RECENT & UPCOMING EVENTS

The Central Appalachian Folk and Traditional Arts (CAFTA) Survey and Planning Project is a project of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in cooperation with the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network. The project included a 15-month study of folk and traditional arts in the central Appalachian regions of Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. This Comprehensive Program Proposal (CPP) is a product of the Central Appalachian Folk and Traditional Arts (CAFTA) Survey and Planning Project, a project of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF) in cooperation with the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN). This CPP serves as a roadmap for a multi-state grant-making program designed to increase the understanding, recognition, and practice of the living folk and traditional arts practices present in central Appalachia. (click image below to view the PDF report)

The Central Appalachian Folk and Traditional Arts (CAFTA) Survey and Planning Project is a project of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF) in cooperation with the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN). The project included a 15-month study of folk and traditional arts in the central Appalachian regions of Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. This report includes a summary of project activities and research methods, as well as a presentation of findings based on CAFTA’s specific learning objectives. Summarizing trends and identifying opportunities, this document guided the creation of a comprehensive program proposal for a multi-state grant-making initiative designed to increase the understanding, recognition, and practice of the living traditions currently present in Central Appalachia. (click image below to view the PDF report)

LiKEN has completed a study that evaluates the efficacy of a major law that seeks to protect families that own heirs’ property.  Heirs’ property is created when land passes without a will to two or more descendants who become “tenants in common”. This kind of “tangled title” can make families vulnerable to predatory land grabs. Across the Cotton Belt of the U.S. South, heirs’ property correlates with low wealth and land loss in African American communities and is common in other regions with entrenched poverty (Central Appalachia, the colonias in southern Texas, and Native American communities)..  As an effort to help preserve family wealth and reduce the likelihood of forced sales and inequitable land grabs, the Uniform Partition of Heirs’ Property Act (UPHPA) was drafted in 2010. It has since been passed in 18 states and introduced in seven others. In 2012 and 2014, Georgia and Alabama, respectively, passed the UPHPA. The act was introduced in Kentucky in early 2021.   LiKEN just completed a 10 month study to see how well this law has worked in Georgia and Alabama, and what its benefits might be in Kentucky. The full report can be downloaded here. Our findings (click here or the image below to view full size PDF)…

Request for Proposal To develop popular education materials about pipeline safety Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN) is seeking a social innovation and user-experience/user-interface design contractor (individual or firm) to develop a creative series of digital and non-digital, on-line and off-line education and engagement products, materials, and prototypes. These products, materials, and prototypes will utilize existing gas and hazardous liquids pipeline safety information, education, and public outreach materials that have been collected during research projects conducted over the past twelve years by Pipeline Safety Coalition (PSC).  The contractor will be responsible for facilitating ideation, design, prototypes, user-testing, and final product and material development using environmental justice and public health models of prevention principles and approaches. These principles and approaches require a commitment to understanding and working with local community experiences, different types of existing knowledges, perceptions of risk, and institutional and informational power imbalances in order to ensure that all products, materials, and prototypes are developed and disseminated in information rich, culturally relevant, and broadly inclusive and accessible formats.  The design focus will be on collaborative and integrated, iterative processes to assist in meeting the challenges of both designing and disseminating a series of products and materials that can be immediately…

By Julie Maldonado The climate crisis is ravaging communities nationwide and disproportionately affecting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, who are losing their homes and livelihoods due to more severe and frequent storms, rising seas, erosion, flooding, extreme heat, wildfires, and various other climate events. These communities are further disenfranchised through inadequate and inequitable public policy responses to our climate crisis, including extreme weather events, which further exacerbates and even creates the unfolding, accumulating disasters. To motivate action to advance community-led solutions to climate-forced displacement in the US, the Legal Justice Coalition (facilitated by the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and the Lowlander Center) and the Rising Voices Community Relocation & Site Expansion Working Group issued policy recommendations earlier this year. The set of recommendations is designed to guide policymakers to address the shortfalls of official current responses to the threat of climate-forced displacement but also challenges them to launch a concerted effort to respond to this urgent crisis. At the heart of these policy recommendations is the need to center the agency, leadership, and self-determination of frontline communities in addressing climate-forced displacement.   The policy recommendations for both Congressional and Executive Action include the need to:  Increase resources for frontline communitiesGrant…

Develop the skills you need for our changing worldMasters of Applied Community Development Rural-Urban Divide Webinar Series View Webinar Part One Watch the recording by clicking the button above and send it to someone who might be interested in joining for Part 2 and beyond! Register Below for Part Two. New Participants — Register Here!

LiKEN & Martin County Concerned Citizens seek Community Engagement Coordinator  Posted: June 4, 2021Application deadline: June 25, 2021 or until position is filled We seek a full-time community organizer to work on community development projects in eastern Kentucky. The position will be based primarily in Martin and surrounding counties. The initial contract will be for one year, with the potential to become a permanent position. Job Description: We are looking for an energetic individual with a passion to contribute to the wellbeing of communities in eastern Kentucky. We seek someone who enjoys working with people. A key responsibility will be to organize outreach and recruit participants in various community development projects. Your role will be to motivate and support people as they come together to identify needs and to solve problems in their locales. You will play an essential role in building effective communication and collaboration among diverse partners in this work — including community members and nonprofits, local and state officials, and researchers. Your first responsibility is to listen deeply to the diverse perspectives within the communities you serve. Other responsibilities will be to conduct educational and planning workshops, write reports, and to build leadership and skills among project…

By Jackie Rigley I became a research assistant for LiKEN in January of 2020 and I was looking forward to attending Rising Voices 8 in April. Then, March came along and the Covid-19 pandemic unraveled any plans of an in-person workshop. I was disappointed that I would not get to experience the Rising Voices workshop; however, a few weeks later, we got news that the workshop was going to be held virtually. At the Virtual Rising Voices 8 (VRV8) Kickoff event in April, I did not know what to expect. The program began with a series of videos from fellow Rising Voices participants introducing themselves and their homes. It was refreshing to see new faces and places as I had been sheltered at home for a month. Host Kalani Souza immediately lifted my spirits with his energetic introduction and storytelling superpowers. Conversational topics highlighted Indigenous community experiences not only related to the pandemic, but also topics such as food and water systems, climate variability, and other adaptations to the present challenges. Although many difficult experiences were shared, there was always recognition of the resilience of Indigenous communities. Rising Voices members exemplified a strong faith in one another and effort to…

Article and Images by Sarah Morairty I feel that I am not alone in saying that at this point, I am completely lost. We are all no longer able to live the lives we were accustomed to. Our existence, in a way, has been utterly and irreversibly altered. These social distancing protocols have imposed a whole new twist to life, and one that none of us saw coming or were remotely prepared for. During this time of distance and confusion, we are all looking for something to feel connected to. Generally speaking, our daily lives typically consist of activities and things that give us purpose, whether they be exercising, owning a pet, working a 9-5, going to school, etc. I feel that we as humans are always trying to find our individual purposes, a feat that was hard enough before this crisis. Now, social distancing has added an even more difficult complication. Every day, we have to wake up and figure out how to translate our old lives into a new, more restricted one. Every day, it seems we are presented with another unforeseen consequence of the virus: some are losing their jobs, some are losing loved ones, loved ones…

(image by Future Generations University) A Future Generations University Webinar LiKEN invites you to join Anthony Flaccavento, with guest speakers Kathy Cramer and Erica Etelson, on four free webinars in June hosted by Future Generations University. Please join us in taking a deeper dive into the rural-urban divide, how we got into this mess, and how we’ll get out.  To Register for the Free Webinar 7:00 – 8:00 PM EDTTuesday, June 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th, 2021More information about the series. More about the webinar series: The rural-urban divide is deep, widespread, and it is getting worse.  Liberal people from cities and suburbs think most rural folks are ignorant, racist, uncultured, stuck in the past, and their communities heading towards oblivion.  Many in the countryside view urban people, academics, and the government as elitist, contemptuous of rural ways, and dismissive of the people living and working there.  While race and racial resentment play major roles in this polarization, the divide between urban and rural is perhaps the most poorly understood component of our divisions.  And it’s killing us and dividing all of us, enabling the richest people and biggest corporations to dominate our democracy while the great majority of us fight amongst ourselves.  How did we get…

