Rockcastle Regional Hospital & Respiratory Care Center is one of the best examples of this. Established in 1956, they first recognized a need for long-term care for ventilator-dependent patients in the 1980s and decided to establish this as one of their specialties.

Today, patients from more than 26 states have traveled to Mount Vernon to receive this care and they are one of the only locations in Kentucky offering these services.

They have expanded the Respiratory Care Center to now accommodate 143 residents at any given time. At the same time, they’ve made major technology updates to improve quality of life for their long-term residents.

Community Relations Director Jana Bray said many patients come to Rockcastle Regional when they are babies, and stay for the rest of their lives, while other patients may stay until they can wean from the ventilator. Their current rate of weaning patients is 40 percent, the highest in the nation.

Many times, when a patient is placed on a ventilator, they lose the ability to communicate as air no longer reaches the vocal cords. Rockcastle Regional staff works with patients to guide them through the use of a speaking valve, and for those whose illness may not allow them to speak through the valve, they guide them through the use of a device called a Tobii.

The Tobii allows residents to use their eyes to focus on a digital keyboard. Near-infrared illumination reflects patterns on resident’s cornea and pupil, and image sensors capture images of their eyes. Looking at a letter for less than a second causes that letter to appear as text, allowing residents to “type” messages with their eyes.

One resident who suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) reported that being able to communicate has given him new hope and optimism. He said the Tobii gives him access to social media, which helps him stay socially connected.

In addition, many of the patients have rooms equipped with Google Home devices so they can access information and music using voice control. Proven to be a mood stimulator, music also increases language exposure for those dealing with speech/language challenges.

Further looking for ways to innovate, in 2011, they became the first hospital in the state to use solar as a major source of their energy.

More than 200 solar modules were installed on the roof of the hospital’s Outpatient Services Center, generating more than 60.9 Kilowatts total. The solar panels essentially power the energy use of the third floor of the Outpatient Services Center.

Rockcastle Regional is the county’s largest employer with more than 800 employees, and they continually seek to serve the larger community. In addition to their award-winning acute and outpatient care, they have a robust outreach program focused on preventing illness. For the past several years, they have coordinated one run/walk event every month through their Countywide Stride series. They also regularly provide health screenings and education through various events, such as Ladies Night Out and more.

“Our community outreach programs have become an example for other healthcare organizations across the country to follow,” said Bray. “Our programs continue to make real change for people in our county, and we plan to continue offering these resources for years to come.”

Not only does Rockcastle Regional help drive the county economy by bringing in individuals from across the country for top-notch ventilator care, but they provide excellent services for local residents and focus on building a culture of health in the area. They are a model for rural hospitals across the country and their efforts are putting fresh air into Appalachia’s New Day in Rockcastle County.

About: This is story #42 in the Appalachia’s New Day campaign, a new storytelling effort launched in June 2019 by MACED for Eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.

The post Appalachia’s New Day: Rural Hospitals in Eastern Kentucky appeared first on Mountain Association.

Bittersweet Photos is an annual initiative of the Rockcastle Arts Association to document the “places and faces” of Rockcastle County. The project is named for the Bittersweet Festival hosted in downtown Mount Vernon every fall and is in its second year.

Throughout Summer 2019, Arts Association board member Carrie Mullins and fellow board member and photographer, Selena Thompson, captured photos and quotes from nearly 100 people in Rockcastle County.

With the City of Mount Vernon firmly in support as a sponsor and enthusiast, the photos were then blown up into life-size portraits and placed in 14 local businesses up and down Main Street for two weeks before the Bittersweet Festival, and for two weeks after.

They visited three places in Rockcastle County to take photos and interviews, including the annual Great Saltpetre Cave Preserve opening in May 2019, Blast in the Valley in July 2019, and two nights at the Brodhead Little World’s Fair in August 2019. In their “Bittersweet Photos” t-shirts, they simply walked around these events and asked folks if they would agree to be featured. For those who agreed, they asked a couple of open-ended questions focused mostly on Rockcastle County, and then took a few photos.

“We wanted to try something different, to involve as many people as possible in an art project, and to look at ourselves and downtown Mount Vernon from a different perspective,” Mullins and Thompson said. “We wanted friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and visitors to enjoy these photos and to start conversations around them.”

