Waynesburg nonprofit gets national attention in class-action lawsuit
A nonprofit that started in Waynesburg in 2015 is facing a class-action lawsuit in West Virginia after students alleged Mined Minds didn鈥檛 follow through on promises to get them coding jobs.
Mined Minds was started by married couple Jonathan Graham and Amanda Laucher, technology consultants in Chicago. They started the nonprofit in Pennsylvania and West Virginia with the hope of teaching the unemployed and former coal industry employees how to do computer coding.
According to national news reports this week, including a Sunday New York Times article, about 60 of the former West Virginia students involved with the nonprofit have filed a class-action lawsuit against Mined Minds.
The Times article quoted several students who took a free Mined Mines class in Beckley, W.Va., who claimed they were told they would be paid for the class. The students also claimed they were promised apprenticeships within the company upon graduation, and eventually tech jobs.
The students involved in the lawsuit told the Times that while they had invested time and money, putting their lives on hold with the hopes of finding better career paths, Mined Minds never came through on those promises.
Laucher, a native of Nemacolin, said in an email Monday that she is 鈥渦nable to comment鈥� due to the ongoing lawsuit.
鈥淲hat we will say is that there have been no new developments in this lawsuit which is more than 18 months old,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淒epositions have been taken and we believe their filing has no merit. Class remains ongoing.鈥�
鈥淎 note about the NYT story itself,鈥� she continued. 鈥淏ecause we are unable to comment to the press, the publication states many inaccuracies.鈥�
Laucher included in her email a three-page student contract that every student must sign when entering the program. The contract states that the full-time training lasts up to 32 weeks and demands students commit 40 hours a week to studying. The contract also states that students won鈥檛 receive payments from Mined Minds and that the program isn鈥檛 鈥渁 replacement for college or university education.鈥�
鈥淭here is no job or further training opportunity guaranteed upon completion of the training,鈥� the contract states.
Mined Minds had received grant money in 2017 as part of a contract with the Southwest Corner Workforce Development Board and the Washington-Greene County Job Training Agency. The $702,400 Mined Minds received came from the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Amy Gatts, WGCJTA president, said Mined Minds wasn鈥檛 in Pennsylvania long before they moved to West Virginia.
鈥淭hey trained a couple people here then moved into West Virginia,鈥� she said.
Gatts said Mined Minds was having licensing issues with the state, which ordered them to cease operations until obtaining a license to run a school.
鈥淏ut it was free, they weren鈥檛 charging anybody,鈥� Gatts said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e still training people and they鈥檙e getting jobs.鈥�
Both Gatts and Jeff Nobili, project manager for the Southwest Corner Workforce Development Board, defended Mined Mines, saying the national news articles had 鈥渄iscrepancies,鈥� and that they are only aware of two plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit.
Former students and employees quoted in the Times article alleged that the couple鈥檚 鈥渃ompany gatherings鈥� involved heavy drinking in party-like atmospheres, and that apprentices and employees were fired for unjust reasons.
But Nobili said he never saw that type of unprofessionalism when working with Mined Minds.
鈥淲henever we hear about something like this, we take it very seriously and we talk to our contractors,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know where all those stories come from. That鈥檚 not something that I鈥檝e experienced dealing with Mined Minds.鈥�
He also said that students his organization monitored while going through the program received the training they were promised.
鈥淚f they were let go it was for business reasons,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 tell our contractors how to run their business.鈥�
Nobili said the development board鈥檚 contract with Mined Minds ends this month. He said the grant had been extended, but he鈥檚 not sure whether Mined Minds will be included in that extension.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 not stemming from this article necessarily, but from whether they鈥檙e able to operate under the publicity they鈥檙e getting,鈥� he said.