“Climate change is the existential crisis of our time, and it’s clear that our current system is failing those who most need—and deserve—federal assistance after a national disaster. The good news is that there are affordable ways of reversing that damage and building a more equitable system. We call on policymakers and elected officials to take the initiative and work to solve these problems before it’s too late.” -Rachel Gore Freed, Vice President and Chief Program Officer at Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Federal disaster response efforts have long disproportionately benefited the white and the wealthy, but the growing impact of climate change makes it critically important for policymakers to steer more resources and assistance to Indigenous Peoples, communities of color, and other marginalized populations. On April 12, 2021, the Legal Justice Coalition (facilitated by the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and the Lowlander Center) and the Rising Voices Community Relocation & Site Expansion Working Group released the policy brief, Addressing Climate-Forced Displacement in the United States: A Just and Equitable Response. The brief, co-authored by 36 community leaders, legal advocates, researchers, and allies from across the United States, highlights the inequity and injustices of climate disaster response and recommends concrete, high-level…

by Sana Aslam Ricki Draper (past LiKEN Community Engagement Coordinator) and Mary Cromer (Deputy Director of the Appalachian Citizens Law Center) published an Appalachian Citizens Law Center (ACLC) report (September 2019) examining water affordability and the impact of rate increases in eastern Kentucky’s Martin County.  County residents have been organizing around water quality and demanding accountability from their local district government since a 2000 coal slurry spill into the nearby waterways. Martin County has one of the highest costs for water which many residents do not rely on for drinking, cooking or hygiene. This is due to the water’s known murky color and hazardous qualities. The study grounds itself in the issue of water burden, which the authors define as the percent of a household’s income spent on its water bill. Presenting water burden for households in 10 income brackets and using the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) standard for affordability, the study finds that water is unaffordable for over 45.8% of Martin County households.  The EPA upholds that a water burden of 2.5% or above is unaffordable, and for 18.1% of Martin County households with incomes below $10,000 — the water burden is 6.5%, which is more than twice the EPA threshold. Findings…

Cover jacket for 2019 book, edited by Devon Mihesuah and Elizabeth Hoover, Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States: Restoring Cultural Knowledge, Protecting Environments, and Regaining Health. Article originally featured on FoodAnthropology https://foodanthro.com/2021/01/19/hunger-religion-and-public-anthropology/ article by Betsy Taylor Is feeding the hungry, a key moral value in religious teachings across cultures? I was recently asked this by a pediatrician concerned about child hunger in low income communities in the U.S.  This piece weaves together contributions from our anthropological hive mind, after I posted her query on two anthropological digital platforms. Reciprocity It is impossible to overstate the importance of reciprocal food exchange to the maintenance of group cohesion and egalitarianism in horticultural and foraging societies–through daily and seasonal practices grounded in and by myth and ritual (Rapaport 1979, 1984, 1999). To give just one example among many, a Yanomami hunter cannot eat the animals he kills, but must share the meat with his family and others and “…the reciprocal exchange of meat and other foods between individuals becomes a critical factor for the maintenance of village cohesion” (Good 1989, 131). (Also, for a broad look at the intertwining of food and social life in all societies, see Mintz and DuBois 2002.)…

By Nicole Musgrave Published December 23, 2020 at 9:04 AM EST When you hear the word “gingerbread,” you might think Christmas. But in southeast Kentucky, when people of a certain age hear “gingerbread,” they think Election Day. In a special report as part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Project, Nicole Musgrave, traces the surprising history of gingerbread in Knott County, Kentucky from everyday treat, to election time tradition, to fundraising champion. Gingerbread Was A Household Staple In her cozy kitchen in Hindman, Kentucky, LaRue Laferty watches over her teenage grandson, Jaxon Conley, as he makes a fresh batch of gingerbread. All of the ingredients are sitting on the green countertop of the kitchen island. So are the necessary tools, like metal baking sheets, measuring spoons, and a KitchenAid stand mixer. Laferty, who is in her 80s, has a head full of short, white hair. She wears glasses and a green cotton face mask, and uses a walker to move around her kitchen. If you ask folks around Knott County who the best gingerbread bakers are, Laferty’s name usually comes up. “I don’t really profess to be a gingerbread-making queen, but I do make a lot,” she says. When she was growing up,…

https://youtu.be/wvbwDzpBs4U?list=PL7fuyfNu8jfNFcyITDy_uyT43uwjpI2zv Learn more here

