Posts Tagged ‘Local business’
An Enterprising Idea
Entrepreneurs — and their supporters — believe that jumpstarting the mountain economy begins with investment in local business.
Read MoreDewayne Barton: Building Opportunity in West Asheville
By Kimber Ray Dewayne Barton isn’t only referring to nature when he talks about changing the way people relate to their environment. “Just like we polluted a stream or a river, we also polluted communities, and [restoring communities] has to be a part of the solution or it’s not right,” he says. As an artist…
Read MoreSara Day Evans: Accelerating Good Business
By Kimber Ray Although the environment and the economy are often painted as rival forces, Sara Day Evans never saw much sense in this argument. What she saw instead was a challenge — and an opportunity — to seek sustainable solutions. As the founding director of Accelerating Appalachia, a nature-based business accelerator launched this past…
Read MoreAdvancing a Creative Economy for the Clinch River Valley
By Kimber Ray In the remote coalfields of southwest Virginia, a collaborative grassroots project is taking on the challenge of balancing job creation and environmental conservation. The Clinch River Valley Initiative, conceived at an economic development forum in 2010, is an award-winning coalition of concerned citizens, local government, and environmental and business groups, ardently committed…
Read MoreTouring Coal Country’s Past
By Molly Moore In 1978, student Doug Estepp was poking around in the West Virginia University library when he came across a newspaper headline describing the 1920 Matewan shootout — a violent episode in the dispute between coal companies and pro-union miners. Although Estepp grew up near Matewan in Mingo County, W.Va., it was the…
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