By Will Warren
Economic Recovery Corps Fellow
Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR)
Introduction: The Most Critical Link in Workforce Systems
Across distressed and rural America, economic developers are being asked to solve increasingly complex challenges with increasingly fragmented systems. When policymakers talk about workforce development, they often highlight programs, credentials, apprenticeships, and job placement. While these tools are essential, in regions like Eastern Kentucky, what’s missing isn’t a training program. It’s a trusted human guide. Even when jobs exist, many remain unfilled, not because people don’t want to work, but because they don’t see a way through the fog of barriers to even begin.
In this moment, we must ask ourselves: What truly drives reattachment to work?
In Eastern Kentucky, where disconnection is widespread, but talent remains abundant, we’ve learned a simple truth: coaching is infrastructure. It’s not an add-on or support service, it’s the core mechanism by which disconnection becomes reattachment, and labor force recovery becomes regional economic strategy. Until we treat it as such, we will continue to invest in incomplete systems that fail the very people they are meant to serve.
Coaching is the bridge between disconnection and reattachment. It is the infrastructure that holds every other part of a workforce system together. As rural regions search for scalable, proven strategies to battle population loss and reengage sidelined talent, one lesson from Eastern Kentucky stands out clearly: people don’t go through systems. They go with people. Coaching makes the system navigable, makes hope tangible, and makes change stick. It is the infrastructure that holds every other part of a workforce system together. And in the EKY Runway Program, coaching isn’t an afterthought, it’s the beating heart.
This essay explores how the EKY Runway Program has positioned coaching and peer support as the connective tissue of a new workforce reattachment model, and why the future of rural economic development may depend on making coaching as foundational as broadband, roads, or rail.
Reframing the Disconnection Crisis
As previously reported in prior articles, in Eastern Kentucky, the labor force participation rate for adults aged 25 to 54 hovers around 50%, compared to a national average of 83%. This means that roughly ~34,000 working-age adults in 12 of the most coal impacted communities of the EKY Runway Program are neither employed nor actively seeking work. But they are not invisible. They are caregivers, recovery participants, justice-involved individuals, and people with unrecognized skills or disconnected pathways. These individuals have not disappeared; they have been systemically excluded from the labor market.
Reconnecting this “hidden workforce” is not a matter of job openings or reskilling alone. We argue it’s a matter of human navigation. Before credentials or career ladders can be meaningful, people need help finding the on-ramp, and someone to walk beside them as they reenter.
The Eastern Kentucky Runway Program Model: Coaching at the Center
As explained, the EKY Runway Program launched in 2023 by Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR), the EKY Runway Program reimagines workforce development as a relational, regional strategy grounded in dignity, stabilization, and systems thinking.
At its center is a reforming theory that every participant, regardless of background, deserves a dedicated Coaching Network that supports them from disconnection to sustained employment. In the EKY Runway Program Coaching Network, the Empowerment Coach and Peer Mentor hold the participant accountable throughout their journey while providing human-centered support through systems navigation. In addition, as part of the network, the client is connected to a resource specialist, training plan coordinator and digital navigator to help further their career development. This article will refer to each of these roles interchangeably as “coaches.” These coaches serve as more than guides; they are activators of human potential. They unlock what data alone cannot predict: trust, belief, resilience, and readiness.
The EKY Runway Program Coaching Network:
- Empowerment Coach – guides vision, mindset, goals
- Peer Mentor – lived experience, proof of change, human-centered support
- Resource Specialist – meets urgent needs, builds stability
- Training Plan Coordinator / Digital Navigator – skill development plus pathways aligned to employment
- Participant – the center of everything
In the EKY Runway Program, coaches carry an average caseload of 25–30 participants and are trained in trauma-informed care and workforce system navigation. They work hand in hand with and are often embedded through community-based organizations ensuring local presence and trust. Many coaches have lived experience with recovery, justice involvement, or economic hardship. This peer-based credibility enhances their ability to not just advocate for participants, but to walk alongside them as equals.
Every EKY Runway Program participant receives support across a continuum of touchpoints:
- Systems Coordination – Navigation of benefits, courts, recovery support, workforce agencies, etc.
- Barrier Resolution – Support for transportation, childcare, housing, legal issues, expungement, etc.
- Career Navigation – Mapping aspirations to realistic local (and nationally remote) employment pathways.
- Training Engagement – Weekly check-ins, encouragement, problem-solving during credential (and other) programs.
