Past Event Recordings
Food Producer Grants Available for Eastern Kentucky!
The USDA has established the Appalachian Regional Food Development Center, which offers technical assistance and grants of up to $100K to food producers in Appalachia. Join us to learn more about how producers in Eastern Kentucky can access these resources, eligible activities, and more.
Our Presenters:
Myrissa Christy, Exective Director of Community Farm Alliance and
Cara Stewart, Grant Facilitator for the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development
Eastern Kentucky’s Golden Goose
As a Watson Fellow, Elijah Hicks visited 85 destinations to study small-scale tourism, community development, and wilderness preservation, gathering “stories of practical hope” about rural resilience. With over a decade of tourism experience, he aims to enhance EKY’s economy through his consulting firm, SincerelyAlive, emphasizing the region’s potential for growth via coordinated tourism initiatives.
Preparing Your Community for Climate Impacts! took place on Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 3:00pm. Join us to learn about how to make your community more resilient to the challenges posed by climate change and in-migration. Our speaker, Baylen Campbell of Invest Appalachia, will share practical tips and strategies to help you prepare for the future. Don’t miss out on this valuable opportunity to make a difference in your community.
Presenter, Baylen Campbell (he/him/his), is Invest Appalachia’s Director of Community Impact. Originally from and based in Hazard, Kentucky Baylen brings experience working as an economic development and social impact practitioner. In partnership with the Community Advisory Council Baylen leads IA’s Catalytic Capital development, deployment, and community accountability. Additionally, he manages IA’s impact measurement, policy research, and partnership development with a focus on capacity building. He is passionate about utilizing strategic communications and storytelling to shift outdated narratives of Appalachia. Baylen holds a BA in International Affairs from John Cabot University in Rome, Italy and an MSc in Development Practice from Trinity College Dublin/University College Dublin. He is a co-founder of the Lige Clarke Liberation Fund supporting LGBTQ+ infrastructure and advocacy in Eastern Kentucky.
WNEKY?! COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Learn what a Land Trust is, how it works, and how communities around the country and Eastern Kentucky are using these to support their development goals.
Small Group Time following our presenters to discuss how you feel this could benefit YOUR community!
At end of call there will be an opportunity to establish a “Land Trust Working Group” to support one another in developing new land banks and trusts in the region.
Presenters
Ben Miles,The Land Trust Alliance
Annette Hines, Eastern Kentucky Community Land Trust
This What’s Next EKY?! Community Connections took place on Thursday, June 16, 2022. During this webinar, Jennifer Reister explores a comprehensive guide to writing grant proposals. Jennifer has been working in the social service field for nearly 20 years and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a Master of Leadership Development with a concentration in Non-Profit Management. She now supports non-profits in various capacities through Reister Non-Profit Solutions, focusing on working with organizations that prioritize people and investment in their community.
Click here to view a pdf of Jennifer’s Powerpoint presentation. The pdf file contains a number of live links to resources.
This What’s Next EKY?! Community Connections took place on Thursday, April 21, 2022. Ruthie Caldwell, experienced grant writing professional and owner of Vision Granted, presented 10 Tips for Funding Great Projects in Your Community which covered tips for crafting competitive grant proposals, as well as tips for fundraising beyond grants, followed by a small Q&A.
Click here to view a pdf of Ruthie’s Powerpoint presentation. The pdf file contains a number of live links to resources.
This What’s Next EKY?! Community Connections took place on Thursday, February 17, 2022. Pam Thomas, Senior Fellow at Kentucky Policy, presented and answered questions about ARPA Funding– how funds can be used by city and county governments and how community members can be engaged in the decision-making process with their local government.
Click here to view Pam’s PowerPoint slides with details about how ARPA funds can be budgeted by local governments in Kentucky.
At this Community Connections virtual conversation we heard from four dynamic community change-makers in eastern Kentucky, Ali Blair in Berea, Mindy and Dan Click in Grayson, and Valerie Horn in Whitesburg, about how they’ve built and leveraged relationships to make good things happen in their communities. They shared about some of the key partnerships they’ve developed, successes and challenges they’ve experienced, and lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Click here to read the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation.
What’s Next EKY?! hosted this open-ended conversation about becoming better ambassadors and more effective advocates for the small businesses, organizations, and projects folks care deeply about in their communities.
Award-winning communications guru and former local elected official Laura Huth-Rhoades shared 10 incredibly easy and totally free ideas anyone can use to increase community awareness and engagement for their causes.
The Spotlight Speaker at this What’s Next EKY?! Community Connections virtual gathering was Rusty Justice, co-founder of Bit Source in Pikeville. He shared about how the community of Pikeville, KY was able to build back better after a series of floods by constructing a cut-through, which has been instrumental for the community to continue to grow while, unfortunately, some neighboring communities have continued to face setbacks from the same events.
Rusty also shared concepts from the book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder (Taleb, 2012), for communities to consider ways they can become more than resilient (getting back to where how things were before a disaster). Becoming antifragile is about preparing and getting better because of adversity.
To kick off this virtual conversation focused on Creatively Connecting in a Digital World, members of the What’s Next EKY Virtual Learning group shared some of the insights they had learned about hosting online events. View this recording to hear about some low-cost and user-friendly platforms to use for marketing, designing, and organizing online events, as well as some of the lessons the team learned about hosting people in a virtual space.
At this What’s Next EKY?! online Community Connections gathering focused on Coping with Changes to Local Budgets in May 2020, Pam Thomas, Senior Fellow at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, shared about the impacts of COVID-19 on state and local budgets.
