Workforce development efforts in West Alabama will receive a nearly $1.5 million boost through a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

The $1,459,335 grant will go to West Alabama Works, a partnership between the state’s Region 3 Workforce Development Council and the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama.

“The Appalachian Regional Commission’s decision to continue investing in West Alabama Works is a testament to the program’s ability to promote workforce development,” U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, said in a Feb. 21 news release. “It is critical that we support efforts to foster an environment that will produce a competitive workforce and lead to a stronger economy. I look forward to seeing the lasting effects of this grant funding and the future growth that will stem from it.”

The grant will benefit more than 1,600 workers and connect 1,020 people with employment in West Alabama, according to the news release. The money will also provide at least 859 people with training to earn industry-recognized credentials. The training programs provided through the grant will help people earn their GED or high school diploma and help some seek short-term or long-term postsecondary education.

West Alabama Works will use the grant to serve people in 10 counties who have been negatively affected — directly or indirectly — by the decline of coal production. Those counties are Bibb, Fayette, Hale, Jefferson, Lamar, Marion, Pickens, Shelby, Tuscaloosa and Walker.

The grant was announced Feb. 21 by the Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal/state alliance that works to enhance economic opportunities for residents a 205,000-square-mile region that follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from southern New York to northern Mississippi. The money will be awarded through the commission's Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization initiative.

In addition to the commission's grant, state sources will provide $1,537,633, bringing the total expenditure on workforce development in West Alabama to $2,996,968.

Tim Thomas, the commission's federal co-chair, said the grant is part of a continuing commitment to bring innovative economic development to Alabama’s coal-impacted communities.

“Investing in key regional needs now will benefit the region, and the rest of the country well into the future,” Thomas said.