Six projects aimed to boost the North Olympic Peninsula’s economy are underway, thanks to $35.6 million obtained from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

Mike French, Clallam County commissioner and chair of the North Olympic Peninsula Recompete Coalition (NOPRC), gave the Port Angeles city council a high-level overview of these projects at their last meeting on Sept. 17.

The $35.6 million, administered through the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA’s) Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program (Recompete), is focused on developing jobs and strengthening economically distressed areas.

The NOPRC submitted eight projects for Recompete funding; six were selected for funding, French said.

The projects are all focused around one data point: the prime age employment gap.

That data point, developed by the EDA, identifies the percentage of people between 25-54 years old who are not in the labor force. Areas of Clallam and Jefferson counties lag behind the national average by anywhere from 10 to 15 percentage points, French said.

The NOPRC plans to address the employment gap by connecting individuals, employers, governments and resources through investments in supportive services/barrier removal, workforce development and job creation.

The supportive services/barrier removal projects is the Olympic Peninsula Resource hub, led by the Olympic Community of Health (OCH).

“As people were transitioning into work, we knew that there were barriers that would prevent them from succeeding or prevent them from even putting their hand in the air in the first place,” French said.

To combat that, OCH will use a community care hub model to do closed-loop referrals and provide case management-style service for each recompete participant.

“If someone puts their hand in the air and says I’m willing to take a chance, I want to have a career rather than a job, they can connect to them to all the services we might have, all the job opportunities, all the workforce opportunities,” French said.

A large part of the $9.8 million dedicated to this project will be spent on vouchers for childcare, transportation and other basic needs that can reduce barriers that prevent people from entering the workforce, French said.

The workforce development project is being led by Peninsula College (PC) and will dedicate $6.9 million for maritime, natural resources and manufacturing workforce growth.

The project will utilize old programs and establish new, employer-driven programs that have short pathways to success.

As an example, French highlighted PC’s natural resource program that helps people gain nine-month certificates, develop skills and get on-the-job training to transition them into employer-identified jobs that might otherwise require a college degree.

That project also will supply mobile workforce training, including virtual reality headsets for things like forklift training, a mobile welding program and more.

The third project, the Peninsula barging network, is focused on job creation and will be led by the Port of Port Angeles.

It will dedicate $6 million to allow the port to purchase three barges, which will establish a mobile port facility and help reduce the Peninsula’s geographic isolation.

“We’re right along the marine highway system, M-5,” French said. “[This] is somehow wildly underutilized.”

The fourth project, also focused on job creation, will dedicate $1.2 million for the Composite Recycling Technology Center (CRTC) to acquire a thermal modification unit.

That will double the CRTC’s capacity to create carbon fiber panels, French said.

The fifth aspect, for tribal and underserved communities, will be led by the North Olympic Development Council (NODC). It will serve five federally recognized tribes, Forks and the North Hood Canal Chamber.

“The data showed us that a lot of our really rural communities and especially our tribes were hit harder, that they had lower levels of the labor force participation rate,” French said.

Because of that, $8.5 million in funding will go directly to those communities to aid them in economic development.

Forks will use its underserved community funding to hire a full-time employee for economic development, French said. The other groups are working on creating a scope of work for the funding that will fit within the recompete boundaries.

The final project dedicates $3.2 million to NOPRC governance.

That chunk of money will fund the recompete planning coordinator and a staffing team for data analysis and monitoring, grant compliance and more.

Most of the grant spending will begin in 2025 and will go for the next five years, French said.