HEDC gives $250,000 to Amplify Hancock Innovation Center

The Hancock Economic Development Council has committed $250,000 to the Amplify Hancock Innovation Center, a new facility that will provide a career center for high school students and workforce training for adult learners.

Construction continues at the approximately 100,000-square-foot facility near the northwest corner of County Roads 200W and 300N, where it will open this summer. Completion will culminate several years of collaboration between Hancock County’s four public school districts, County government, postsecondary education, area employers, and local nonprofit organizations to bolster the area’s workforce and economy.

During the planning of the Amplify Hancock Innovation Center, officials prioritized not only assembling county high schools’ various vocational education initiatives under one roof, but also offering programming based on student interest and in professions that have high wages and are in high demand. Spanning about one half of the building, the Hancock County Career Center will offer high school students the following programs:

• Automotive Collision Repair
• Automotive Services
• Aviation Management
• Carpentry
• Criminal Justice
• Dental Careers
• Electrical 
• Emergency Medical Services
• HVAC
• Pre-Nursing: CNA
• Pre-Nursing: CCMA
• Welding

The other half of the building will offer workforce training to adult learners and will include space for Hancock Health and Ivy Tech Community College.

Workforce is top of mind for companies that reach out to the Hancock Economic Development Council when considering expanding to or in the county. HEDC is honored to continue investing in such an important resource by continuing to invest in the Amplify Hancock Innovation Center. As the only local eligible entity able to receive funds from the first iteration of Indiana’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, the HEDC’s John Hancock Community Development Corporation also contributed the local match for the $1.4 million award that went toward the land purchase for Amplify in 2024.

Pictured above: From left, Hancock County Career Center Director Stan Wilkison, Hancock County Council Member Kent Fisk, Hancock Health Director of Property Development and HEDC Executive Committee Member Harold Gibson, Greenfield Central Schools Superintendent and HEDC Past President Dr. Harold Olin, HEDC Executive Director Randy Sorrell, NineStar Connect Director of Marketing and Community Engagement and HEDC President David Spencer, and GBC Bank Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer and HEDC Treasurer Bryan Miller. Council Member Fisk also serves on the Hancock County Redevelopment Commission, which approved a $40 million bond issue backed by tax increment financing funds provided by new businesses to fund the development of the Amplify Hancock Innovation Center.

Learn more about the Amplify Hancock Innovation Center from the Hancock on the Horizon Podcast in episodes “How to Human, with Erica Adams” and “Put THAT in Your Pipeline and Staff It.”

Funding economic development is essential but expensive. Learn how it invests in itself in Hancock County.

Learn more about Education and Workforce in Hancock County.

Catch a tour of the progress at the Amplify Hancock Innovation Center: