Kentucky River | Kentuckians For The Commonwealth

Chapter: Kentucky River

Do you want the absolute best for your family and our community? So do we. The Kentucky River chapter of KFTC includes Perry County, Knott County, and Letcher County. If you live in this region, then we invite you to be part of our local KFTC chapter.

We are a diverse group of people – teachers, retired coal miners, students, unemployed, moms, grandparents and many more. We work together – as we have for many years – to protect our water and land, bring new energy and new jobs to our area, share our vision with elected officials and make sure our region is a safe place to call home for everyone.

We support each other, have fun and get things done. Come join us at our next chapter meeting!

Recent Activities

Perry County chapter hosts KFTC 101 workshop

Jessie Skaggs on April 24, 2014 in , Kentucky River

photo3.jpg Image icon photo3.jpg At their March chapter meeting, members in Perry County discussed different ideas for possible upcoming workshops and events that the chapter could have this year. Wanting to reach newer current members as well as potential members, they decided to hold a series of workshops that would educate people on KFTC, how we organize, and our issue areas. This past Monday, the Perry County chapter hosted the first of these, a KFTC 101 Workshop. 

Footprints for Peace begins annual walk to I Love Mountains Day

Jessie Skaggs on January 31, 2014 in Coal and Water, New Energy and Transition, Just Transition, , Mountaintop Removal and Strip Mining, Big Sandy, , Kentucky River

Perry County member Russell OliverOn Friday, more than a dozen people met in Prestonsburg and began a two-week walk to Frankfort, where they will join more than a thousand other people at I Love Mountains Day.

Groups challenge EPA decision allowing Kentucky officials to gut clean water protection

KFTC staff on December 13, 2013 in Coal and Water, Enforcement, , Mountaintop Removal and Strip Mining, Big Sandy, , Kentucky River, Water Quality

Spinal deformities in fish resulting from selenium exposure. Photo: Wake Forest University.

On Friday, community and environmental groups took legal action against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a recent decision allowing Kentucky to weaken its water quality standards for selenium, a pollutant common to mountaintop removal coal mines.

"KFTC and our allies have worked for years to make EPA fully aware of the systemic failures of Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet to protect our commonwealth’s people, waters and environment,” said Doug Doerrfeld, a member of KFTC’s litigation team. “In light of this history it is disgraceful that EPA would approve a weakened selenium standard that will not only leave aquatic life at risk but will make citizen enforcement all but impossible."

KFTC members speak up for just transition at SOAR Summit

KFTC Staff on December 10, 2013 in New Energy and Transition, Just Transition, Kentucky River, , Rowan County

The conversation about economic transition in eastern Kentucky and Appalachia got a big boost on Monday as more than 1,500 people gathered in Pikeville for the SOAR Summit. Dozens of KFTC members participated, sounding the drumbeat for a just transition in the mountains and distributing ideas and literature with specific suggestions on the principles, process and policies that should guide that transition.

SOAR stands for Shaping Our Appalachian Region, a regional planning process announced in October by Governor Steve Beshear and U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers. The summit on December 9 in Pikeville was the first step in that process.

But KFTC members have been talking about a just transition for years.

Eastern Kentucky women lead reproductive health project

Mimi Pickering on December 6, 2013 in Economic Justice, Kentucky River

In the summer of 2009 a group of young women in Letcher County sat down with Gabriela Alcalde, then director of the Kentucky Health Justice Network, to talk about reproductive health experiences they had growing up and living in east Kentucky. Conversation ranged from the limited sex education offered in school to lack of information and access to reproductive health options to concerns about confidentiality and privacy when visiting local health care providers.  

From that discussion came the East Kentucky Reproductive Health Project, originally a collaboration between Appalshop’s Community Media Initiative and Appalachian Media Institute and the Kentucky Health Justice Network. EKRHP uses peer-produced media and community outreach to give voice and visibility to the reproductive health experiences, concerns and needs of women, especially young women, in Appalachian Kentucky. Short videos on a wide range of reproductive health topics created by AMI Correspondents (young woman trained through EKRHP) are posted on www.ekrhp.org along with discussion guides, detailed information on our bodies, and an extensive listing of resources regionally and nationally. EKRHP also has an active Facebook page. Like us!

Page

Chapter Feature:

Russell Oliver"KFTC empowers residents to bring about positive changes in their communities. It gives members confidence that they can make a difference. You are not one person, but part of a statewide organization of thousands supporting you and your cause."

-Russell Oliver, KFTC member

Regular Meetings:

Hazard, KY 41701
Monthly chapter meeting

Join us every  month for the Kentucky River chapter meeting. We rotate meeting locations so please check the KFTC calendar for most up to date meeting information.

Chapter meetings are a great time to plan local work, discuss local and statewide work, meet new people, and much more. Everyone is welcome and invited to attend! Hope to see you there!

Chapter Organizer:

Hazard, KY 41701

Other Pages