Mullins and Thompson said they were inspired by Humans of New York, Louisville Story Program, the street photographer JR, and, of course, the people of Rockcastle County and the buildings of Mount Vernon.

The photos were also compiled into a book, on sale for $30 to benefit the Arts Association.

The Arts Association was established in January 2018 in a space on Main Street donated by Amburgey Law. The all-volunteer organization coordinates many $10 arts workshops throughout the year, such as songwriting, photography and more. The $10 goes toward the purchase of supplies and to pay instructors. They also work on other community arts projects, such as an upcoming murals of Rockcastle project, and their second annual Noel Night Market for craft vendors.

There are many other groups working in Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia to tell stories in unique ways. Here are just a few more to explore:

• Looking at Appalachia
• New Story West Virginia
• Only in Appalachia
• Breaking Beans (Community Farm Alliance’s Community Ambassadors)
• Country Queers
• Podcasts: Weird Appalachia, Dark Holler (Kentucky Old Time Music), Inside Appalachia  
• Media Collaboration: 100 Days in Appalachia

About: This is story #41 in the Appalachia’s New Day campaign, a new storytelling effort launched in June 2019 by MACED for Eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.

The post Appalachia’s New Day: Community Storytelling in Eastern Kentucky appeared first on Mountain Association.

From a very early age, I just knew inherently that where I was from – the Left Fork of Maces Creek in Viper – was better than the Right or Middle Forks of Maces Creek. We were different than those folks, and so, our Fork was better. I also knew that living out in the county was way better than living in the city of Hazard. What did the city have to offer that the county didn’t make up for in so many ways?

My parents, alumnus of Dilce Combs High School circa 1971, still harbor deep-seeded disdain of Hazard High School because they were cross-county rivals. And when the consolidated high school opened in 1996, hatred of Hazard High carried over. The two school boards had to cancel the annual Perry Central-Hazard football game, the Black Gold Bowl, for a few years because the rivalry had become too intense.

We Eastern Kentuckians love the UK Wildcats, but hate the Duke Blue Devils (this one is, of course, justified; there are few reasons to like Duke). We know the grudges of our grandparents, and we hold true to those grudges, remembering every slight we were ever told, and are able to recount them if ever the aggressors’ names are mentioned. Though the stories of the now-infamous feuds have been exaggerated in order to turn a profit, it is largely true that Eastern Kentuckians stick together and stick to their own. It’s just – for lack of a better phrase – in our blood.

However, despite the friendly culture of rivalry present in the region, competition is not necessarily how we should live our lives if we are to build a better and brighter future for ourselves. We need to work together across artificial lines of division that have been created to keep us separate.

The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange (RUX), a 5-year-old program of Art of the Rural and Appalshop, is working to dismantle those dividing lines. RUX seeks to foster connection among Kentuckians from all corners of the state across lines of geography, ideology, identity, race, class, sector and other barriers. Through this connection, an increased understanding and appreciation of Kentucky as a whole – rural to urban, north to south, east to west – is fostered.

The hope is that by connecting a group of about 60 Kentuckians each summer, big ideas about improving communities for all Kentuckians will coalesce and eventually come to fruition.

RUX believes that we are stronger and more resilient together than we are divided, and in order to move forward and build the Kentucky we want to see, we must come together in real and meaningful ways. To that end, RUX offers three weekend-long Community Intensives each summer. During the Community Intensives, participants are guided through leadership development activities and community learning that includes cultural exchange, history lessons, deep discussions of place, people and community, and facilitated time to think deeply about how the relationships being formed could develop into community change.

RUX has served more than 200 Kentuckians from 42 counties over its five years, and it intends to keep growing.

They continue to search for new areas of growth – both in terms of which communities they’ll travel to next, but also, whom they have yet to reach with this work. They are constantly keeping their vision aimed at growing the circle and further breaking down divisions that have kept us apart. Though friendly rivalries will remain, RUX will keep stepping over dividing lines to facilitate building the future together, with all Kentuckians, for all Kentuckians.

It doesn’t get much more about Appalachia’s New Day than that.

About: This is story #39 in the Appalachia’s New Day campaign, a new storytelling effort launched in June 2019 by MACED for Eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.

The post Appalachia’s New Day: Kentucky Rural and Urban Exchange appeared first on Mountain Association.

