Connect & Learn
Conference materials and resources
Table of Contents:
Information from the workshops and plenaries
Media / ABF conference in the news
Contact us / Leave a question or comment
Conference packet materials
Just Transition Framework: "Shaping a Just Transition: Toward Appalachia's Bright Future"
"Visions from Black Mountain" booklet
Benham and Lynch, Kentucky, brochure (digital version on KFTC's website)
Information from the workshops and plenaries
Each of the links below will take you to a page for that particular workshop or plenary session where you will find a Word Cloud, other image(s), presenter contact information, summary notes, audio recording (if available), PowerPoint or written presentations, and other materials (if available):
Friday evening plenary: "After Coal: Welsh and Appalachian Mining Communities"
Saturday opening plenary: Perspectives on a Just Transition
Saturday second plenary: Transition stories
Saturday workshop: Community-based transition efforts
Saturday workshop: Building a local food economy
Saturday workshop: Land and stream reclamation
Saturday workshop: Workers' perspectives on Appalachian Transition
Sunday workshop: Building local economies and communities through arts and culture
Sunday workshop: Renewable energy
Sunday workshop: Community planning: creating the future together
Sunday workshop: Affordable, energy-efficient housing
Sunday workshop: Sustainable forestry
Sunday workshop: Ideas for funding a Just Transition
Media / ABF conference in the news
"Imagining a Post-Coal Appalachia" by Alexa Mills on Co-Lab Radio
"Appalachia's Bright Future Conference Held at Harlan Center" by Joe P. Asher of the Harlan Daily
"KFTC hosts Appalachia's Bright Future Conference in Harlan" by Shane Pippen of The Hazard Herald
"Reflection on Appalachia's Bright Future Conference" by Meta Mendel-Reyes on KFTC's blog
"Appalachia's Bright Future Longtime Coming," a blog by Fr. Patrick Delahanty at the Louisville Courier-Journal
Op-ed, "Building a Path to a Just Transition away from Coal" by Al Smith in the Lexington Herald-Leader
"Kentucky Future," a 10-minute radio piece by Sylvia Ryerson of WMMT, broadcast on "Inside Appalachia" on WV Public Radio
"A Region with More Than Mountaintops" by Willie Davis on The Daily Yonder
Next steps
Carry this conversation forward and outward!
We can all write letters to the editor about this weekend. We can tweet about what we’ve learned using the hashtags #abfconf and/or #apptransition. We can talk with our county judge-executives and legislators about the opportunities we see for a just transition. We can talk with our family and friends.
LIKE the "New Energy & Transition for Kentucky" Facebook page.
Use it to share updates, articles and information and communicate with each other. Other good related Facebook pages include Making Connections News, Appalachian Transition Initiative and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth.
Join a conference call on Thursday, May 30th at 7 pm.
Join us to discuss outcomes and next steps from this weekend. By that time KFTC will have sifted through all the notes and have good summary information to share. We’ll discuss ways to have conversations with our elected officials about these issues. We can also use this call to update each other about other related opportunities and resources. KFTC will send call-in information to everyone who registered this weekend.
Join KFTC if you are not yet a member, and attend a local chapter meeting in May.
At these local meetings in May to reflect on this weekend and discuss ideas for local actions. More information can be found at www.kftc.org/calendar.
May 13
- Harlan County KFTC chapter meets at 6 pm in the Harlan Library
- Floyd County KFTC chapter meets at 7 pm at 152 North Lake Drive, Prestonsburg
May 14
- Letcher County KFTC chapter meets at 6 pm at Here Comes The Bun Bakery, Main Street, Whitesburg
May 21
- Perry County KFTC chapter meets at 6 pm at the Vo-Tech Campus of Hazard Community and Technical College in the Owens Building, Room 118
Videos from the conference
Videos from Saturday's opening plenary
KFTC chairperson Sue Tallichet's opening statement:
MACED's Justin Maxson's perspetive on a Just Transition:
Other videos from Saturday's opening plenary: Perspectives on a Just Transition
- Video of Bennie Massey's perspective on a Just Transition
- Video of Gerry Roll's perspective on a Just Transition
- Video of Anthony Flaccavento's perspective on a Just Transition
- Video of Joe Uehlein's perspective on a Just Transition
- Video of Todd Howard's perspective on a Just Transition
- Video of Ivy Brashear's perspective on a Just Transition
Videos from Saturday's second plenary: Transition Stories
KFTC member Ada Smith introduces the plenary session:
Oysterman and former cod fisherman Brendan Smith on the transition story of Atlantic fisheries and the parallel with coal-producing regions:
Other videos from Saturday's second plenary: Transition Stories
- Video of Noah Enelow's transition story of the Pacific Northwest
- Video of Anthony Flaccavento's transition story of agriculture in Southwest Virginia
- Video of Martin Richard's transition story of tobacco in Kentucky
- Video of Wahleah Johns transition story of coal in the Navajo (Dine) tribe
Contact us / Leave a question or comment
Email KFTC staffperson Lisa Abbott with any questions or feedback on the conference or these pages by clicking here.
Transition Resources and Connections
Transition Reading
There has been some great writing recently about Appalachian Transition. Here are a few of them:
- How Beshear can spark a bright future for East Kentucky by Ron Eller and Al Smith
- Coal Severance Controversy by Carrie Ray
- Have you had enough, yet? by Amelia Holliday
- Refocus use of coal fund for East Kentucky – Lexington Herald-Leader editorial
- Where should coal severance money go? by Carrie Ray
- Create East Kentucky endowment, make better use of coal severance tax by Mark Kidd
- Beshear, Rogers should start mending Ky.'s wounds from 'war on coal' – Lexington Herald-Leader editorial
- Eastern Kentucky’s future chained to coal despite millions spent on diversification by John Cheves and Bill Estep
Appalachia's Bright Future word cloud
A word cloud made from notes taken during all the plenaries and workshops at the conference. The more prominent the word, the more often it was spoken during the weekend.
Join the conversation on Facebook
Photos from the conference
Slide show of Friday's activities. (More photos to come...)
Appalachia's Bright Future PlaceStories
Click the thumbnail images above to watch videos, listen to audio recordings and read postcards about Appalachian Transition and the Appalachia's Bright Future conference. See the full list of ABF PlaceStories and add your own here.