We’ve spoken with over 100 thought leaders across all industries and sectors to understand the most impactful strategies for combating climate change. Here are our findings. Climate change is, put simply, one of the greatest challenges our modern society has ever faced. And it needs to be addressed now. After many years of shining a light on this crisis, the urgency of tackling the climate change crisis head-on has finally gained consensus and is a recognized goal across the world. But that success doesn’t mean success is guaranteed, as now the challenge is creating agreement and momentum towards successfully implementing necessary actions to mitigate climate change. Many people will argue that putting the onus on the individual to make personal changes (even sacrifices) is letting off the hook the large corporations and governments who are responsible for the bulk of climate-changing carbon emissions, while others still will advocate for personal responsibility and note that it starts with individual action to make a true difference. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Promoting education and action from a bottom-up and top-down approach is so critical, and each is a vital piece of the puzzle should we collectively hope to succeed in mobilizing towards successful…

A project of the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN)  In May 2020, LiKEN initiated a project to develop educational materials about agroforestry in Central Appalachia. With funding from the National Agroforestry Center of the US Forest Service, this project will not only identify and encourage successful practitioners in our region, but help develop connections between communities, landholders and service providers to help guide new agroforesters, whether that be through linking practitioners with apprentices, identifying land access opportunities, or through the development of compelling narratives of success. Our new LiKENeer, Chris Burney, directs this project, which is part of our emerging Appalachian Mother Forest project. What exactly is agroforestry?  Agroforestry is generally described as ecologically sustainable land-use practices that incorporate tree crops with agricultural crops and/or livestock. The USDA defines agroforestry in terms of its five practices and the four I’s. The five main practices of agroforestry are: Forest farming – growing food, herbal, botanical, or decorative crops under a forest canopy;Alley cropping – crops between rows of trees to provide income while the trees mature; Silvopasture – combining trees and livestock on one piece of land;Riparian buffers – natural or re-established areas along rivers and streams made up of trees, shrubs,…

USATF Certified Half and Full is a BQ Sunday, December 6, 2020Far Rockaway – Rain or Shine All participants get:World AIDS Marathon Finisher Medal, Buff 1st 100 Registrants get a Long Sleeve Tee 10K Run/Walk – 2.5 hr cut offHalf Marathon – 4 hr cut offFull Marathon – 6 hr cut off Race instructions regarding the event start will be sent out by the evening before the event.Please be Mindful as social distancing will be in effect at the start line with staggered and chip-timed starts.Be Prepared & bring a mask or buff. You do not have to run wearing your mask/buff but have it on you at all times. No formal bag check. elitefeats cannot take responsibility for any personal belongings – Bag Check for Marathoners & Half Marathoners ONLY. There will be water / Electrolyte support for Marathoners and Half Marathoners – there will be no course water support for the 10k run/walk. Bathrooms – Public bathrooms located within a few minutes walk from start & finish. No Spectators – No official bag check BENEFITS Proceeds from the event are going to the Richard M. Brodsky Foundation LEARN MORE HERE

Never Stop Running Foundation is a 501(c)3: Supporting athletic and charitable events as they raise awareness and foster community involvement as well as encouraging and promoting Olympic development for local emerging elite and post collegiate runners. Click to learn more or register!

A project of the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN)  Heirs’ property is created when land passes without a will to two or more descendants who become “tenants in common” of the property. This kind of “tangled title” can make families vulnerable. Land speculators can acquire a small share of the property and force a partition sale, often far below fair market value. Extensive research across the Cotton Belt of the U.S. South has found that heirs’ property correlates with low wealth in African American communities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture considers heirs’ property to be the leading cause of African American involuntary land loss. Heirs’ property also seems to be common in other regions with entrenched poverty (Central Appalachia, the colonias in southern Texas, and Native American communities) but only a few scholars have studied the issue in these communities. Heirs’ property has been called “the worst problem you never heard of”.  In October 2020, LiKEN began a project investigating heirs’ property occurrence and the experiences of heirs’ property owners in selected counties of Alabama, Georgia, and eastern Kentucky. This project is supported by funds from the Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Policy Center at Alcorn State University in Mississippi.…

