At the June Board meeting, the Golden LEAF Board of Directors awarded a total of $4.5 million in funding to support job creation and economic investment projects, workforce preparedness projects, and disaster relief work. The Golden LEAF Board awarded $2,113,986 to support three projects through the Open Grants Program and $1,536,120 to support one industrial park through the SITE Program. The Board also awarded an additional $940,000 for Hurricane Helene relief.
Following the devastation of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina, the Golden LEAF Board established the Hurricane Helene Relief Initiative to make funds available for nonprofits working to support the needs of survivors.
The Board approved an additional $940,000 to the North Carolina Baptists on Mission for rebuilding efforts across the impacted region, bringing the total Golden LEAF funding to $2,940,000. To date, the Board has awarded a total of $5 million through the Hurricane Helene Relief Initiative.
In April, the Golden LEAF Board created a funding opportunity for entities developing healthcare workforce training programs with a capital budget of at least $10 million. These entities can request up to $1 million through the Open Grants Program to cover the costs of training equipment and related capital expenses.
Through the healthcare workforce training program funding opportunity, the Golden LEAF Board awarded $1,000,000 to Barton College to support the expansion of its School of Health Sciences complex. The project, to be completed in two phases, will result in a 70,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility designed to prepare top-performing healthcare professionals to serve rural communities.
Phase 1 of the project includes a $21 million renovation of the Nixon Nursing and Moye Science buildings. A hospital-grade simulation center will serve as the centerpiece, alongside updated classroom and laboratory space to support the growing demand for healthcare education. This phase will enable Barton College to expand its nursing and exercise science programs, increasing the number of graduates from 54 to 127 each year beginning in the 2029-2030 school year. Golden LEAF funding will be used to purchase advanced training and instructional equipment for nursing, exercise science, and biology programs. This investment builds on prior support from Golden LEAF and will allow Barton College to further develop its BSN, MSN, and Nurse Practitioner programs to meet critical workforce needs.
The Golden LEAF Board awarded three projects totaling $1,113,986 in Open Grants Program funding. These projects will support workforce preparedness outcomes in Randolph and Wilson counties and job creation outcomes in Nash County.
- $500,000 to the Town of Nashville to extend a waterline to serve the planned site of UNC Nash Health’s new medical facility to house primary and urgent care services.
- $493,000 to Randolph Community College to establish a new Heavy Duty Equipment Training Program and provide training to students in existing programs including Agriculture and Construction Trades.
- $120,986 to Sallie B. Howard School of Arts and Science in Wilson County to enhance programs related to biotechnology through hands-on training, new lab modules, teacher training, and new year-round lab activities to support the needs of local employers.
The SITE Program offers resources to help communities identify potential sites for economic development, provides funding to complete due diligence on publicly controlled sites, and provides funding to extend public utilities to publicly controlled sites or to conduct clearing and grading of publicly owned sites. The three phases of the SITE Program are Identification, Due Diligence, and Development.
In the SITE Program – Development phase, the Golden LEAF Board awarded $1,500,000 to Northampton County to extend wastewater infrastructure to support development of a site in the Northampton County Commerce Park. The Board also increased a previously awarded SITE Program – Due Diligence phase award for the same park in Northampton County by $36,120 to allow completion of required historical and archaeological review, for a total of $1,585,320 in funding for this site.
Since 1999, Golden LEAF has funded 2,338 projects totaling $1.3 billion supporting the mission of advancing economic opportunity in North Carolina’s rural, tobacco-dependent, and economically distressed communities.