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Camp Community College achieved a key milestone in its history Thursday, Jan. 9, when the first students attended class at the college’s new Nursing & Allied Health Education and Training Center in Franklin.

The college announced this milestone via a Jan. 9 news release.

At the Feb. 27, 2024, groundbreaking of the center, CCC President Dr. Corey L. McCray said, “The nursing and allied health industry workforce demand is the highest demand in Virginia and one of the highest in the nation, and this college is the only comprehensive health care training provider between the (Interstate) 95 corridor and what is Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach.”

He noted that for years, Camp has been attempting to meet the demand using a handful of classrooms on its Franklin campus and at its Suffolk campus.

The new and now-operating education and training center greatly expands and enhances CCC’s ability to equip future nursing and allied health industry workers.

The building that the center is located in had been the home of The Tidewater News for 45 years, starting in April 1978.

Tidewater Publications LLC, which publishes The Tidewater News, Windsor Weekly and related print and digital products, sold the 13,000-square-foot building at 1000 Armory Drive to Paul D. Camp Community College in spring 2023. The facility was sold to the college for $750,000.

At the February 2024 groundbreaking, McCray addressed how the facility would be used.

“This building will help to address the workforce needs as well as establish career pathways for members of this community and the region because we’ll be able to educate and train more nurses, more phlebotomy techs, more dental assistants, more certified medical assistants, more certified nursing assistants, etc.,” he said. “In addition, we will offer more classes with alternative instructional delivery methods.

“This will also be a place for our community use, a place that will provide opportunities for partnerships with our K-12 school districts, hospital systems and health care providers for community health initiatives and the like,” he said.