- Job Placement – Resume prep, interview readiness, hiring day events, employer introductions, etc.
- Retention Support – Ongoing contact for 90 to 365 days post-hire to ensure long-term success (not limited by days but by need).
The Coaching Difference: Why it Works
Aa a simple truth, the EKY Runway Program (and its ecosystem) benefits from the belief that people don’t reattach to work because of training alone, they reattach because someone believes in them first. In the EKY Runway Program, coaching is not case management. It is not about compliance checklists or automated follow-ups. It is a relational commitment to walk beside someone through the most vulnerable and disorienting chapter of their life, re-entry into a workforce and a world that has long told them they don’t belong.
This is what makes it different, and what we believe makes it work.
Coaching is Navigation, Not Transaction
In traditional workforce models, participants are told: “Here’s the list of services, go figure it out.” But for many in the hidden workforce, especially those navigating recovery, reentry, or systemic poverty, this model is overwhelming at best and paralyzing at worst. Empowerment coaching turns that on its head. Coaches don’t hand out a list, they walk the list with the person. They make the call with the person. They sit beside the person in the DMV or courthouse. They explain the next steps after a confusing email from a school or employer. They translate the system into something survivable, and eventually, something navigable.
“Peer mentorship has truly changed my life, and I’m so thankful for the coaches being a big part of that journey. Their guidance, encouragement and friendship have helped shape me into who I am today. They’ve shown me the power of having people who believe in you, even when you don’t believe in yourself. Their support has reminded me that no matter how hard things get, you don’t have to walk through it alone. I’m beyond grateful for the way they’ve never given up on me and continue to inspire me every day.” Runway Participant
Meeting Each Person Where They Are: Literally and Figuratively
Empowerment coaches aren’t just available in an office, they’re embedded in the lives and communities of participants. They attend court dates, meet participants in shelters or church basements, text job reminders at 9 p.m., and celebrate credential completions like family. This hyper-local, high-touch model is especially critical in rural regions like Eastern Kentucky, where social trust runs deep and word-of-mouth can either accelerate or stall engagement. When participants see someone who looks like them, who lives where they live, and who shows up consistently, the dynamic changes. We have seen this time and time again.
The conversation is no longer about “getting help”, it’s about moving forward, together.
Coaching as Human Infrastructure
We often think of infrastructure as physical: roads, broadband, industrial parks. But in this context, coaching is the invisible infrastructure that makes everything else work. Without a coach, a training opportunity may be voided or unused because of a broken-down car. Without a coach, a job offer might be declined because a mother has no childcare, or because someone in recovery doesn’t know how to navigate a work schedule while maintaining meetings with their sponsor.
Coaches bridge these gaps. They are the human infrastructure that connects intent to action and opportunity to outcomes.
One Person at a Time: Rippling Outward
What makes coaching so powerful is also what makes it slow. An EKY Runway Program theory of change is that it works one person at a time. It’s not a mass onboarding tool or a digital chatbot. It’s a relationship, built on trust and consistency with effects that multiply.
When one person succeeds, their children see it. Their employer begins to trust the program. Their recovery center starts referring more clients. Their probation officer starts asking questions about how to connect others. Coaching becomes a catalyst, not just a service.
In a sense, this is how reattachment becomes not only personal but cultural and systemic.
Keys to Coaching Success:
- Coaching is not transactional, it’s transformational – it creates sustained behavior change because it builds trust, not just compliance.
- Navigation is more valuable than information – the people most disconnected from the workforce don’t need more PDFs or portals. They need a guide.
- Empowerment Coaches are connectors of systems and people – they ensure that public dollars invested in training, transportation, childcare, and employer engagement are actually used and used well.
- One coach can change dozens of lives, but they must be supported – that means potentially lower caseloads, ongoing training and professional development, local context, and stable funding.
- The ROI of coaching shows up across systems – higher credential and training completions, longer job retention, reduced recidivism, higher family stability, and eventual population reattachment
Case Study: How Coaching Transformed One Life
A client who had been out of the workforce for years, worked diligently toward career stabilization for several months, and dedicated herself to professional growth and skill development. With coaching support, she successfully obtained multiple certifications through a Partner Program, worked through certification modules, and enrolled in school to earn certifications in culinary arts.
Along the way, she faced several barriers, including the cost of transportation, which she overcame with her coach by obtaining gas card assistance through a Partner Program. The coach is also working with the Partner Program to obtain work attire for the client to ensure she is fully prepared for her new role. Despite additional challenges in obtaining medical documentation to confirm her employment eligibility, she worked with her coach to overcome those obstacles as well. After interview prep through the EKY Runway Program, she interviewed and gained full time employment.