The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum is now located in the Matewan National bank building. Photo by Chris Burney article by Bethany Turley and Chris Burney The Mine Wars Museum opened in its new location at the Matewan National Bank building in Matewan, WV, on Friday, September 4th, 2020. LiKENeer Christopher Burney and Bethani Turley visited the Mine Wars Museum for its opening on Saturday September 5th. The reopening was initially planned for May 16, 2020 to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Matewan, but the opening was postponed due to the novel coronavirus. The museum opening coincided with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Local 1440 chapter’s Labor Day celebration, held just down the road in Matewan, which included appearances by WV Gubernatorial candidate Ben Salango, and WV Attorney General candidate Sam Petsonk. Many museum visitors on Saturday were donned in UMWA branded t-shirts and facemasks.The Mine Wars Museum depicts the history of several armed uprisings that occurred between 1900 and 1921 by coal miners in the Southern West Virginia coal fields. Its exhibits are laid out chronologically, starting with exhibits about the everyday life of Southern WV coal miners and their families, including the terrible…

LIKEN will be co-convening a series of events about the Appalachian Mother Forest at the upcoming virtual meetings of the Appalachian Studies Association. More information can be found here: http://appalachianstudies.org/annualconference/files/2021-call.pdf The Central Appalachian forest is the world’s oldest and biologically richest temperate zone hardwood system.  For thousands of years this forest has sustained human communities and it continues to do so today. Many of these communities have used these rich native forests as “commons,” meaning, shared sites of harvest, recreation, and community renewal. Because of its unique topography and biodiversity, this forest system provided crucial refugia during past climate shifts, leading some ecologists to call it the ‘mother forest’.  In our current climate crisis, this forest system can again play a crucial role. The Mother Forest Working Group, a collaborative of the University of Kentucky and the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, invites forest-commons proposals for the 2020 Appalachian Studies Association annual meeting. The meeting’s theme is “Appalachian Understories: Growing Hope and Resilience from Commonwealth to Global Commons,” and forest commoning is a major focus. 

On Wednesday, November 18th, Betsy Taylor will participate in a panel discussion entitled “Heirs’ Property Across Race and Place.” This panel is part of the free webinar “All Land is not Creating Equal: Unleashing Family and Community Wealth through Land Ownership” hosted by the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation and the Aspen Institute.  Betsy is participating in this panel as part of LiKEN’s new Heirs’ Property project, which investigates issues faced by heirs’ property owners in Appalachia and the southern Black Belt. Heirs’ property is created when land passes to two or more descendants who become “tenants in common” of the property. Heirs’ property can result in a variety of issues for land owners, including lack of incentive to make property improvements and risk of forced partition sales. The U.S. Department of Agriculture considers heirs’ property to be the “leading cause of Black involuntary land loss.” Cassandra Johnson Gaither (Social Scientist, US Forest Service), the panel’s facilitator has done extensive research on heirs’ property in the south. Johnson Gaither is a co-investigator on LiKEN’s new project on heirs’ property in KY, GA, and AL, along with LiKENeer Megan White (Project Director) and Betsy Taylor (LiKEN Executive Director). For more information,…

Rural Prison Bids  In 2003, the most expensive federal prison to ever be built opened in Martin County, Kentucky near Inez. The project cost 149 million dollars. United States Penitentiary Big Sandy (USP Big Sandy) sits atop an abandoned Mountaintop Removal Site (MTR). Named after the nearby Big Sandy River, whose Shawnee name is Michechobekasepe, USP Big Sandy is just one of many federal prisons built upon or near Appalachian land that has been devastated by extractive strip mining. Since 1989, 29 federal prisons have been built in Central Appalachia [1].  USP Big Sandy, from Federal Bureau of Prisons  The 1990s saw the proliferation of prisons across the rural United States [1]. During that time, bidding competitions to attract prisons into Appalachian towns became commonplace, and local policy makers believed prison construction would be a lifeline for economic growth [2]. For example, when a mining explosion led to a disastrous coal slurry spill in Martin County’s watershed in 2000, repairing and developing the District water infrastructure hinged on the bid for USP Big Sandy. Today, community members in Martin County express ongoing concerns with District funding directed towards the federal prison instead of directed towards addressing systemic and infrastructural bases…

