ARH partners with Buckhorn School to launch career pipeline project

Buckhorn School students are getting a direct line to Appalachian Regional Healthcare jobs through a new ACCESS Project that ARH says is meant to show young people a future in healthcare without leaving Perry County. The partnership was piloted at Buckhorn in the fall and is scheduled for a full launch in Fall 2026, with ARH planning to expand the effort to other K-12 schools across the region.

ACCESS stands for Advancing Careers through Collaborative Experiences & Student Support, and ARH is building it by grade level. Younger students in K-3 will receive coloring books and storybooks. Students in grades 4 and 5 will see videos and hands-on activities. Middle school students will be invited to fairs and guided tours. High school students will get shadowing experiences and internships, the clearest path in the program toward real work inside the health system.

Dylon Baker, ARH assistant vice president of workforce initiatives, said the project is designed to help build confidence and show students there is a place for them in healthcare and in their own communities. Mildred Blank, Buckhorn School’s assistant principal, said the partnership has already added value and helped students understand that there is room for many different kinds of futures in the local healthcare system.

The timing matters in Perry County, where the population estimate for July 1, 2025, was 26,555, down from 28,473 in the 2020 Census. Census data show 14.8% of adults age 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, the median household income is $42,181, and the county’s 2024 employment rate was 44.6%. Perry County Schools says its vision is to prepare students to be post-secondary ready, community leaders and innovative thinkers, a mission that lines up closely with ARH’s effort to connect school to work.

The Buckhorn partnership also fits into a broader ARH workforce push. In March 2025, the health system announced a $6.7 million Allied Health Training Academy in Hazard, backed by the U.S. Economic Development Administration and SOAR’s $40 million Recompete Pilot Program. That academy is intended to train students for LPN, medical assistant and nursing assistant roles, with classes expected to begin in early 2026.

ARH was named an Education First Employer in September 2023 and says it employs about 6,400 people across a network of more than 1,300 providers and 14 hospitals in Kentucky and West Virginia. The system traces its roots to 1955, when the United Mine Workers of America opened the Miners Memorial Hospital system, giving the ACCESS Project added weight as another attempt by a long-running Appalachian institution to train workers at home and keep talent in the mountains.