This transformation was built on her determination, commitment to career advancement, and dedication to her recovery. It wasn’t, however, a miracle. It was the result of a system designed to believe in her, and coaches who refused to let her fall through the cracks.
The Coaching and Employer Connection: A Two-Way Bridge
Coaches don’t just serve participants. They also serve employers, bridging the cultural, logistical, and trust gaps between disconnected workers and workforce demand. While an initial focus of participants is stabilization, once stabilized the natural progression is career development and entrance into the SOAR Eastern Kentucky (EKY) Talent Network. The EKY Talent Network also takes the approach of one person at a time and takes a very pro-active and personal approach to identify candidate opportunities and making the connection to employers.
Through the SOAR EKY Talent Network, coaches coordinate:
- Support for job fairs and access to employers
- On the job training, apprenticeships and/or internships
- Post-hire check-ins to improve retention
- Feedback loops to improve credential design and workplace readiness
The result is a more confident, supported employer base and a workforce that sees employment as a milestone, not a dead end.
Behind every successful workforce reentry story is not just a resilient participant but often, a trusted coach and a willing employer, walking together across the same bridge. At the EKY Runway Program, this bridge is built intentionally. Coaches don’t just support individuals; they also support the businesses who take a chance on them. This dual role is what makes the model effective and scalable.
From Risk to Relationship: Changing the Employer Lens
In regions like Eastern Kentucky, with glaring challenges of disconnection and population loss, employers are increasingly desperate to find and retain workers. But many are hesitant to hire individuals with criminal records, limited work history, or inconsistent availability. What they need is not just a resume, they need reassurance.
Coaches provide that assurance. They function as credibility brokers, people who can vouch for a candidate’s readiness, help address concerns before they escalate, and offer ongoing communication after placement. For employers, the coach is not just a support person for the jobseeker, they are a workforce partner who helps reduce the risks associated with reentry hiring.
Retention is the New Recruitment
In many workforce programs, success is measured by job placement alone. But through our experience and programming, we know the real victory is retention, 90 days, 180 days, a full year on the job and beyond.
Coaches play a critical role in ensuring this retention. They troubleshoot issues that would otherwise lead to turnover: a flat tire, childcare breakdowns, anxiety attacks, or difficulty navigating a new environment. Because they know the participant, and have a relationship with the employer, they can intervene early, creatively, and compassionately.
Success Stories from the first two quarters of 2025 tells the story:
- Among participants who experience a barrier (housing, transportation, childcare or relapse), those who stay employed overwhelmingly cite their coach’s help navigating the moment as the reason they didn’t quit or get fired.
- Several employers have now asked the EKY Runway Program coaches to help develop internal retention protocols and onboarding tools based on this trust-building model.
This shift reframes how we understand workforce development, not as a one-time match, but as a long-term relational commitment between employee, employer, and navigator.
Coaching Helps Employers Grow Their Own
Rural employers, especially small- and mid-sized businesses, often struggle to find employees that are ready for the workplace. What they need is a talent development partner, not just a resume screen.
Runway coaches serve as this partner by:
- Mapping talent pathways – working with employers to understand job progression, skill needs, and soft-skill expectations.
- Preparing candidates – helping participants not just get credentials but understand the culture and expectations of a specific worksite and providing stabilization and skill development before the employee begins on day one.
- Providing ongoing feedback – facilitating regular check-ins with HR and supervisors to catch small issues before they snowball.
This allows employers to grow their own workforce from within the community, even from populations they may have previously overlooked.
Bridging Culture and Expectations
One of the least talked about, yet maybe most important, roles of the coach is cultural translation. Many EKY Runway Program participants come from recovery or reentry environments where authority figures have been punitive. Meanwhile, many employers operate under assumptions about professionalism and reliability that can unintentionally alienate new hires from non-traditional backgrounds.
Coaches help interpret and bridge these cultural mismatches:
- When a participant doesn’t make eye contact during an interview, a coach might explain trauma responses to HR managers unfamiliar with these patterns.
- If a participant misreads a workplace norm, a coach can clarify without shame or escalation.
- When an employer is frustrated by a misstep, the coach can offer context, mediate a resolution, and preserve the relationship, often salvaging jobs that would have otherwise ended in termination.
This role is not just support, it’s systemic translation. Without it, frustrations occur and promising matches often fall apart.