They’ve invested more than $9 million in southeastern Kentucky since 2009 through grantmaking, which is the primary way they support organizations. In 2018 alone, the Foundation distributed more than $3.4 million. 

“We are pooling resources, leveraging private dollars with public funds, and tackling entrenched systemic issues with people in communities they have loved for generations, or have come to love as their new home,” Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky Executive Director Gerry Roll said in a recent op-ed. “It’s not happening quickly, and it’s not going to be cheap. But it is happening.”

There are 1.2 million people living in Appalachia Kentucky’s 54 counties. That’s more than a quarter of the entire state. The Foundation believes that funds invested responsibly in and with the people who will be impacted the most, are what will transform southeastern Kentucky, and subsequently, the entire state.

In 2017, the Foundation worked with Kentuckians Brook and Pam Smith to establish and house a new social-impact investment fund, the Appalachian Impact Fund (AIF). The Smiths wanted to start the fund because they recognized the immense needs and challenges that existed alongside the region’s promises and opportunities, and they felt a responsibility to reinvest in the region.

Brook has a longtime relationship with Eastern Kentucky through several decades of providing surety bonds on behalf of the construction and mining industries across the region. Recognizing that their personal wealth is deeply tied to mountain people, land and communities, the Smith family felt a personal and social responsibility to reinvest in the region.

The Smith family hired philanthropic advisor and Eastern Kentuckian Lora Smith (no relation) to help develop the operating model, set strategy with the board, and serve as the Fund Manager.

“The opportunity to co-create the first social impact fund located in and serving Central Appalachia was an exciting prospect. This was the first time I could see the possibility for a direct reinvestment strategy to emerge and grow for coalfield communities that shifted resources and power back to local people,” AIF Fund Manager Lora Smith said.

AIF was established with a multi-million-dollar commitment from the Smith family and deploys capital to community-led initiatives. AIF’s strategies are informed by the Foundation, local leaders and a mission to support equitable economic transition in the region. In less than two years, AIF has leveraged an additional $3.5 million outside the Smith’s investment.

The Appalachian Impact Fund focuses on supporting three main areas:

• Geographically anchored communities, so small towns and counties can provide opportunities for entrepreneurship and amenities that cater to local life and visitor experience that support and promote the best of Appalachian Kentucky’s cultural and natural assets. This includes:
  • Arts and culture enterprises
  • Community revitalization through repositioning historic buildings and infill (developing vacant parcels within built areas)
  • Visitor economy infrastructure including attractions, hospitality, amenities and culinary enterprises

• Workforce Empowerment, so people can transform human and natural capital into financial capital for the benefit of the region. This includes:
  • Affordable and energy efficient housing
  • Transportation options and alternatives
  • Rural childcare and early childhood development
  • Community and business-driven workforce education

• Locally Controlled Philanthropy, because communities know best what their challenges and needs are, and the creative strategies and plans to solve those challenges. Community controlled and directed philanthropy is one of the building blocks for creating healthy, vibrant and sustainable local communities in rural places. This includes:
  • Support of the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky and the geographic component funds of the Foundation
  • Civic capacity and good government

AIF envisions Eastern Kentucky as a place of unique, thriving local economies that enhance the existing natural and cultural assets of the region and offer economic opportunity for all people, while keeping ownership, assets and wealth rooted in local communities.

Ensuring our rural areas are invested in with philanthropic dollars is critical to building Appalachia’s New Day. To support locally-controlled philanthropy in Eastern Kentucky, please find information about donating to the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky here.

About: This is story #38 in the Appalachia’s New Day campaign, a new storytelling effort launched in June 2019 by MACED for Eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.

The post Appalachia’s New Day: Investment in Eastern Kentucky appeared first on Mountain Association.

The online visitor center, www.visiteasternkentucky.org, went live in spring 2019 with a website launch party at the old Carr Creek High School. The website serves as a portal for anyone interested in visiting the five counties of Harlan, Knott, Leslie, Letcher and Perry.

In 2017, the tourism industry generated more than $126 million in this area alone.

“These are real and very important numbers, important to any economy. Through the growing efforts of county tourism in the region and our new Visit Eastern Kentucky website, we believe we can grow these numbers substantially in the coming years,” said Corbett Mullins, treasurer for the Carr Creek Alumni Association.

