ELKINS — The Randolph County Housing Authority has announced the start of two new programs — one to find housing for homeless individuals and the other to further job training opportunities.

The HOME4GOOD program is a rapid rehousing program designed to find stable living situations for displaced individuals in Randolph County.

“Rapid rehousing is a term that is commonly used when referring to helping those who are experiencing homelessness rapidly get into a house to stabilize,” said grants manager Jennifer Griggs. “Then they can go to work and receive the social services they need because we understand that for those that are experiencing homelessness, it’s very difficult to make changes in their lives if they’re living on the street.”

“The rapid rehousing program is based on the housing-first model that everybody should have a home,” said Griggs.

The program will help individuals who are living on the street or in overcrowded living situations find funding for homes, find employment and apply for social security benefits.

“It really is a program to help them become independent,” said Griggs. “We have a case manager, Mikayah (Irwin), and she works one on one with those clients to meet their needs… If they need a referral to social services or a referral to get on permanent disability or a referral to get clothing, we refer them out to local organizations.”

The funding for this program was awarded to RCHA by the West Virginia Housing Trust in late March and three families have already been moved into safe and secure homes.

“Mikayah has been taking and screening calls and we are having people still go through the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness to enter into the Homeless Management Information System for tracking as required,” said Griggs.

For those in need of assistance, Irwin can be reached via email at mirwin@rchawv.org.

RandolphWORC is another big project that RCHA is tackling in 2020 that will offer job training opportunities to those looking to enter the workforce.

RandolphWORC, standing for Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities, is funded in part by a federal Department of Labor grant through September 2022.

“We were one of the lucky 12 (organizations) in the Appalachian region to receive this grant,” Griggs said. “We’re focused specifically on wood manufacturing, construction and healthcare with them all being entry level jobs.”

The Get Ready Woodworking Class is the first to begin on June 1 and it is a “two-week, intense woodworking class through West Virginia Wood Technology Center that would prepare someone to have an idea of what it’s like to work in a wood manufacturing facility,” Griggs said.

In addition to the woodworking courses, RCHA is going to offer a seven-to-nine month program for construction, as well as courses for allied healthcare through Pierpont Community and Technical College.

“People here can locally take those classes, do their in-service or training at one of the local facilities and then go to work for (places) like Davis Medical Center or ERCC,” said Griggs. “We have a real shortage of entry-level healthcare professionals.”

“This is an opportunity to learn some skills, get some training and work with a job coach on interview skills or any social services needs that they have,” she said. “We are excited to jumpstart these programs at RCHA and we want to make sure our community knows about these programs.”

Applications for the RandolphWORC program as well as more information can be found on Facebook, or on the website at www.randolphworc.com.