Key Benefits for Employers and Communities:
- Coaches reduce risk – for employers nervous about hiring reentry candidates, coaches offer a safety net of communication and support.
- Retention goes up – we have seen that participants placed with employer partners that communicate with coaches stay employed longer and have higher job satisfaction.
- Onboarding improves – coaches help candidates show up prepared, not just technically, but emotionally and socially.
- Hiring systems evolve – as trust builds, coaches help employers make their systems more inclusive, creating a wider talent pool for everyone.
- Economic development gets smarter – when job creation is paired with people who can fill and sustain those jobs, regions win.
Over time, many of these employers move from being hesitant partners to co-investors in the model’s success.
From Coaching to Culture Shift: A New Operating System for Workforce Reentry
Coaching doesn’t just help individuals navigate systems, it helps systems navigate change. The EKY Runway Program’s coaching model functions as more than a service. It is a catalyst for ecosystem transformation, one relationship at a time. In a region where institutional distrust runs deep, coaches become bridges. And we are hopeful over time; those bridges will turn into highways.
By centering empowerment coaching as the entry point. rather than compliance checklists or eligibility filters, the program signals a radical cultural shift. In effect, we don’t sort people by deficits, we move with them toward purpose, which has ripple effects. Recovery centers begin referring participants earlier. Justice partners adopt more flexible timelines. Training institutions align course offerings with coaching timelines. And employers open up previously closed doors to individuals they had never considered hiring.
The culture change is both top-down and bottom-up. At the organizational level, coaches inform policy, shaping stabilization funds, credentialing programs, and hiring pipelines. At the street level, they co-create success with individuals who have often been told they are “hard to serve” or “not job ready.”
Transformation requires more than resources, it requires trust. Coaching creates the relational glue that holds fragmented systems together long enough for transformation to take root. We believe the most successful workforce ecosystems in the future won’t be those with the most funding or the biggest companies. They will be those that trust and empower the people doing the hardest work, both the workers themselves and the navigators walking beside them.
Rewriting the Role of Economic Developers: From Dealmakers to Human Infrastructure Stewards
Traditionally, economic developers have been measured by a narrow scorecard, that being capital investment, jobs and incentives deployed. But in distressed rural regions, these metrics are increasingly disconnected from local prosperity. A 300-job announcement means little if the local workforce cannot access, retain, or benefit from those jobs.
This is where the EKY Runway model offers a new lens, economic development doesn’t start with the business it starts with the people the business needs to thrive. Coaches are emerging as critical infrastructure for regional development. Just as a water line enables a manufacturing facility to operate, a skilled, supported, and stable workforce enables an economy to grow. Coaches make that stability possible.
The most forward-looking economic developers are now becoming talent coordinators. They bring employers, training providers, health systems, reentry programs, and funders into the same room, not to pitch incentives, but to co-create pipelines that work. These pipelines don’t just fill jobs, they rebuild communities.
Economic developers must begin to see coaching not as a soft add-on, but as strategic infrastructure, as critical as site readiness or broadband. By integrating human-centered design into regional strategy, economic development organizations can unlock inclusive growth, long-term retention, and reputational value that no tax credit can buy.
Conclusion: Human Infrastructure for a Rural Future
In a time when rural America is being asked to compete for new industries, national attention, and generational opportunity, we must confront a simple truth, there is no prosperity without people. In that vein, coaches are the infrastructure that reattaches people to possibility. The EKY Runway Program proves this model works, not just on paper, but in real lives.
Without human guidance, even the best workforce systems fail. But with it, transformation takes root. The system, however, is not necessarily broken. It’s a system that was never built for the disconnected. It’s a coach’s role to help the disconnected navigate a system for success and eventual systems reform. Now is the time to build and fund a system where coaches are not the exception, but the expectation. What Eastern Kentucky is proving, one household at a time, is that dignity, belonging, and human connection are not luxuries in economic development. They are the strategy.
Next Month Preview: Next month, we’ll zoom out to the ecosystem level and explore how economic development leaders are evolving into workforce designers. No longer just deal-makers or infrastructure builders, regional leaders must now design systems that reconnect people to opportunity. We’ll look at how SOAR and the EKY Runway Program are modeling this shift in Eastern Kentucky, where economic development strategy is no longer measured solely in capital investment, but in human potential reattached, stabilized, and elevated. From workforce boards to site selectors, the future of rural growth lies in the people systems we build today.
Full Video Interview: HERE