Second round of Community Strong sessions scheduled for Southwest Virginia communities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2024

CONTACT
Dan Radmacher, Media Specialist, (540) 798-6683, dan@appvoices.org 

After a successful series of community listening sessions held in the spring in five Southwest Virginia coalfield communities, a second round of meetings has been scheduled to help these communities map their assets and resiliency projects.

Appalachian Voices is partnering with the governments and communities of Clinchco, Dante, Dungannon, Pennington Gap and Pound in a three-year proposal to map, plan and implement community-driven initiatives to build more resilient communities. Resiliency is the ability of a community and its residents to survive and thrive in the face of economic difficulties, climate disasters and other hurdles. 

The dates for the next round of listening sessions will be:

• Pennington Gap: Aug. 6, 6 p.m.
• Pound: Aug. 13, 6 p.m.
• Dungannon: Aug. 22, 6 p.m.
• Dante: Sept. 19, 6 p.m.
• Clinchco: Sept. 26, 6 p.m.

Around 160 people — including residents, business owners and local government officials — attended the first round of listening sessions that helped identify concerns, goals and current strengths. Many attendees discussed the need for more economic development in these towns, and for projects to help protect areas from repeated flooding.

The second round will help map areas in the communities where flood-control and other resiliency projects could be located. These sessions will also help communities prioritize and design the most important projects. Another round of sessions is being planned for early next year.

This project is funded through a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Grant awarded to Appalachian Voices in 2024.