Visitors can use the online portal to discover places to stay, eat, activities, festivals and events, as well as find each county’s tourism pages. The website features more than 600 photos taken by Malcolm Wilson, one of Eastern Kentucky’s great photographers, who also helped develop the website with funding from MACED.

According to Glen Hale, Chairperson of the Carr Creek Alumni Association, they are currently working to convert the closed Carr Creek High School into a brick and mortar regional visitor center. The high school, which originally opened in a log structure in 1919 closed in 1974. Besides opening a regional welcome center in the old high school, they have plans to also include a museum, bed and breakfast, restaurant on the lake, and a community center.

The Carr Creek Alumni Association and a growing number of Knott County communities and organizations, including the Knott County Tourism Commission, Carr Creek Marina, and several of the county’s community centers, are currently exploring the potential of creating a county-wide network of grassroots groups committed to economic development through collaboration, cooperation and cultural celebration. They are working with the Letcher County Culture Hub, a growing network of community-led organizations in Letcher County who work together to create new opportunities (see a story on the Hub here), to learn about their model for county collaboration.

Our stunning forested mountains and rich cultural traditions are important assets with tourism potential. Projects to attract tourists must be very thoughtful in development because it’s a sector well-known for low wages and seasonal jobs, environmental and quality of life impacts, and the commodification of local culture. When local tourism entrepreneurs are given the tools and support they need to develop their own businesses, and local communities are involved in planning and development decisions like they are in Knott County, tourism can be a strong building block to a diversified economy and Appalachia’s New Day.

About: This is story #37 in the Appalachia’s New Day campaign, a new storytelling effort launched in June 2019 by MACED for Eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.

The post Appalachia’s New Day: Rethinking Tourism in Eastern Kentucky appeared first on Mountain Association.

Brent Hutchinson, Executive Director of Hindman Settlement School and a 2019 Obama Foundation Fellow, said they had so much interest this year, they added another session in order to let a few more people join.

Hindman is well-known for attracting and generating a strong community of writers and artists. Since May Stone and Katherine Pettit established Hindman Settlement School in 1902 as the first rural settlement school, the campus and Knott County has seen a consistent rotation of writers. James Still, a well-known Appalachian author, was associated with Hindman for nearly 70 years and is buried on the Settlement’s campus. Lucy Furman, an accomplished writer before coming to Hindman, published five novels about her years as housemother to Settlement School students, about the school and about the area.

Today, the school provides practical courses and programs, including unique educational services for children with dyslexia and their parents. They also work to preserve and promote the area’s cultural heritage through arts programs such as the Writers Workshop, the Makery, an immersive online writing studio, Common Threads, and more. Hindman has become known for investing in the arts. The Appalachian Artisan Center, which houses the Appalachian School of Luthiery, Culture of Recovery, artist studio spaces and a gift shop selling local artists’ work, sits on Main Street. The Hindman campus of Hazard Community and Technical College is home to the Kentucky School of Craft and Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Company.

“More than 100 years of history lives here and you are now a part of that history,” Rebecca Gayle Howell, who is the writer-in-residence at the Settlement School, said during an evening program at the Workshop. “I don’t know of anything else in the American tradition like the Appalachian literary legacy.”

When writers apply for the Writer’s Workshop, they must submit an original manuscript in their chosen genre, whether it be creative nonfiction, novel, short story or poetry. Writers are chosen for the quality of work in order to have an advanced cohort. During the workshop, writers attend immersive workshops during the day, each led by a well-known author. Each evening, there is a shared dinner and an evening program including documentaries and readings.

This year’s Thursday evening program kicked off with Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, a poet, author and associate professor of English at Cornell University. Robert Gipe, an author living in Harlan County, followed with a reading from his second novel, Weedeater, published in 2018. Among many other creative projects, Gipe is a producer for Higher Ground, a community theater project based in Harlan County, dramatizing local and regional issues.

A review of Weedeater, by Southern Lit Review, described the novel’s plot, “Back in Kentucky, the Jewell family members continue to live up a holler about as far as you can stick a needle. And some like needles. The plot is loaded with activists, artistic locals, coal miners, multiple do-less folks, day laborers, deaths, betrayals, loss, sadness, love. Folks shoot up. Folks steal. Folks threaten. Folks get whacked. Folks love family. No one wins a ‘get out of jail free’ card or buys Boardwalk. Few battles are won. Like the flying debris and dirt flung by a weed eater, the characters are impossible to ignore.”

