ARC Awards MCCF with Two Grants

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Muskingum County Community Foundation recently received two Appalachian Regional Commission grants totaling nearly $325,000 dollars.

MCCF Resource Development Officer Amy Luby discussed how the ARC grants will be used to benefit Muskingum County.

“One is the READY Grants to Grow program and we’ll be receiving nearly $300,000,” Luby said. “For that program and what we’re planning to do with those dollars is stand up a first generation College Access Program, here at the foundation. We know that first generation students from Muskingum County can succeed in college. I’m one of them. And we want to make sure that we are supporting them.”

Luby says the College Access Program will go beyond traditional scholarships by providing assistance toward overcoming other nonacademic resources such as transportation and healthcare. The aim is to have the program operational by 2028.

“And then the second grant we received from ARC is through their READY Community Foundations grant program. We received $25,000 for that. Brian Wagner, our CEO and myself, we had some training that we did with ARC. And then as a result of completing that training we received this grant, which is going to help us do some capacity building here at the community foundation,”Luby said.

The second grant will help to cover operational costs such as a website redesign which will improve user friendliness and keep pace with digital evolution.