Earlier this week, Empower Upper Cumberland team members assisted with a food drive in White County. This event provided one box of food per car and was made possible through a grant awarded to our local YMCA by Save the Children. Volunteers boxed and distributed 200 food boxes for White County families with children in [...]

Empower Upper Cumberland continues to make significant strides toward alleviating poverty in the Upper Cumberland. Recently, the Empower UC team held its inaugural advisory board meeting in which board leadership was selected. Congratulations to Jackson County Mayor Randy Heady and White County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson on being selected to lead the Empower UC [...]

Photo courtesy of Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce. From left: Nick Bishop, Janice Terry, Page Bryant, Becky Hull, Jasen Knight, Mike Porten, Phillip Clemmons, Matt Billings, Heather Thomas, Mark Farley, Angie Wells, Megan Spurgeon, Ben Rodgers, Adam Poe, Stacey Baxter, James Mills, Jon Ward, Ryan Barnhart, Tony Whiteaker, Jay Albrecht, Luke Eldridge, Ali Bagci [...]

The Empower Upper Cumberland Bootcamp training program recently came to an end after six weeks of intensive training. Twenty-seven individuals completed the 200-hour training program; a first-of-its-kind training program in the Upper Cumberland was truly a collaborative effort. Presenters included team members from UCHRA, UCDD, community partners, business leaders, and several other community organizations. In [...]

UCHRA/Empower UC staffers, Heather Thomas and Balinda Westmoreland, go over the rules of Circles meetings and the expectations of all participants. In the months since being named one of seven collaborations selected from across the state to receive $25 million in TANF Opportunity Act funds, Empower Upper Cumberland has hit the ground running; [...]

The following article is shared courtesy of the Herald-Citizen and originally appeared here. UPPER CUMBERLAND – The Highlands Economic Partnership will launch the new Highlands Training Center this winter. Early in the year, the Highlands Economic Partnership, a four-county economic development partnership under the Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce, along with key community and regional partners, received planning [...]