Last Wednesday in Portsmouth, Ohio, a team of organizers with River Valley Organizing Project was out canvassing and encountered a man outside a corner store who was overdosing. The organizers were having folks fill out a survey—asking them what they love about their community, what they’d like to see changed, […]
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A High Schooler’s Perspective On Lowering The Voting Age
High school and college students are becoming more politically active than our country has seen in generations. It’s people under the age of 18 who have led marches on Washington to end gun violence in schools and called on our leaders to take real action toward slowing climate change and […]
Read MoreBurnt Toast with a Side of Silver Linings: What My Children’s Citizenship Lessons Could Teach Us All
“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.” ― Fred Rogers The sun […]
Read MoreCommunities Brace for Loss of Another Industry as Minor League Baseball Plans to Leave Appalachia
Major League Baseball’s plan to shrink its minor league system is upending a century of professional baseball in West Virginia and throughout Appalachia. The contraction plan, culling more than a quarter of its current teams, is forcing small towns to scramble for alternatives, including joining college or independent leagues. It’s […]
Read MoreNo One Knows Appalachia’s Story Quite Like We Do – So We’re Going to Tell It.
Four years ago, our country was in the midst of one of the most divisive elections in history — one that deepened the divide between rural and urban America. Misrepresentations and overgeneralizations in national media coverage contributed to a homogenized, simplified portrayal of Appalachia – but that’s not a new […]
Read MoreCommentary: Rural Schools’ Crumbling Infrastructure Was a Health Threat Even Before the Pandemic
Parents had to worry about the safety of their school children long before COVID-19 became a problem. It’s time to invest in education to address these disparities, starting with the pandemic relief package. Rural schools are sick, and it’s not just the coronavirus. As the nation’s gaze turns to the […]
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