FULTON COUNTY — The Fulton County Center for Regional Growth (CRG) announced Wednesday that it has received two grants totaling $983,700 within the last 10 days.
The nonprofit was awarded $434,700 through the FAST NY Grant Program on Tuesday, in order to support infrastructure development at the Johnstown Commerce Park. Last week, the CRG was awarded $549,000 on Feb. 12 through the Mohawk Valley Empowers Program for its workforce development "Expertise Project."
“We would like to thank New York State for choosing CRG as a recipient for these grants,” CRG President and CEO Ronald Peters said in a press release. “Both grants will benefit the students, residents, and businesses of Fulton County by providing future employment opportunities and developing industrial space to bring in advanced manufacturing industry to the county.”
The pre-development project at the commerce park on Route 30A will use studies to determine infrastructure costs, including road construction, utility installation, site analysis, and environmental investigations. The CRG hopes its location near the existing Johnstown Industrial Park, five miles from the New York State Thruway, will position it to attract and foster growth in advanced manufacturing businesses.
The Expertise Project will use video and virtual platforms to strengthen connections between students and businesses, promoting workforce development, according to CRG.
Ken Adamczyk, economic development specialist at CRG and administrator of the workforce grant for the Expertise Project, described the program as a subscription-based employer discovery platform. It is designed to enhance middle and high school classrooms, as well as programming at BOCES, technical schools, and two- and four-year colleges.
Adamczyk said that the Expertise Project connects the professional world with education by providing videos and lesson plans featuring local employers. He added that the program helps students who are preparing to enter the workforce find suitable careers.
The platform aims to reduce the awareness gap between students and career opportunities by illustrating potential career paths. At Northville High School, students currently enroll in an elective class and, over the course of the semester, create 3D videos of businesses. The students then go to job sites to gain better knowledge about the industry.
“A lot of work was done on the front end with planning out the visits,” said Northville High School principal Samuel Ratti in a statement. “The students were being very purposeful in the planning, so when they went to the actual job sites, they went in with a lot of prior knowledge. They developed goal-oriented and industry specific questions that allowed them to learn about the companies while also discovering what it is that they liked and did not like.”
“It’s exciting to receive a NYS Grant to provide cutting edge technology to increase our workforce development skills between our local businesses and our students.” Peters said in a statement.