It is almost dark. The sky is a dusky blue, and meets the murky waters of Lake Superior at the horizon line. Elongated grey waves approach me, and their foamy resolution echoes sweetly in my ears. The professor guiding my research group bends down to touch the water. He smiles. “You can drink it,” he says. “It’s that pure.” I visited Duluth, Minnesota in April 2018, my junior year of high school. The waterfront city was hosting the 6th annual Rising Voices: Climate Resilience through Indigenous and Earth Sciences workshop, and I attended as a research assistant for Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN), the co-organizer. Both my father and brother had been involved with Rising Voices, but this was the first year I was actively participating in the workshop, compiling information for the public workshop report. My job was to listen and observe. I spent three attentive days with individuals at the forefront of climate advocacy, and a month later, when I sat down to write the report, I had no shortage of material to expound upon. When I think of Rising Voices, I am reminded immediately of its warmth. People laughing and hugging, enjoying food and company, sharing stories…

A recent study of water affordability in an eastern Kentucky county highlights the voices of disabled community members. In 2019, Appalachian Citizens Law Center (ACLC) published findings on Martin County’s water affordability crisis and the impact of rate increases by the district’s water management. The report was co-authored by Mary Cromer (ACLC Deputy Director) and Ricki Draper (past LiKEN Community Engagement Coordinator). One of the individuals who is interviewed and featured in the study is county resident Timmy Smith.  Timmy is in his mid 50s and grew up in eastern Kentucky, where his father dug coal underground for 23 years from 1965 to 1995.  In the late 70s, Timmy’s family well, and all of his neighbor’s wells, went dry. He remembers that all the families lost their wells in the same afternoon, and it was clear to everyone that this was because of mining on a nearby ridge. Cromer and Draper note that “none of the families were compensated for their loss, but instead were hooked up immediately to the county’s water system, the county’s preferred way of dealing with wells sunk due to mining.” Today, Timmy lives with the continued impacts of this history. Importantly, Timmy is disabled and…

https://youtu.be/i6kCXt0_U88

“Imagining a More Just World”: Interview with Julie Maldonado 29 July 2020 It is difficult to canonize anthropology and anthropological concepts, in part because of the creative tensions within the discipline’s contradictions: a desire and deep respect for local knowledge with a global, comparative perspective, what might be called the “anthropological imagination.” Firmly rooted in—and in defense of—an inclusive vision of humanity, an anthropological imagination inspires “radical empathy.” It offers the scaffolding of a coalitional politics that values the specificity of local struggles but also reaffirms and defends humanity. We must identify the humanity in others, and the common humanity in their struggle, while affirming particular identities and challenging differential privilege: an anthropological imagination inspires radical empathy and solidarity, reminding us, in the words of the World Social Forum, that “another world is possible.” How people learn to cultivate this anthropological imagination and bring it in the service of marginalized groups is not generally discussed, and rarely taught. This article aims to bridge this gap. On October 10, 2018, Julie Maldonado, Associate Director for the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN), discussed her new book, Seeking Justice in an Energy Sacrifice Zone: Standing on Vanishing Land in Coastal Louisiana, via video‐conference…

5 Organizations Working To Improve Lives In Appalachia Edited by Gregg Parker on 10 July 2020 The Appalachian region is filled with rich culture and natural beauty, but it’s also plagued by enduring economic hardship due to decades of capitalist exploitation. The organizations here all work to support its diverse communities, providing services and other opportunities to restore and maintain the region’s vitality for future generations. This video was made with Ezvid Wikimaker. VIEW VIDEO HERE

Climate Change Policy: Bigger Picture Policies Under the banner of a just transition, we’ve seen some great work to develop things like the RECLAIM Act and include in that the value of community participation in planning for the use of public revenues from the Abandoned Mine Land funds. While imperfectly implemented so far, that was the beginnings of a model for the ways in which you could get a region off the addiction of fossil fuels by combining the environmental reclamation money with community empowerment and participation, as well as job creation. We see a great potential for breaking the idea that its jobs vs. the environment by linking grassroots livelihood and job creation with healing from fossil fuel damage.” – Betsy Taylor, Director at Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN) Source: Ignation Solidarity Network VIEW FULL ARTICLE HERE