Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (SKCTC) welcomes Jeannie Allen as program director for the Selling to the World Initiative.

The project, which has been refunded by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, now operates from Southeast’s Middlesboro campus. During its initial phase, the project was housed at the Palace on Cumberland Avenue in downtown Middlesboro, and Allen served part time as assistant to the director.

According to Allen, this position is a natural fit because she loves “helping people to better themselves and watching them discover their talents.”

The Selling to the World Initiative promotes an entrepreneurial culture for the digital economy with access to high-speed Internet within the most economically disadvantaged parts of eastern Kentucky.

It provides free personalized, one-on-one mentoring and workshops that equip creative people and start-up businesses with the knowledge and skills to start businesses using the internet. It also enables them to earn supplemental income through their products with the potential of growing businesses to create jobs.

Within its “launch” phase from August 2015 to October 2016, Selling to the World hosted 79 workshops with 340 participants in attendance. The 40 most active participants received an average of 34 hours of mentoring and curriculum training.

“We are excited to be able to continue the Selling to the World Initiative here at SKCTC,” says Sherri Clark, director of Workforce Solutions. “Housing the Initiative at the college will allow us to operate on a much larger scale and offer participants more space and resources for workshops, classes, and trainings.”

While the project will continue its focus on creating new business, Allen says that one of Initiative’s new goals is to help downtown revitalization efforts by educating existing business owners in e-commerce: “We feel that they could grow their businesses exponentially by offering their products and services online.”

For more information about Selling to the World Initiative, email Jeannie Allen at jallen0387@kctcs.edu.