Jackson County, KY. – Five years ago, People’s Rural Telephone Cooperative (PRTC) connected every home and business in their service area (Jackson County and Owsley County) with a state-of-the-art fiber network. It required laying 1,000 miles of fiber over mountains and across creeks with only six customers per mile. The extensive fiber network plays a large role in the life of Jackson and Owsley County’s residents.

The Daily Yonder highlighted the efforts of PRTC in an article they recently published. Author, Kim Kobersmith, discussed the impact that connectivity has on economic developement, education, health and wellness, and, population retention and growth in the PRTC service area.

In the article, she mentions Teleworks USA, a program established through Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP). Because of the fiber network PRTC has provided, there are Teleworks Hubs in both Jackson and Owsley Counties, training and placing residents at full-time, work-from-home jobs.

Since the creation of the Teleworks Hubs in Jackson and Owsley Counties, 950 clients have gained employment, earning a total of $20 million in new wages.

To read the full article, please click here.

PRTC is a Blueprint Partner of SOAR. EKCEP and Teleworks USA are Grassroots Partners of SOAR.

The Owsley County Action Team and Teleworks Hub was funded through a Kentucky Appalachian Regional Development (KARD) grant.