Part 6 of Spectrum News 1's series "Breaking the Cycle: Generational Poverty"

ADAMS COUNTY, Ohio—Sitting at 6.3 percent, Adams county has the fifth highest unemployment rate in the state.

• GRIT is a collaborative approach designed to maximize federal, state and county resources in rural Ohio to build a high-demand workforce and stimulate economic growth
• Adams County plans to create a workforce development site and virtual job center
• The county hopes to spread the GRIT program to Brown, Pike and Scioto counties

Last year, the area lost both of their power plant. Drug use and poverty continue to affect the community.

Randy Chandler hopes to change that.

As the chairperson for the county's GRIT initiative, Chandler said Adams County has invested more than $25,000 into creating the program.

"In Appalachian communities, it's all about trust and community and relationships," said Chandler.

GRIT stands for Growing Rural Independence Together through jobs.

It's a partnership between the schools, courts, drug treatment facilities and Ohio Means Jobs.

They hope to focus on young people in the tenth through twelfth grades and those between the ages of 18 and 24.

Gay Lynn Shipley is a member of the Adams County Ohio Valley School Board.

"We thought if we had this assessment to maybe help them and get them to realize that this is what I'm good at and this is what I want to do, then we could start them down the right career path," said Shipley.

The assessment asks questions pertaining to an individual’s personality and skills and matches them with possible career paths.

"We're hoping that the data that we get from this project will help drive our programming and jobs for the area," said Shipley.

And they're also hoping to create an environment where employers may want to build their workforce in Adams county—with plans for a workforce development site and virtual job center.

One student who took the Future Plans assessment is Shipley's daughter, Wylie.

She said she learned that she wants to work in public relations.

"I want to work with people. I want to speak with people. I want to help people and all of that came from taking my assessment," said Wylie Shipley, 11^th grader.

After finding a possible career path, students are matched with trained coaches that mentor them.

"Those students have somebody in their lives at least at the school that can hopefully guide them and lead them on the right path,” said Wylie Shipley.

"My motto is, 'I have a plan,'” said Wylie Shipley said. “I want every student to walk out of high school, whether they are a freshman or a senior, to say, 'I have a plan' and no matter what that is, to know what they are going to do and to know that they want to end up with success."

The county's goal is to spread the GRIT program to Brown, Pike and Scioto counties.

They hope to have more than 15,000 people take the assessment within the next two years.