Ascend: Build a West Virginia where people will stay
(Editorial - Graphic Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)
Ascend West Virginia continues to look for more ways to recruit new Mountain State residents, even as the program has already attracted 1,412 new residents since its founding in 2021.
Now, it hopes to make the state more attractive to military veterans by launching Ascend Heroes.
For veterans and active service members who are at least 18, hold U.S. citizenship or a green card and live out of state, the last condition to meet is either having a remote job or a job lined up in West Virginia.
Participants are being asked to move to one of the designated Ascend regions in the state and agree to a two-year residency; and will receive a $12,000 financial incentive. Ascend Heroes will also be able to join the West Virginia National Guard.
“Of that 250,000 (who leave active-duty military services each year), I know there’s a percentage that when they cross the border from Virginia, or they cross the border from Maryland or Pennsylvania, or Ohio or Kentucky, they’re going to do what I did,” said Maj. Gen. James Seward, adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard. “They’re going to turn on John Denver, and they’re going to say, ‘This is almost heaven.’ And then, once we get them here, of course, the National Guard will be there to say, ‘You’ve served, you’re trained. We would love to have you join our force.'”
Ascend co-founder Brad Smith is right to be proud of the hard work that has gone into developing a program that works against the hemorrhaging of population from our state.
“They’re starting businesses, they’re shopping in our small businesses, and they’re making us stronger each and every day,” Smith said. “The goal of Ascend Heroes will be to attract 145 military veterans and their families to the State of West Virginia. … This has been a vision we’ve had for almost a half a dozen years, but a vision without execution is merely a hallucination.”
While those at Ascend continue to expand their vision, it is incumbent upon lawmakers and other state and county officials to keep working toward building a West Virginia from which our best and brightest do not want to escape to begin with.
Imagine the combined power to propel us of those who choose to move to West Virginia and those who choose to STAY.