Gipe, like many writers at the Workshops over the years, attend as many summers as possible. With a region as complex and unique as Central Appalachia, it is essential for creatives to have a shared space like the Writers Workshop to develop ideas, characters and to discuss emerging trends. Finding ways to write about the region in a nuanced way is no small feat.

Our region’s legacy of art, including its literature, is a tremendous asset as we look to build Appalachia’s New Day.

About: This is story #36 in the Appalachia’s New Day campaign, a new storytelling effort launched in June 2019 by MACED for Eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.

The post Appalachia’s New Day: Literary Tradition in Eastern Kentucky appeared first on Mountain Association.

Progress Pike is an informal community group in Pike County that formed in 2017 after community members planned a peace rally to counter-protest a group of neo-Nazis that planned to rally in Pikeville. For a variety of reasons, the peace rally never happened, but it left organizers full of ideas for new ways to unite their community around acceptance.

Along with a series of community conversations and workshops, Progress Pike put out a call for community members to apply for mini-grants for community projects about inclusion and acceptance. These mini-grants were a way to distribute some of the funds donated in response to the white supremacist rally back to the community. The grants were awarded at a Unity Celebration in the Pikeville City Park on the one-year anniversary of the neo-Nazi rally. One of the grants went to a group with a proposal to plan a Pikeville Pride festival. 

Progress Pike also worked on several other initiatives in conjunction with the Unity Celebration. Some of those initiatives were a county-wide poetry contested organized by Pike County Extension Fine Arts, Pikeville Poetry, and Progress Pike for students in grades K-12 called “Voices of Pike”. They also coordinated a “Story to Song” workshop series with Pike County Extension Fine Arts and Pikeville Poetry, which included a free two-day songwriting workshop for girls. The girls then performed their collaborative song at the Unity Celebration.

In October 2018, members of Pikeville’s LGBTQIA community and its allies gathered in Pikeville City Park for the first ever Pikeville Pride event. It was coordinated on a volunteer basis by local community members with support from several other organizations, and the event featured live music, drag performances, vendors, face painting, a “free mom hugs” booth and more. One of the main goals of the event was to give visibility to the LGBTQ+ community and celebrate their identity. Organizers said the event was a great success with hundreds turning out to show their love and support.

Because of the success of the Pride festival, a volunteer community group, Pikeville Pride, committed to plan others. In July of this year, they hosted the first ever Pikeville Pride Prom at Coal Run Community Center which was a sold-out event to fundraise for the second annual Pikeville Pride festival, which is this Saturday, October 12, 2019 from noon until 5p.m. in Pikeville City Park. This year’s event will feature many of the same highlights from last year’s event, with the addition of a “Pup Pride Parade” wherein people can bring their pets to be part of the event.

Creating welcoming spaces and events for all community members to gather is a vital part of Appalachia’s New Day.

About: This is story #35 in the Appalachia’s New Day campaign, a new storytelling effort launched in June 2019 by MACED for Eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.

The post Appalachia’s New Day: Celebrating Pride in Eastern Kentucky appeared first on Mountain Association.

Knott County ranks fifth nationwide for opioid hospitalizations. Culture of Recovery, based at the Appalachian Artisan Center (AAC) in Hindman, is looking to change that. By partnering with local substance abuse recovery programs Hickory Hills Recovery Center and the Knott County Drug Court, they are bringing an art-integrated approach to the fight against addiction.

The program started in 2018 and offers art and entrepreneurial workshops in painting, journal-making and cooking, as well as apprenticeships in craft trades like blacksmithing, luthiery (or, instrument making) and ceramics to those in recovery. The program promotes creative expression, skill-building, and economic opportunity for those struggling to overcome addiction through a mentorship and apprenticeship approach.

The Culture of Recovery (COR) program manager said they have about 36 participants per week from either Hickory Hills or the Drug Court.

Individuals who enter Drug Court after being convicted of a criminal offense struggle with serious substance abuse disorders. Drug Court offers long-term drug treatment and court supervision instead of a jail sentence. Depending on the offense, individuals can be in the program for a few months or a few years. COR has become a major component of programming for many in Drug Court.

I’m hopeful to get my life straightened back up to where it was 25 years ago. Be able to have something before I retire. Right now, I’ve lost everything and rebuilt it all four times in my life. I’m just tired of rebuilding everything.

