A nonprofit in eastern Kentucky focused on economic development, hopes to attract remote workers to the region.

The Paul Angel Foundation, which is part of the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, awarded one Harlan County of $450,000 last month.

With obviously work from home and the internet, and the ability for a lot of these jobs to you can be anywhere, that has really opened up the possibility of bringing people back to Eastern Kentucky and also bringing more new people in one.

Harlan County is a independent nonprofit, 501 C three that is organized by business members, and it was started in 2016 to create a position that would be focused on economic development in Harlan, whether that be a build ready side, a business park, you know, broadband expansion, hosting, you know, industrial recruitment events, job fairs, things like that.

And then very recently, we received investment from the Paul Angel Foundation.

One of Miss Angel's biggest goals is to significantly reduce poverty in Harlan County by increasing the number of higher paying, full benefit jobs.

And really, one of the only ways to do that is through economic development, diversification, and job creation.

Population declines are real threat.

And so one way to combat that is obviously one keep the people here, keep the jobs that are here, here.

But then also recruit people to come in the creation of a remote, we call it a remote worker.

Tech hub is now newly named the Harlan County Business and Innovation Hub.

And that's what I'm sitting in right now.

It was a former bank that had been vacant for a number of years, right on Courthouse Square.

It has a number of private offices, a seminar room, a boardroom that I'm sitting in.

We hope to recruit people who are already doing remote work in Harlan, or new remote workers who would be moving into Harlan County, to have an office there and create a community of remote workers, whether they're in technology or insurance or whatever that might be.

And in order to do that, we are increasing an existing incentive.

There's a organization called Saw shaping our Appalachian region, and they already had a program called Make My Move that offered $5,000 to any remote worker who gets paid, you know, over $70,000 is kind of the benchmark to move to any county in eastern Kentucky.

And Harlan County had already recruited several people through that program.

And because of the investment from the Paul Angel Foundation, we are tripling that incentive to $15,000.

One Harlan County has used some of the money to hire two staff members and start a grant program for small business owners.