump, has already raised prices for stamps while closing post offices across the country, especially in rural communities.

Cortez noted although rural communities would be hit hardest by this latest proposal, urban centers will also be affected. He explained the Postal Service has been shutting down processing centers in the state, making Portland the sole distribution site for all of Oregon, which means more mail delays for everyone, including Portlanders.

"If the clerks and the employees in the main plant are processing mail for the rest of the region, that means they're not at that same time processing Portland's mail," Cortez emphasized.

The changes come as first class mail volume has fallen 30% in a decade, with fierce next-day delivery competition. Although the Postal Service said under the new proposal most first class mail will not be affected, Cortez argued management is already failing to meet its lowered delivery standards from 2021. He added mail never used to sit around.

"First class mail was always moving until it got to where it needed to go," Cortez recounted. "That's just what everybody understood about the service that we're required to provide to the American people."

North Dakota has 30 available workers for every 100 open jobs. To help confront workforce shortages, the state is now accepting grant applications to kick-start solutions at the local level.

The Department of Commerce's Regional Workforce Impact Program invites towns, cities and their business development groups to seek out the grants.

Arik Spencer, president and CEO of the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce, said providing seed money to foster innovation in worker recruitment might boost rural areas at a competitive disadvantage.

"Whether it is starting manufacturing ventures or doing other creative things," Spencer outlined. "To the extent that this can help those, maybe, small communities or underserved communities get people to move there and bolster their workforce, we think that's a positive outcome."

Spencer pointed out the innovation might look like closing affordable housing gaps, which he said is a common roadblock around the state. He and other stakeholders monitoring the labor landscape still hope for broader support when the Legislature reconvenes early next year. North Dakota's labor shortage woes appear to be more pressing than its neighboring states.

Spencer noted no matter the size of the community, applicants appear to be in the driver's seat in coming up with fixes that work for their populations.

"While living in Fargo may be attractive to some people, maybe living in Watford City's attractive to others," Spencer acknowledged. "This grant program allows those regional communities to figure out their own solutions and tackle those with the support of the state."

The application period began this week and runs through Jan. 21. There are grant caps for certain categories. For example, a local coalition focused on recruiting talent can receive a grant of up to $250,000. The cap is higher for infrastructure needs related to worker recruitment, such as child care centers.


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Groups from across Michigan are sounding the alarm on the effect Republican-backed policies would have on people in rural parts of the state.

In a recent webinar by the group Progress Michigan, leaders say policies laid out in Project 2025 are in stark opposition to the needs facing rural Michiganders. Representatives from Indigenous tribes, public school teachers and family farmers gave their views on the potential changes if the GOP regains power.

Dakota Shananaquet, member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa, said she fears for her people's basic rights.

"The Project 2025 Agenda is a right-wing power grab that would harm Indigenous communities, our sovereignty and the ability for us to exercise our vote," Shananaquet asserted. "It would make outcomes worse by defunding health care and education programs."

Project 2025 is a 900-page document outlining plans for a conservative takeover of the federal government. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has disavowed any part in developing the document. However, dozens of former Trump administration officials contributed to the proposals.

Bob Thompson, president of the Michigan Farmers Union, which represents hundreds of small and medium-family farms, said the GOP plans to eliminate programs helping independent farmers implement conservation and clean energy goals, and most of the federal farm program's current financial safety net features.

"Family farmers operate on narrow margins and need the protection of many of the very programs that Project 2025 seeks to eliminate," Thompson explained. "Most elements stand against what rural folks want for our families and our future here in Michigan."

Gary Wellnitz, Northern Michigan field representative for the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan, said Project 2025 would have negative and destructive effects on public schools across the state.

"It's going to make the safety in our public schools far worse," Wellnitz contended. "We're going to see small schools closing down, We're going to see teachers losing jobs by the thousands if this were to take hold."


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