Appalachian Regional Development Initiative

This spring a series of "listening sessionsâ€ were held in various locations around the region as part of the Appalachian Regional Development Initiative. The purpose of the sessions was to gather opinions from local stakeholders on the challenges facing communities across Appalachia and potential opportunities for economic and community development.  Over 100 people attended the The final session was held in Morehead, Kentucky on April 15^th.

Attendees formed into 12 groups, each working separately on what they thought were challenges facing their communities and then on what were possible opportunities.  These were then reported to the entire group and recorded.

KFTC member Doug Doerrfeld and staff person Martin Richards attended the session and took the opportunity to talk about The Appalachian Transition Initiative principles and goals.  These included developing measures to geographically target resources to counties most in need of support, promote initiatives that build community, leadership and entrepreneurial capacity, and design ways to ensure the investments reach low-income people and communities.  To achieve these goals, several ideas were suggested including improving low-income housing, a green jobs program, expansion of renewable energy options, expansion of a sustainable local food system and investment in environmental remediation and restoration lands.  The work being done in Benham and Lynch on community energy was highlighted under "hope for the future".

  Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency were also in attendance and representatives of the coal industry took the opportunity to criticize EPA’s recent increased scrutiny of the industry’s water pollution and new Comprehensive Mountaintop Mining Guidance Document.  Doug Doerrfeld spoke thanking EPA for "its long overdue yet very welcome recent actions to protect the people and environment of central Appalachia.â€  Doerrfeld went on to say that a clean and healthy environment is essential to Kentucky’s future economic development in its mountains.â€

 Also in attendance were a number of KFTC allies offering important information about their respective work. They were Tom Carew from Federation of Appalachian housing Enterprises, Rick Clewett with the Cumberland Chapter of The Sierra Club, Jason Bailey from Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, Stacey Epperson of Frontier Housing and Dave Kreher of Peoples’ Self Help Housing.

People who are not able to participate in the sessions are encouraged to share ideas on what the Federal Government can do to help support economic and community development in your community and across Appalachia. Comments will be incorporated into the feedback generated from the listening sessions and will be accepted through April 30, 2010.

To submit comments go to the I Love Mountains website http://www.ilovemountains.org/appalachian-regional-commission/.