– COR participant

Hickory Hills is a private rehabilitation facility located on a reclaimed mine site in Knott County. Most participants are in the program for 9-12 months, and can continue as a peer mentor after they complete the program. Patients have regimented schedules from morning to evening. COR offers a two-hour program for Hickory Hills residents on Wednesday afternoons.

Current COR programming includes:

• ArtSlams: Single-day workshops designed for beginners and experienced artists. Participants take part in song writing, journal making, acrylic painting, poetry, printmaking and more. COR employs many local artists to lead these workshops. For example, well known artist Jeff Chapman Crane led a mini-art journey in watercolor. Local jewelry maker Jill Robertson has taught jewelry making.
• ArtJourney: Long-term mentorship programming in blacksmithing, pottery and luthiery. Participants work with master artists Dan Estep (blacksmithing), Jessica Evans (pottery) and Doug Naselroad (luthiery) over the course of their recovery. If they wish to continue post-recovery, they can learn the tradecraft, and thus, employable or entrepreneurial skills.
• Community Engagement Projects: A variety of projects with the community at large. Examples include exhibits, murals and sidewalk art.

“A lot of participants make things for people they love – people they have harmed throughout their addiction – and find the programs simply therapeutic. However, we have already had a few who love working in the arts enough to turn it into a business,” the program manager said.

One example is Saving Grace Pottery, recently started by COR participant Kim Patton. AAC worked with Patton to sell her a pottery wheel, assist her with setting up an Etsy shop, and in creating a logo. She is currently selling her items at AAC’s store, on Etsy and at local craft fairs. She also now teaches pottery for COR.

Another example is Nathan Smith, a former coal miner hired out of COR as an apprentice luthier at Troublesome Creek Stringed Instruments Company, a new manufacturing facility based in Hindman.

Patton traveled with COR this summer to Frankfort to a meeting of the specialty courts. Patton demonstrated pottery and Hall shared COR’s experiences with drug courts in other Kentucky counties. Outside of Knott County, COR said very few drug courts incorporate art into their programs. Hands Healing in Frankfort, which incorporates arts for women in recovery, is one of the only other examples in the state.

AAC is working to record oral histories of those going through COR, and are sharing those on social media nearly every day. Anyone is invited to share in these journeys to recovery.

“Most drug courts use community service as a form of treatment, which sometimes feels like a punishment to those in recovery. We are changing the punishment model into a creative model,” the COR program manager said. “Art is something that serves and strengthens those in recovery.”

COR is funded by Art Place America and is currently in its first year of a 2.5-year grant. They have also received support from the Kentucky Arts Council. COR also partners with East Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP) to teach business classes.

Finding innovative ways to assist individuals combating addiction, and to help the community understand addiction, involves more people in the movement for Appalachia’s New Day.

About: This is story #34 in the Appalachia’s New Day campaign, a new storytelling effort launched in June 2019 by MACED for Eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.

The post Appalachia’s New Day: Addiction Recovery Through Art appeared first on Mountain Association.

Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Company in Hindman, Kentucky, will produce high-end custom artisanal guitars, mandolins and mountain dulcimers – all made from Appalachian hardwoods. The idea for the business sprung out of a series of developments in Hindman over the past several years.

In 2012, the Appalachian Artisan Center (AAC) hired Doug Naselroad as Master Luthier for their Appalachian School of Luthiery, which teaches instrument construction to students and apprentices of all ages. A native of Mount Sterling, Naselroad started making guitars in 1969 under the tutelage of Homer Ledford. Homer Ledford, a prominent feature at the Museum of the Mountain Dulcimer, which is located on the first floor of the AAC, is said to have made over 6,000 dulcimers, not to mention other instruments.

“He was a great mentor, and impressed into me the importance of ‘training it forward,’ teaching someone else how to do it in order to create generations,” Naselroad said.

The opioid epidemic was taking hold stronger than ever after he started his new role. One day, a local resident approached Naselroad.

“He told me, ‘I need to do this.’ He needed a goal to fix on that would be worth it along his way to recovery,” Naselroad said.

