The 2025 SOAR Summit concluded with a full week of inspirational speakers and informative sessions designed to help move Eastern Kentucky and rural America forward. With national voices and local leaders on the front lines of workforce and economic development, the SOAR Summit set the course for bright change and innovation ahead.
Tracks in Workforce, Innovation, Tourism, Capacity, and AI provided a space for conversation and networking, allowing Eastern Kentucky leaders to learn and grow. These topics aren’t just for big cities. Rural America is building its own future, one that showcases collaboration, innovation, and hope.
A Recurring Theme from the SOAR Summit: Stronger Together
A recurring theme that kept emerging during the 2025 SOAR Summit Workforce Track sessions was partnerships.
Eastern Kentucky has several organizations dedicated to workforce development and connecting residents with resources and training opportunities for employment. With so many different organizations involved, the challenge is not developing silos of support but instead creating pathways of partnerships.
These pathways help Eastern Kentuckians transition between organizations, enabling them to overcome employment barriers and access necessary support.
The reality is that no single organization or community can solve the issue of workforce development alone. It takes all of our unique skill sets and resources to help Eastern Kentuckians move beyond what’s holding them back to find meaningful employment.
Each organization plays a crucial role in the long-term success of the region’s residents.
From job training and mentorship organizations to wrap-around services providing help for everyday life challenges like food and utilities, it truly takes a holistic approach to see real change.
“Partnership is key to what we are able to do,” said Angie Travis of Goodwill Kentucky during a workforce session at the 2025 SOAR Summit.
In a panel alongside EKY Runway Program team members, Angie highlighted the importance of partnerships. The panel and the SOAR Summit itself showcased the power of partnerships between our Eastern Kentucky communities and organizations.
Workforce Training and Support Network Project Manager of the EKY Runway Program, Barbara Gay, said, “One client becomes all of our clients,” referring to the interconnection and work between aspects of the SOAR EKY Runway Program.
The reality of that statement goes even further, to every organization involved in the growth and success of the people of Eastern Kentucky. Every resident working with one of our organizations, in a way, should be working with all of our organizations through partnerships.
As we see the success of our region’s workforce development as a combined, multi-partner effort, we can see real, tangible results for the people of our region.
A Plan for the Future
As we all continue this work of rebuilding the Eastern Kentucky workforce, it will be crucial to develop pathways between our various resources and organizations for clients to find and receive the support they need easily.
Partnerships such as those of Shaping Our Appalachian Region and Catholic Charities of Lexington illustrate what this future can look like.
As the EKY Runway Program focuses on training and developing clients’ success in their employment journey, Catholic Charities of Lexington steps in to support and resource clients with wrap-around services for things like utility bills and other everyday life barriers that can easily hold clients back from moving forward in their employment journey.
Without partnerships like these, clients can be left to find help for wrap-around support or training on their own, leading to overwhelm and drop out of programs. It’s extremely difficult to focus on job training or interviewing for potential employment opportunities when one’s power has been shut off or they lack the means to pay for their rent.
By combining organizations and leveraging the specific skill sets of each, clients can receive a fully integrated support system all at once. This system can step in where they need assistance the most, eliminating the need to bounce around and find help for each issue individually.
Together for Appalachia
The work each organization does for the people of Eastern Kentucky is integral to the region’s future success. Growth in the Eastern Kentucky workforce will be seen not through individual greatness, but through collaboration and partnership.
The people of this region have long come together to accomplish great things, and that same spirit is still alive and well in the mountains of EKY. Neighbors helping neighbors, communities helping communities, and organizations assisting other organizations. Together for Appalachia.
Now is the perfect time to join in with other amazing organizations making an impact here in Eastern Kentucky. Whether an employer, community organization or nonprofit, there’s a place for you to make a difference.
Partner with the EKY Runway Program today.