Stories

Environment/Energy

  • Out of the Ashes of the Coal Economy, a Bright Future?

    The last couple of years have brought substantial new economic challenges to Appalachian Kentucky. Already saddled with being one of the poorest regions in the country, mountain communities are being hit hard by steep layoffs in the coal industry. Since 2011, eastern Kentucky has lost more than 5,700 good-paying coal mining jobs. That’s a loss of 42% of the area’s coal workforce.

    This...

  • The Inherent Wisdom of Community

    “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

    – Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

    That the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, the...

  • Love Can Build a Bridge

    The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation partners with organizations and funders working on Appalachian Transition . As our partners seek to create a more sustainable future for the Central Appalachian region, community controlled philanthropy has emerged as an important means for engaging and transforming community. Ethan Hamblin, a student at Berea College, is spending his summer vacation on...

  • Appalachian Transition

    Appalachian Transition explores the emergent work by non-profit organizations and funders to advance a just and sustainable economic transition in the Central Appalachian region. The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation has a long history of investing in Appalachian people and places. To foster collaborative funding in the region and increase collective impact, MRBF helped co-found the Appalachia...

  • Appalachian Transition

    Appalachian Transition explores the emergent work by non-profit organizations and funders to advance a just and sustainable economic transition in the Central Appalachian region. The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation has a long history of investing in Appalachian people and places. To foster collaborative funding in the region and increase collective impact, MRBF helped co-found the Appalachia...