AAC began to think of ways arts could enter into the recovery process, and they came up with the Culture of Recovery program. Culture of Recovery partners with local substance abuse recovery programs, Hickory Hills Recovery Center and the Knott County Drug Court, to use an art-integrated approach to the fight against addiction. They organize a weekly series of art and entrepreneurial workshops, and on-going apprenticeships in craft trades such as blacksmithing, luthiery and ceramics, for those in recovery. For those that show interest in building their own businesses in the crafts they are learning, the program assists them with developing marketing materials and business skills.

“Once they learn the craft and how to market themselves well, they can get what we call ‘the New York price’ for what they are making,” Naselroad said. “For instruments, that’s over $1,000 per piece.”

With the success of the Culture of Recovery program, they decided to build a business designed to employ unemployed local residents and those in recovery, and Troublesome Creek Stringed Instruments Company was born.

Troublesome Creek first looks to those going through the Culture of Recovery program and the School of Luthiery for potential employees. Currently in its first year, Troublesome Creek has five employees: Naselroad, who directs the company; Kris Patrick, apprentice luthier; John Hamlett, consultant on mandolin construction; Sharon Morris, manager; and Nathan Smith, an apprentice luthier. Smith is a former coal miner from Knott County and the first Culture of Recovery program hire.

They plan to have 37 employees by their sixth year, ultimately reaching 65 employees as they increase production.

Throughout summer 2019, they have established their catalog by running prototypes and doing measurements to get jigs and fixtures how they want them. They are repairing existing equipment in the shop and determining what machines they still need to buy.

Their goal is to have finished products to take to the National Association of Music Merchants in January 2020. The instruments will be made almost exclusively out of local, sustainably-produced wood, fitting with their mission to build the local economy.

Troublesome Creek is excited to have the support of the local community and beyond. Earlier this year, the Appalachian Regional Commission announced a $12 million investment for addiction recovery and workforce development in Appalachian Kentucky, and $867,000 of that investment went to Troublesome Creek. The Appalachian Impact Fund has assisted with seed money, and MACED is a financial partner on the project. Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program is providing financial assistance for training.

Building arts into recovery, and building recovery into the new economy, involves more people in our communities in the movement toward Appalachia’s New Day.

About: This is story #33 in the Appalachia’s New Day campaign, a new storytelling effort launched in June 2019 by MACED for Eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.

The post Appalachia’s New Day: Building Recovery into Business appeared first on Mountain Association.

As you make a sharp turn into the town of Irvine, Kentucky – the heart of Estill County – the Mack Theatre welcomes you with its bold marquee. The theater is a historic landmark on Main Street, and was used as a stable before it was converted into a theater in the late 1930s. However, the Mack has not shown a film since 1993.

Today, River City Players, a local community theater group, is working to revive the Mack as a live performance space.

Their restoration work has gained speed over the past few years after years of raising money to buy the building. They secured a USDA grant to remove the asbestos and lead paint, and were awarded a HUD Community Development Block Grant in February 2019 to replace the roof and address structural issues with the walls. The Block Grant contributed $500,000 toward the project and has given them even greater momentum.

“We have saved the Mack. Now, we need to fix it,” said River City Players Board of Directors Bobby Carol Noland.

The River City Players started in 2013 to create a performing arts group for Estill County. Since then, they have presented several live productions and three drama camps in addition to their work on the Mack. Last year, they partnered with the Estill Arts Council to provide a combined performance and visual arts camp. Now an operating division of Estill Development Alliance, the community and the county government have been huge supporters of their work.

The Mack is not the only restoration in process in Estill County. Friends of the Fitchburg Furnace and the U.S. Forest Service are restoring the Fitchburg Furnace, an 81-foot structure built in 1868 in the hills of Estill County. It was the largest charcoal furnace in the world at the peak of the iron industry, when it employed more than 1,000 people. According to the Forest Service, its intricate architectural design places it among the top 25 dry-stone masonry structures in the world.

The Friends group believes the furnace is another way to draw out-of-area visitors to Estill County. In addition, the Kentucky Railway Heritage Center is restoring pieces of Estill County’s railroad history, with an eye toward developing tourism in the county. Read our coverage of the center here.

Preserving local landmarks helps us know where we came from, and better share interesting local history with visitors. Embracing our unique assets and working together to restore them is an essential part of Appalachia’s New Day.

About: This is story #32 in the Appalachia’s New Day campaign, a new storytelling effort launched in June 2019 by MACED for Eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.

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