Growing Appalachia
Growing Appalachia is a day of workshops a about small-scale farming, energy efficiency and renewables sponsored by the Big Sandy chapter of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth. The 2016 conference will take place on Saturday, February 25 in Hindman. Visit the event page for information and registration details as it becomes available.
Brief history of the conference:
In 2009, members of the then Floyd County and Knott County chapters were concerned about the recession, the loss of coal jobs, and the effects these things were having on eastern Kentucky. With a desire to be more solution-oriented and to focus on a transition for the region, the Growing Appalachia conference was born.
The first conference was held in 2010 and about fifty people that came to participate in career-focused workshops related to agriculture and energy. The chapter decided it was a good productive conversation and decided to keep it going the following year, but with a broader focus to include ways people can save money or earn some extra income.
Each year since then, the conference has grown but with the continued goal of providing promising, sustainable ideas that people in and around eastern Kentucky can use to save/earn money or even start a small business by focusing on small-scale farming, energy efficiency, and renewables. If you’re interested in getting involved with conference, we would love to hear from you! Contact Jessie Skaggs at 606-263-4982 or send her an email.
To find out more about previous year’s conferences, check out the links below: