Mode of Program Participation

Community Organizing and Educational Programming

Participation Type

Workshop

Session Title

Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016

Session Abstract or Summary

Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016:

  • Buncombe County, NC: 2016
  • Madison, Haywood, Mitchell and Yancey Counties: 1990-2000
  • Montrouis, Haiti: 2006-present

This presentation draws principles from a half-century of learning, field work and organizing in Appalachia, and how these principles have been employed not only in the Southern Mountains, but also in the mountains of Haiti.

The first case study recounts how citizens successfully organized to stop a New York-funded developer from encroaching upon a small mountain town’s heavily used public park and nearby homes in Buncombe County, NC, in 2016.

The second case study is a Kellogg Foundation-funded pilot project to engage citizens in North Carolina’s poorest Appalachian county in community-directed health initiatives. Its success led to duplicate projects in surrounding counties in subsequent years.

The experience gained in the above projects was later applied by Appalachian medical provider and lay volunteers to Haitian communities, where a combination of malnutrition and intestinal parasites were killing children. Over the past decade, cross-cultural dialogue and training have enabled Haitians to mix their own knowledge with skills brought from Western North Carolina to vastly reduce morbidity and mortality, and begin sustainable nutrition programs in the coastal town of Montrouis, and surrounding mountain villages.

My preference would be to do this as a workshop. A second possibility would be a poster session, utilizing photographs and other graphics from the three case studies.

Presentation #1 Title

Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016

Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary

Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016:

  • Buncombe County, NC: 2016
  • Madison, Haywood, Mitchell and Yancey Counties: 1990-2000
  • Montrouis, Haiti: 2006-present

This presentation draws principles from a half-century of learning, field work and organizing in Appalachia, and how these principles have been employed not only in the Southern Mountains, but also in the mountains of Haiti.

The first case study recounts how citizens successfully organized to stop a New York-funded developer from encroaching upon a small mountain town’s heavily used public park and nearby homes in Buncombe County, NC, in 2016.

The second case study is a Kellogg Foundation-funded pilot project to engage citizens in North Carolina’s poorest Appalachian county in community-directed health initiatives. Its success led to duplicate projects in surrounding counties in subsequent years.

The experience gained in the above projects was later applied by Appalachian medical provider and lay volunteers to Haitian communities, where a combination of malnutrition and intestinal parasites were killing children. Over the past decade, cross-cultural dialogue and training have enabled Haitians to mix their own knowledge with skills brought from Western North Carolina to vastly reduce morbidity and mortality, and begin sustainable nutrition programs in the coastal town of Montrouis, and surrounding mountain villages.

My preference would be to do this as a workshop. A second possibility would be a poster session, utilizing photographs and other graphics from the three case studies.

At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1

Tom Plaut is president of the Lake Louise Preservation Assocition and a co-coordinator for Appalachian Regional Studies at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNC-Asheville. He is a former ASA president and recipient of the Cratis D. Williams/James S. Brown Service Award.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 

Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016

Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016:

  • Buncombe County, NC: 2016
  • Madison, Haywood, Mitchell and Yancey Counties: 1990-2000
  • Montrouis, Haiti: 2006-present

This presentation draws principles from a half-century of learning, field work and organizing in Appalachia, and how these principles have been employed not only in the Southern Mountains, but also in the mountains of Haiti.

The first case study recounts how citizens successfully organized to stop a New York-funded developer from encroaching upon a small mountain town’s heavily used public park and nearby homes in Buncombe County, NC, in 2016.

The second case study is a Kellogg Foundation-funded pilot project to engage citizens in North Carolina’s poorest Appalachian county in community-directed health initiatives. Its success led to duplicate projects in surrounding counties in subsequent years.

The experience gained in the above projects was later applied by Appalachian medical provider and lay volunteers to Haitian communities, where a combination of malnutrition and intestinal parasites were killing children. Over the past decade, cross-cultural dialogue and training have enabled Haitians to mix their own knowledge with skills brought from Western North Carolina to vastly reduce morbidity and mortality, and begin sustainable nutrition programs in the coastal town of Montrouis, and surrounding mountain villages.

My preference would be to do this as a workshop. A second possibility would be a poster session, utilizing photographs and other graphics from the three case studies.