Guest Blogs by KCEP: Me...

Today, we’re reprinting two blogs with permission from the Kentucky Center of Economic Policy (KCEP). The first looks at the coverage gains and economic impacts that expanded Medicaid has brought to the state of Kentucky; the second looks at the potential drop in enrollment should...
Love Letter to Appalachia

Love Letter to Appalach...

This week, the Hazard Herald wrote a love letter to its host city, Hazard. We liked the idea, and thought we would write our very own love letter to Appalachia. Dear Appalachia, Many people from many places have had many things to say about you. To them, you are a “dark and bloody...
Women should be welcomed as leaders in Appalachian Transition movement

Women should be welcome...

The Lexington Herald-Leader used their editorial space on Christmas to honor Mary Breckinridge, founder of the Frontier Nursing Service in Hyden, Ky. (Herald-Leader photo) The FNS and its nurse-midwives “deliver[ed] prenatal care, babies, inoculations and advice about sanitation...
Appalachia as a microcosm for the larger American story

Appalachia as a microco...

“It’s always been easy to think of Eastern Kentucky as separate and apart from America’s mainstream,” today’s Lexington Hearld-Leader editorial says. “But the notion of Appalachian exceptionalism has never been reality and is more wrong today than...
Making the case again for increased broadband Internet access in Appalachia

Making the case again f...

The Intelligent Community Forum, a nonprofit organization that studies the economic and social development of the 21st Century community, has named two rural communities as Smart 21 Communities for 2014. And Appalachia can learn a lot about investing in and developing an economy around...
Re-emphasizing Appalachia’s Importance

Re-emphasizing Appalach...

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said at this month’s Rural Futures Conference that now is the time “to re-emphasize, re-educate and remind America of the importance of rural America” because “rural America is ready to capitalize on economic and societal changes.” (AP...

Appalachian Transition ...

There's so much work to be done in revitalizing Appalachia's economy, so many great organizations and communities in need of folks who can get things done, and so many people with energy and ideas for a new Appalachia. But how do we connect all these pieces? The Highlander...
Conference report: The Rural-Urban Connection

Conference report: The ...

If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter (as you should!), you'll know that lastweek I was in West Virginia for a conference hosted by the Central Appalachian Network on "the Rural-Urban Continuum," or how to better connect rural Appalachia with urban markets in and...