The West Virginia Development Office has awarded WVU s Institute for Public Affairs two $10,000 Flex E-Grants to support faculty and practitioners in training local government leaders statewide.
One will be used to promote and expand the WVU Local Government Leadership Academy while the other will support the Institute for Public Affairs/County Commissioners Education and Training Series.
The Flex-E-Grant program, co-sponsored by the U.S. Appalachian Regional Commission and funded by the Appalachian Regional Commissions Distressed Counties Program, provides non-profit and educational associations grants of up to $10,000 to provide economic development, community development and leadership training to community leaders residing in counties designated as economically distressed by the commission.
The WVU Local Government Leadership Academy began operations in 2001 and is administered by the Institute for Public Affairs, a research and service unit of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. The academy is co-sponsored by the West Virginia Association of Counties, the County Commissioners Association of West Virginia and the West Virginia Municipal League.
“We are very happy the West Virginia Development Office has provided these funds to assist us in developing workshops of particular interest to local government officials residing in economically distressed counties,”said Dr. Robert Dilger, institute director.
The Institute for Public Affairs/County CommissionersEducation and Training Series began operations in 1993. It is administered and co-sponsored by the Institute for Public Affairs and the County Commissioners Association of West Virginia. The training series provides West Virginias county commissioners an opportunity to attend workshops on all aspects of county governance, including financial management, economic development, human resources, professional ethics, conflict resolution and election law.
“The County Commissioners Education and Training Series provides county commissioners with the information necessary to better understand the many and diverse issues facing local government officials in West Virginia. It also assists them in devising appropriate strategies to address these issues, to improve county government performance and to meet the needs of West Virginias people,”Dilger said.